Create a texture from code

The most common use Texture is assigning them into Materials and Components. However, it's perfectly valid to use and even create a Texture from code.

Load Texture asset from code

As explained in this article, it's perfectly possible. Here is a sample code for creating a primitive entity with a Diffuse material.


protected override void CreateScene()
{
    AssetSceneManager assets = this.Managers.AssetSceneManager;

    // Loading  'Diffuse.png' located in 'Content/Textures/
    Texture diffuseTexture = assets.Load<Texture>(EvergineContent.Textures.Diffuse**png);

    // We create a standard material and assign the texture as diffuse channel.
    StandardMaterial materialDecorator = new StandardMaterial(assets.Load<Effect>(EvergineContent.Effects.StandardEffect));
    material.BaseColorTexture = diffuseTexture;

    // We create a primitive
    Entity teapot = new Entity("texturedTeapot")
                        .AddComponent(new Transform3D())
                        .AddComponent(new TeapotMesh())
                        .AddComponent(new MaterialComponent(){ Material = materialDecorator.Material})
                        .AddComponent(new MeshRenderer());

    this.Managers.EntityManager.Add(teapot);
}

Create a Texture from code

Creating a Texture demands a little bit more effort, and it's defined in this article. Bassically we need to define two main things:

  • TextureDescription structure.
  • DataBoxes with the texture data.

TextureDescription

The TextureDescription struct that contains all the specifications of the Texture so the graphic card can properly load the buffer data accordingly and be able to extract all their information.

Property Values Description
TextureType Texture2D, Texture2DArray, Texture1D, Texture1DArray, TextureCube, TextureCubeArray, Texture3D The type of the texture.
Width unsigned integer Width of the texture (first dimmension). The maximum value is defined by the device hardware.
Height unsigned integer Height of the texture (second dimmension). The maximum value is defined by the device hardware.
Depth unsigned integer Depth of the texture (third dimension). Used in Texture3D. The maximum value is defined by the device hardware.
ArraySize unsigned integer The number of textures in a Texture Array (either 1D, 2D or Cube).
Faces unsigned integer The number of texture faces used in TextureCube and TextureCubeArray.
MipLevels unsigned integer Maximum number of mipmap levels in the Texture.
ResourceUsage
  • Default: Requires read and write acces from the GPU.
  • Immutable: Can only be read by GPU. Cannot be writtend or accessed by CPU.
  • Dynamic: Can be accessed by the GPU (read only) and the CPU (write only). Used for textures updated in CPU.
  • Staging: Supports data transfer (copy) from the GPU to the CPU.
 Type of access of the Texture.
Usage None, Count2, Count4, Count8, Count16, Count32 Number of samples in the Texture.

DataBoxes

A DataBox represents a data buffer that contains all pixel of an element of texture. Every mipmap level, array slice or cube face defines its own DataBox.