Create a Texture from Code

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

Load a Texture Asset from Code

As explained in this article, this is 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 a 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 is defined in this article. Basically, we need to define two main things:

  • TextureDescription structure
  • DataBoxes with the texture data

TextureDescription

The TextureDescription struct contains all the specifications of the Texture so the graphics card can properly load the buffer data accordingly and be able to extract all the 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 dimension). The maximum value is defined by the device hardware.
Height unsigned integer Height of the texture (second dimension). 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 access from the GPU.
  • Immutable: Can only be read by the GPU. Cannot be written or accessed by the CPU.
  • Dynamic: Can be accessed by the GPU (read only) and the CPU (write only). Used for textures updated by the 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 pixels of an element of a texture. Every mipmap level, array slice, or cube face defines its own DataBox.