Using Compute Tasks

Compute tasks are very similar to Materials; they are associated effects too, and you can also generate a class decorator to use from code. The main difference is that compute tasks can only be used from code. Compute Task decorators are generated from Effect Editor like Material decorators.

The compute task decorator helps you set the compute effect resource layout. As input resources, you can use ConstantBuffers, StructureBuffer, Textures, and Samplers. This is an example of a compute task decorator with an input texture and output texture defined in its resource layout block:

//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
// <auto-generated>
//     This code was generated by a tool.
//
//     Changes to this file may cause incorrect behavior and will be lost if
//     the code is regenerated.
// </auto-generated>
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------

namespace DocumentationWorkBench.Effects
{
    using Evergine.Common.Graphics;
    using Evergine.Framework.Graphics;
    using Evergine.Framework.Graphics.Effects;
    using Evergine.Mathematics;
    
    
    [Evergine.Framework.Graphics.MaterialDecoratorAttribute("6ba492de-d165-4491-b5b0-ae72dc202577")]
    public partial class GPUFilter : Evergine.Framework.Graphics.ComputeTaskDecorator
    {
        
        public GPUFilter(Evergine.Framework.Graphics.Effects.Effect effect) : 
                base(new ComputeTask(effect))
        { }
        
        public GPUFilter(Evergine.Framework.Graphics.ComputeTask computeTask) : 
                base(computeTask)
        { }
        
        public Evergine.Common.Graphics.Texture Input
        {
            get { return this.material.TextureSlots[0].Texture; }
            set { this.material.SetTexture(value, 0); }
        }
        
        public Evergine.Common.Graphics.Texture Output
        {
            get { return this.material.UABuffers[0].UATexture; }
            set { this.material.SetUATexture(value, 0); }
        }
    }
}

To run a compute task, you must call the Run methods. The following variations exist:

Method	Description
Run	Defines the group count X, Y, and Z and the selected pass.
Run1D	Helper method to run 1D tasks; you only need to pass threadCount X. The groupSizes are defined as (64, 1, 1).
Run2D	Helper method to run 2D tasks; you only need to pass ThreadCount X and Y. The groupSizes are defined as (8, 8, 1).
Run3D	Helper method to run 3D tasks; it is similar to Run but allows you to define ThreadCounts X, Y, Z and GroupSizes X, Y, Z.