Texture

A Texture are GPU objects that contain one or more images that all have the same image format, that can be accessed from shaders.

While the idea behind textures is simple in principle (a grid of pixels stored on GPU memory), GPU Textures are surprisingly complex objects. It can be helpful to read the API Guide section on textures to make sure you have a full picture.

Usage

Creating a texture

const texture = device.createTexture({sampler: {addressModeU: 'clamp-to-edge'});

Setting texture data from an image

const imageBitmap = // load an image from a URL, perhaps with loaders.gl ImageLoader
texture.copyFromExternalImage({source: imageBitmap});

Note that setting texture data from 8 bit RGBA arrays can also be done via texture.copyFromExternalImage() via ImageData.

const data = new ClampedUint8Array([...]);
const imageData = new ImageData(data, width, height); 
texture.copyFromExternalImage({source: imageData});

Setting texture data for non-8-bit-per-channel bit depths, texture arrays etc.

caution

This is still WIP

const commandEncoder = device.createCommandEncoder();
const buffer = device.createBuffer({usage: , byteLength});
const texture = device.createTexture({ })
commandEncoder.end();

Reading from Textures In Shaders

const texture = device.createTexture, ...);

// For ease of use, the `Model` class can bind textures for a draw call
model.draw({
  renderPass,
  bindings({texture1: texture, texture2: texture})
});


const framebuffer = device.createFramebuffer({
  colorAttachments: [texture]
});

const renderPass = device.createRenderPass({
  framebuffer
});


// Alternatively, bind the textures using the `Texture` API directly
model.draw({
  uniforms({uMVMatrix: matrix})
});

• For additional usage examples, Texture inherits from Resource.

Types

TextureProps

TextureProps extends ResourceProps and accepts the following fields.

Property	Type	Default	Description
id?	string	autogenerated	Optional human readable identifier inherited from ResourceProps.
handle?	unknown	undefined	Supply an existing backend handle instead of letting luma.gl create one.
userData?	Record<string, unknown>	undefined	Application data that is stored on the texture instance.
data?	ExternalImage | TypedArray | null	null	Initial pixel data. This path is deprecated in favor of DynamicTexture and only supports direct image uploads.
dimension?	'1d' | '2d' | '2d-array' | 'cube' | 'cube-array' | '3d'	'2d'	Declares the logical texture type and controls how width, height and depth are interpreted. Cubemaps automatically force a depth of 6.
format?	TextureFormat	'rgba8unorm'	The GPU format that determines channel ordering, bit depth and compression.
width	number	—	Width in texels. Required unless it can be inferred from data. Values are clamped to positive integers.
height	number	—	Height in texels. Required unless it can be inferred from data. Values are clamped to positive integers.
depth?	number	1	Depth or array layer count for 3D textures and texture arrays.
usage?	number	Texture.SAMPLE | Texture.RENDER | Texture.COPY_DST	Bit mask that declares how the texture will be used. See Usage.
mipLevels?	number	1	Number of mip levels allocated for the texture.
samples?	number	backend default	Multisample count for renderable textures. Provide values >1 to request MSAA.
sampler?	Sampler | SamplerProps	{}	Sampler instance or props used to create the texture's default sampler.
view?	TextureViewProps	backend default	Props used when creating the default texture view.

Usage

Usage expresses two things: the texture type and which operations can be performed.

Note that the allowed combinations are very limited, especially in WebGPU.

Usage Flag	Value	Description
Texture.COPY_SRC	0x01	Enables the texture to be used as a source in copy commands.
Texture.COPY_DST	0x02	Enables the texture to be used as a destination in copy or write commands.
Texture.SAMPLE	0x04	Allows sampling the texture in shaders. Alias: Texture.TEXTURE (deprecated).
Texture.STORAGE	0x08	Enables read/write access when bound as a storage texture.
Texture.RENDER	0x10	Allows the texture to be bound as a color or depth/stencil attachment. Alias: Texture.RENDER_ATTACHMENT (deprecated).

TextureDimension

| Dimension | WebGPU | WebGL2 | Description | | --------- | ------ | ------ || -------------------------------------------------------------------- | | 1d | ✅ | ❌ | Contains a one dimensional texture (typically used for compute ) | | 2d | ✅ | ✅ | Contains a "normal" image texture | | 2d-array | ✅ | ✅ | Holds an "array" of 2D textures. | | 3d | ✅ | ✅ | Holds a "stack" of textures which enables 3D interpolation. | | cube | ✅ | ✅ | Holds 6 textures representing sides of a cube. | | cube-array | ✅ | ❌ | Holds an array where every 6 textures represent the sides of a cube. |

ExternalImage

luma.gl allows texture data to be initialized from a number of different CPU object that hold an image. These are referred to as external (to the GPU) images.

| Image (HTMLImageElement) | image will be used to fill the texture. width and height will be deduced. | | Canvas (HTMLCanvasElement) | canvas will be used to fill the texture. width and height will be deduced. | | Video (HTMLVideoElement) | video will be used to continously update the texture. width and height will be deduced. | | ImageData | canvas.getImageData() - Used to fill the texture. width and height will be deduced. |

TextureData

luma.gl allows textures to be created from a number of different data sources.

Type	Description
null	A texture will be created with the appropriate format, size and width. Bytes will be "uninitialized".
typed array	Bytes will be interpreted according to format/type parameters and pixel store parameters.
Buffer	Bytes will be interpreted according to format/type parameters and pixel store parameters.

CubeFace

Lets cube faces be specified with semantic strings instead of just depth indexes (0-5).

type TextureCubeFace = '+X' | '-X' | '+Y' | '-Y' | '+Z' | '-Z';

Members

A number of read only accessors are available:

• device: Device - holds a reference to the Device that created this Texture.

• handle: unknown - holds the underlying WebGL or WebGPU shader object

• props: TextureProps - holds a copy of the TextureProps used to create this Texture.

• width - width of one face of the cube map

• height - height of one face of the cube map

• format - internal format of the face textures

• border - Always 0.

• type - type used to create face textures

• dataFormat - data format used to create face textures.

• offset - offset used to create face textures.

• handle - The underlying WebGL or WebGPU object.

• id - An identifying string that is intended to help debugging.

Static Methods

Texture.isExternalImage()

Check whether a value is a valid external image object.

Texture.getExternalImageSize()

Deduces the size (width and height) of an "external image" object.

Texture.isTextureLevelData()

Check whether a value is valid as data for setting a texture level.

Texture.getTextureDataSize()

Calculates the size of texture data for a composite texture data object

Texture.getMipLevelCount()

Calculate the number of mip levels for a texture of width and height. It performs the standard calculation Math.floor(Math.log2(Math.max(width, height))) + 1.

Texture.getMipLevelCount(width: number, height: number): number

Texture.getCubeFaceDepth()

Convert luma.gl cubemap face constants to texture depth index (0-based).

Texture.getCubeFaceDepth(face: TextureCubeFace): number

Methods

constructor(props: TextureProps)

Texture is an abstract class and cannot be instantiated directly. Create with device.createTexture(...).

destroy(): void

Free up any GPU resources associated with this texture immediately (instead of waiting for garbage collection).

generateMipmap() : Texture2D

Call to regenerate mipmaps after modifying texture(s)

WebGL References gl.generateMipmap

copyExternalImage()

Copy data from an image data into the texture.

This function offers a highly granular control but can be called with just an image parameter and the remaining arguments will be deduced or set to canonical defaults.

copyExternalImage(options: {
  image: ExternalImage;
  sourceX?: number;
  sourceY?: number;
  width?: number;
  height?: number;
  depth?: number;
  mipLevel?: number;
  x?: number;
  y?: number;
  z?: number;
  aspect?: 'all' | 'stencil-only' | 'depth-only';
  colorSpace?: 'srgb';
  premultipliedAlpha?: boolean;
}: {width: number; height: number}

Parameter	Type
image	ExternalImage	Image
sourceX?	number	Copy from image x offset (default 0)
sourceY?	number	Copy from image y offset (default 0)
width?	number	Copy area width (default 1)
height?	number	Copy area height (default 1)
depth?	number	Copy depth (default 1)
mipLevel?	number	Which mip-level to copy into (default 0)
x?	number	Start copying into offset x (default 0)
y?	number	Start copying into offset y (default 0)
z?	number	Start copying from depth layer z (default 0)
aspect?	'all' | 'stencil-only' | 'depth-only';	When copying into depth stencil textures (default 'all')
colorSpace?	'srgb'	Specific color space of image data
premultipliedAlpha?	boolean	premultiplied