Request for direct access to z-buffer

slavik262 · Post by **slavik262** » Wed Jul 14, 2010 8:56 pm

Currently Irrlicht doesn't allow the user to access the internal z-buffer, forcing code that needs a depth buffer to spend another render pass using a depth shader to acquire one (i.e. XEffects). Is there any way that Irrlicht (in a future version) could expose the internal z-buffer?

3DModelerMan · Post by **3DModelerMan** » Thu Jul 15, 2010 12:00 am

Yeah, that would be nice.

slavik262 · Post by **slavik262** » Mon Jul 19, 2010 4:47 am

Any response from the dev team?

hybrid · Post by **hybrid** » Mon Jul 19, 2010 8:38 am

Yeah, that would be nice.

alexionne · Post by **alexionne** » Mon Jul 19, 2010 11:52 am

If someone finds way to access internal z-buffer of OpenGL/DirectX, please let me know

ent1ty · Post by **ent1ty** » Mon Jul 19, 2010 12:08 pm

hybrid wrote:Yeah, that would be nice.

Well - it's up to you

Ion Dune · Post by **Ion Dune** » Tue Jul 20, 2010 1:49 am

Well arguably since this is an open source project, its up to all of us too

DtD · Post by **DtD** » Tue Jul 20, 2010 9:14 pm

Is it even possible to access the internal Z-buffer?

Lonesome Ducky · Post by **Lonesome Ducky** » Tue Jul 20, 2010 10:22 pm

I seem to remember directx 10 had a method for getting the zbuffer as a texture, but it was often slower than writing to a texture yourself if I remember.

alexionne · Post by **alexionne** » Wed Jul 21, 2010 6:51 pm

DtD wrote:Is it even possible to access the internal Z-buffer?

With DirectX<=9 and OpenGL<3 it is not possible - you need to render your own z-buffer.

DtD · Post by **DtD** » Thu Jul 22, 2010 12:35 am

Well if what Lonesome Ducky says is true, then it doesn't seem to matter since rendering our own Z-buffer seems to be better anyway.