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DarkBASIC Professional Discussion / What does a Render Target do when it's not doing anything?

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Sasuke
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Posted: 20th Jan 2013 00:32 Edited at: 20th Jan 2013 00:33
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The question is the title. I was thinking, if I set up every image as a render target via ImageKit. What does that render target do when it's not being manipulated? What makes it different from a standard image when nothing is being rendered to it?
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TheComet
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Posted: 20th Jan 2013 02:00
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A render target is held in VRAM, isn't it? So to answer your question, it just uses up GPU memory.

TheComet

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Phaelax
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Posted: 20th Jan 2013 02:51
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I'm guessing it locks the buffer for quicker read/write access, but that's just a guess.

"You're not going crazy. You're going sane in a crazy world!" ~Tick
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Sasuke
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Posted: 20th Jan 2013 10:50 Edited at: 20th Jan 2013 10:59
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Render Targets make image editing a breeze, especially when it comes to alpha. But other methods are no where near as efficient. But I was thinking, even if I was just using them for pre-rendering then just pasting the images when I need them, what resources would they take up? Every where I look isn't clear about this.

Side Question: How do you find out how much memory an image created in DBP takes up? Cause I store loads of text in tiny images and I mean LOADS (only for editors)
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TheComet
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Posted: 20th Jan 2013 18:56
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A render target is a fancy name for a block of memory on in VRAM. What is a Render Target?

It is a bad idea to load all of your images as render targets if you are not going to use them for anything rendering-related (shaders or backbuffer manipulation). You should only use a render target if absolutely required, otherwise loading the image into RAM is enough.

Render targets cannot be copied into RAM, which means you cannot copy a render target into a normal image, or make a memblock from a render target, or anything like that.

TheComet

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Sasuke
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Posted: 20th Jan 2013 19:47 Edited at: 20th Jan 2013 19:48
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Aha got ya. It's kind of annoying though, cause the sheer amount of gui pre-renders required for my editor is massive, mainly text which is a pain to do efficiently. Alpha elements is also a pain aswell!
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