Can I receive values from Compute Shader?

Question

Hello,

I am interested in Compute Shader.

I know Compute Shader used to post effect, but I wonder if it can use for simple calculation.

For example, can I input 2 floats to Compute Shader and get the sum of them?

Answer 1

Best Answer

Answer by HarshadK · Nov 18, 2014 at 10:06 AM

Yes, you can.

You need to use the ComputeShader.GetData() function for this.

Pass an empty floats array to the shader and then access that floats array using GetData function above.

But Compute Shaders should not be used for such a trivial tasks because of the high latency between GPU and CPU.

For more details read this thread: ComputeBuffer.GetData

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Jotunn · Nov 19, 2014 at 07:27 AM 0

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Thanks Harshad$$anonymous$$.

I have seen some Compute Shader samples, but they don't return value. So I wondered if Compute Shader can return value.

GetData function and that thread are what I want.

Thank you very much!