How to read data from a shader

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0 votes

Hello, I am making a bullethell game in Godot, and I need to be able to read data from the GPU such as a bool for if the player is hit. I see that you can not set uniforms in the shader, so I need another way to do this. (or if there is a way please correct me) If anyone has an idea that would be much appreciated.

in Engine by (60 points)

1 Answer

0 votes

The output of a shader is an image, you could process what comes out.
Another option in Godot 4.0+ is using compute shaders that are not specialized for manipulating images, rather doing any generic paralell computation. Haven't looked into it but I assume they take a PackedByteArray and write into it.
The point of a uniform is that is has the same value in every execution of the shader so yeah, you can't write to it.

by (1,957 points)

I think that sounds like a great idea. The only other problem that arises is that I need the position of the particles to be able to check if they are close to the player. Is there anyway to get the transform of the particles outside of a particles shader?

by (60 points)
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