Texture Format

Description

The format of a texture can be described by the dtype parameter during texture creation. For example the moderngl.Context.texture(). The default dtype is f1. Each component is an unsigned byte (0-255) that is normalized when read in a shader into a value from 0.0 to 1.0.

The formats are based on the string formats used in numpy.

Some quick example of texture creation:

# RGBA (4 component) f1 texture
texture = ctx.texture((100, 100), 4)  # dtype f1 is default

# R (1 component) f4 texture (32 bit float)
texture = ctx.texture((100, 100), 1, dype="f4")

# RG (2 component) u2 texture (16 bit unsigned integer)
texture = ctx.texture((100, 100), 2, dtype="u2")

Texture contents can be passed in using the data parameter during creation or by using the write() method. The object passed in data can be bytes or any object supporting the buffer protocol.

Float Textures

f1 textures are just unsigned bytes (8 bits per component) (GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE)

dtype Components Base Format Internal Format
f1 1 GL_RED GL_R8
f1 2 GL_RG GL_RG8
f1 3 GL_RGB GL_RGB8
f1 4 GL_RGBA GL_RGBA8

f2 textures stores 16 bit float values (GL_HALF_FLOAT`).

dtype Components Base Format Internal Format
f2 1 GL_RED GL_R16F
f2 2 GL_RG GL_RG16F
f2 3 GL_RGB GL_RGB16F
f2 4 GL_RGBA GL_RGBA16F

f4 textures store 32 bit float values. (GL_FLOAT) Note that some drivers do not like 3 components because of alignment.

dtype Components Base Format Internal Format
f4 1 GL_RED GL_R32F
f4 2 GL_RG GL_RG32F
f4 3 GL_RGB GL_RGB32F
f4 4 GL_RGBA GL_RGBA32F

Integer Textures

Integer textures come in a signed and unsigned version. The advantage with integer textures is that shader can read the raw integer values from them using for example usampler2D (unsigned) or isampler2D (signed).

Unsigned

u1 textures store unsigned byte values (GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE).

dtype Components Base Format Internal Format
u1 1 GL_RED_INTEGER GL_R8UI
u1 2 GL_RG_INTEGER GL_RG8UI
u1 3 GL_RGB_INTEGER GL_RGB8UI
u1 4 GL_RGBA_INTEGER GL_RGBA8UI

u2 textures store 16 bit unsigned integers (GL_UNSIGNED_SHORT).

dtype Components Base Format Internal Format
u2 1 GL_RED_INTEGER GL_R16UI
u2 2 GL_RG_INTEGER GL_RG16UI
u2 3 GL_RGB_INTEGER GL_RGB16UI
u2 4 GL_RGBA_INTEGER GL_RGBA16UI

u4 textures store 32 bit unsigned integers (GL_UNSIGNED_INT)

dtype Components Base Format Internal Format
u4 1 GL_RED_INTEGER GL_R32UI
u4 2 GL_RG_INTEGER GL_RG32UI
u4 3 GL_RGB_INTEGER GL_RGB32UI
u4 4 GL_RGBA_INTEGER GL_RGBA32UI

Signed

u1 textures store signed byte values (GL_BYTE).

dtype Components Base Format Internal Format
i1 1 GL_RED_INTEGER GL_R8I
i1 2 GL_RG_INTEGER GL_RG8I
i1 3 GL_RGB_INTEGER GL_RGB8I
i1 4 GL_RGBA_INTEGER GL_RGBA8I

u2 textures store 16 bit integers (GL_SHORT).

dtype Components Base Format Internal Format
i2 1 GL_RED_INTEGER GL_R16I
i2 2 GL_RG_INTEGER GL_RG16I
i2 3 GL_RGB_INTEGER GL_RGB16I
i2 4 GL_RGBA_INTEGER GL_RGBA16I

u4 textures store 32 bit integers (GL_INT)

dtype Components Base Format Internal Format
i4 1 GL_RED_INTEGER GL_R32I
i4 2 GL_RG_INTEGER GL_RG32I
i4 3 GL_RGB_INTEGER GL_RGB32I
i4 4 GL_RGBA_INTEGER GL_RGBA32I

Overriding internalformat

Context.texture() supports overriding the internalformat of the texture. This is only necessary when needing a different internalformats from the tables above. This can for example be GL_SRGB8 = 0x8C41 or some compressed format. You may also need to look up in Context.extensions to ensure the context supports internalformat you are using. We do not provide the enum values for these alternative internalformats. They can be looked up in the registry : https://raw.githubusercontent.com/KhronosGroup/OpenGL-Registry/master/xml/gl.xml

Example:

texture = ctx.texture(image.size, 3, data=srbg_data, internal_format=GL_SRGB8)