How to get pixel value of depth Texture from script ?

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Hello,

I managed to render a DepthMap on a GUI using a RenderTexture with Color Format : "DEPTH_AUTO". I need access to those depth values to process them in a C# script. I tried to use the standard way to get pixels values using the following code :

 RenderTexture.active = depth_RenderTexture;
 Texture2D depthTexture = new Texture2D(depth_RenderTexture.width, depth_RenderTexture.height, TextureFormat.RHalf, false);
 depthTexture.ReadPixels(new Rect(0, 0, depth_RenderTexture.width, depth_RenderTexture.height), 0, 0);
 depthTexture.Apply();

I used different TextureFormat for my Texture2D but I always end up with a constant value image even though my depth_RenderTexture show something else. Can anyone tell me what am I doing wrong ? Or what is the way to access those values pls ?

Answer 1

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Answer by Bunny83 · Sep 30, 2019 at 06:38 PM

The depthbuffer is a special buffer you don't have direct access to. See this forum post for more details. Essentially you need a second render step with a special shader which actually renders the depth values into a normal render texture which you could read back using ReadPixels.

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tfisiche · Oct 02, 2019 at 03:49 PM 2

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Thank you, I used the shader made on this tutorial : https://www.ronja-tutorials.com/2018/07/01/postprocessing-depth.html and it works perfectly. I can access the pixels value using :

         Graphics.Blit(depth$$anonymous$$aterial.mainTexture, RenderTexture.active);
         Texture2D depthTexture = new Texture2D(width, height);
         depthTexture.ReadPixels(new Rect(0, 0, width, height), 0, 0);
         depthTexture.Apply();

Answer 2

Answer by tfisiche · Oct 01, 2019 at 08:10 AM

Thank you very much I'll try it this way and let you know how it goes.

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How to get pixel value of depth Texture from script ?

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