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Using GPU Buffers

Buffer Operations​

The ability to copy memory between CPU, buffers and textures

| Dimension | WebGPU | WebGL2 | Description | | --------------------- | ------ | ------ | ----------------------------------------------------- | | | writeBuffer | ✅ | ✅ | Read a buffer synchronously | | readBuffer (sync) | ❌ | ✅ | Read a buffer synchronously | | readBuffer (async) | ✅ | ❌ * | Read a buffer asynchronously | | copyBufferToBuffer | ✅ | ✅ | Copy a buffer to another buffer without CPU roundtrip | | copyBufferToTexture | ✅ | ✅ | Copy a buffer to a texture without CPU roundtrip | | copyTextureToBuffer | ✅ | ✅ | Copy a buffer to a texture without CPU roundtrip |

Remarks:

  • A WebGL extension does exist that enables asynchronous buffer reads, but it is not implemented on MacOS which is the primary development environment for luma.gl.
  • Asynchronous reads are emulated by luma.gl by providing a Promise style API. The actual reads are still asynchronous though.