Reading depth buffer data from C++

So I create a render to texture with linked depth target like this:

impRenderTexture_ = new Texture2D(context_);
impRenderTexture_->SetSize(segment_res,
                           segment_res,
                           Graphics::GetRGBAFormat(),
                           Urho3D::TEXTURE_RENDERTARGET,
                           0);

impRenderTextureDepth_ = new Texture2D(context_);
impRenderTextureDepth_->SetSize(segment_res,
                                segment_res,
                                Graphics::GetDepthStencilFormat(),
                                Urho3D::TEXTURE_DEPTHSTENCIL,
                                0);

impRenderPath_ = new RenderPath();
impRenderPath_->Load(
    GetSubsystem<ResourceCache>()
    ->GetResource<XMLFile>("RenderPaths/ImpostorForwardDepth.xml"));
 RenderSurface* renderSurface = impRenderTexture_->GetRenderSurface();
impViewport_ = new Viewport(context_,
                            impScene_,
                            impCameraNode_->GetComponent<Camera>());
impViewport_->SetRenderPath(impRenderPath_);
renderSurface->SetUpdateMode(Urho3D::SURFACE_MANUALUPDATE);
renderSurface->SetLinkedDepthStencil(
     impRenderTextureDepth_->GetRenderSurface());
renderSurface->SetViewport(0, impViewport_);

Then I start rendering it:

impRenderTexture_->GetRenderSurface()->QueueUpdate();
SubscribeToEvent (E_ENDVIEWRENDER,
                  URHO3D_HANDLER(Impostor, HandleRenderDone));

And when I recieve event I read texture data:

impRenderTexture_->GetData(0, my_buffer);

And it works good: my_buffer now contains whole the rendered frame data.

But when I try to read depth data like this:

auto surface = impRenderTexture_->GetRenderSurface()->GetLinkedDepthStencil();
Texture2D* tx2d = reinterpret_cast<Texture2D*>(tex->GetParentTexture());
// tx2d now actually points to the impRenderTextureDepth_ that we created
// and linked..
tx2d->GetData(0, my_depth_buffer);

But GetData() fails like this (in OGLTexture2D.cpp:303):

bool Texture2D::GetData(unsigned level, void* dest) const
{
    if (!object_.name_ || !graphics_)
    {
        //<----------- FAILS HERE :( ------------>
        URHO3D_LOGERROR("No texture created, can not get data");    
        return false;
    }
    ...

Am I missing something on how it’s done?

Things I tried to no result so far:

• Let the engine create depth buffer automatically – don’t seem to have any way to access it then

SOLUTION is elaborated a bit in post #3

Have you tried other formats? Like LinearDepth or ReadableDepth ? If nothing works, you can even use color format RGBA16F.

Also, can you show your renderpath?

Render path (stock ForwardDepth.xml):

<renderpath>
    <rendertarget name="depth" sizedivisor="1 1" format="lineardepth" />
    <command type="clear" color="1 1 1 1" depth="1.0" stencil="0" output="depth" />
    <command type="scenepass" pass="depth" output="depth" />
    <command type="clear" color="fog" depth="1.0" stencil="0" />
    <command type="scenepass" pass="base" vertexlights="true" metadata="base" />
    <command type="forwardlights" pass="light" />
    <command type="scenepass" pass="postopaque" />
    <command type="scenepass" pass="refract">
        <texture unit="environment" name="viewport" />
    </command>
    <command type="scenepass" pass="alpha" vertexlights="true" sort="backtofront" metadata="alpha">
        <texture unit="depth" name="depth" />
    </command>
    <command type="scenepass" pass="postalpha" sort="backtofront" />
</renderpath>

Do you mean different formats in SetSize? Like this:

impRenderTextureDepth_->SetSize(segment_res,
                                segment_res,
                                Graphics::GetDepthStencilFormat(),  // this one?
                                Urho3D::TEXTURE_DEPTHSTENCIL,
                                0);

Good idea! Replaced it with Graphics::GetReadableDepthFormat() and now it seems to be working! Need to work on the client code to confirm everything works now.

Thanks a lot!

UPD: Solution was to use Graphics::GetReadableDepthFormat() when creating a texture for depth rendering.

2889602834704_37impostor_depthstencil512×512 2.61 KB

By the way, I seem to be getting the data in 1-byte format. Is it legal for the texture to return 0 from .GetComponents()? Should I file a bug on this?