Use frame data

You can fetch the textures the Universal Render Pipeline (URP) creates for the current frame, for example the active color buffer or a G-buffer texture, and use them in your render passes.

These textures are called frame data, resource data, or frame resources.

Some textures might not exist in the frame data, depending on which injection point you use to insert your custom render pass into the URP frame rendering loop. Refer to the following for information about which textures exist when:

Get frame data

The frame data is in the ContextContainer object that URP provides when you override the RecordRenderGraph method.

Follow these steps to get a handle to a texture in the frame data:

  1. Get all the frame data as a UniversalResourceData object, using the Get method of the ContextContainer object.

    For example:

    public override void RecordRenderGraph(RenderGraph renderGraph, ContextContainer frameContext)
{
    using (var builder = renderGraph.AddPass<PassData>("Get frame data", out var passData))
    {
        UniversalResourceData frameData = frameContext.Get<UniversalResourceData>();
    }
}

  2. Get the handle to a texture in the frame data.

    For example, the following gets a handle to the active color texture:

    TextureHandle activeColorTexture = frameData.activeColorTexture;

You can then read from and write to the texture. Refer to Use a texture in a render pass for more information.

You can use the ConfigureInput API to make sure URP generates the texture you need in the frame data.

Textures in the frame data

You can fetch the following textures from the frame data.

Property Texture URP shader pass that writes to the texture
additionalShadowsTexture  The additional shadow map. ShadowCaster
activeColorTexture The color texture the camera currently targets. Any pass, depending on your settings
activeDepthTexture The depth texture the camera is currently targets. Any pass, depending on your settings
afterPostProcessColor The main color texture after URP's post processing passes. UberPost
backBufferColor  The color texture of the screen back buffer. If you use post-processing, URP writes to this texture at the end of rendering, unless you enable HDR Debug Views. Refer to debugScreenTexture for more information. Any pass, depending on your settings
backBufferDepth  The depth texture of the screen back buffer. Any pass, depending on your settings
cameraColor The main color texture for the camera. You can store multiple samples in this texture if you enable Multisample Anti-aliasing (MSAA). Any pass, depending on your settings
cameraDepth The main depth texture for the camera. You can store multiple samples in this texture if you enable Multisample Anti-aliasing (MSAA). Any pass, depending on your settings
cameraDepthTexture A copy of the depth texture, if you enable Depth Priming Mode in the renderer or Depth Texture in the active URP Asset. CopyDepth or DepthPrepass
cameraNormalsTexture The scene normals texture. Contains the scene depth for objects with shaders that have a DepthNormals pass. DepthNormals prepass
cameraOpaqueTexture A texture with the opaque objects in the scene, if you enable Opaque Texture in the URP Asset. CopyColor
dBuffer The Decals texture. Refer to DBuffer for more information. Decals
dBufferDepth The Decals depth texture. Refer to DBuffer for more information. Decals
debugScreenTexture If you enable HDR Debug Views, URP writes the output of post-processing to this texture instead of backBufferColor. uberPost and finalPost
gBuffer The G-buffer textures. Refer to G-buffer for more information. GBuffer
internalColorLut The internal look-up textures (LUT) texture. InternalLut
mainShadowsTexture  The main shadow map. ShadowCaster
motionVectorColor The motion vectors color texture. Refer to motion vectors for more information. Camera Motion Vectors and MotionVectors
motionVectorDepth The motion vectors depth texture. Refer to motion vectors for more information. Camera Motion Vectors and MotionVectors
overlayUITexture The overlay UI texture. DrawScreenSpaceUI
renderingLayersTexture The Rendering Layers texture. Refer to Rendering layers DrawOpaques or the DepthNormals prepass, depending on your settings.
ssaoTexture The Screen Space Ambient Occlusion (SSAO) texture. Refer to Ambient occlusion for more information. SSAO

Example

Refer to the following for examples of custom render passes that use the frame data:

Additional resources