Best way to "intercept" result of METAL vertex/fragment shader

Question

I currently have a MTLTexture for input and am rendering that piece-wise using a set of 20-30 vertices. This is currently done at the tail end of my drawRect handler of an MTKView:

[encoder setVertexBuffer:mBuff offset:0 atIndex:0];  // buffer of vertices
[encoder setVertexBytes:&_viewportSize length:sizeof(_viewportSize) atIndex:1];
[encoder setFragmentTexture:inputTexture atIndex:0];
[encoder drawPrimitives:MTLPrimitiveTypeTriangle vertexStart:0 vertexCount:_vertexInfo.metalVertexCount];
[encoder endEncoding];

[commandBuffer presentDrawable:self.currentDrawable];
[commandBuffer commit];

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However, before doing the final presentDrawable I would like intercept the resulting texture (I'm going to send a region of it off to a separate MTKView). In other words, I need access to some manner of an output MTLTexture after the drawPrimitives call.

What is the most efficient way to do this?

One idea is to introduce an additional drawPrimitives render to an intermediate output MTLTexture instead. I'm not sure how to do this, but I'd scoop that output texture in the process. I suspect that this would even be done elsewhere (ie. off-screen).

Then I'd issue a second drawPrimitives using a single massive textured quad with that outputTexture and then a presentDrawable on it. That code would exist where my previous code was.

There may be a simple method in the Metal API (that I'm missing) that will allow me to capture an output texture of drawPrimitives.

I have looked into using an MTLBlitCommandEncoder but there are some issues around that on certain MacOSX hardware.

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UPDATE#1: idoogy, here is the code you were requesting:

Here is where I create the initial "brightness output" texture... we're mid-flight in a vertex shader to do so:

...
[encoder setFragmentTexture:brightnessOutput atIndex:0];
[encoder drawPrimitives:MTLPrimitiveTypeTriangle vertexStart:0 vertexCount:_vertexInfo.metalVertexCount];
[encoder endEncoding];

for (AltMonitorMTKView *v in self.downstreamOutputs). // ancillary MTKViews
    [v setInputTexture:brightnessOutput];

__block dispatch_semaphore_t block_sema = d.hostedAssetsSemaphore;
[commandBuffer addCompletedHandler:^(id<MTLCommandBuffer> buffer) {
    dispatch_semaphore_signal(block_sema);
}];

[commandBuffer presentDrawable:self.currentDrawable];
[commandBuffer commit];

---

Below, we're in the ancillary view's drawRect handler with inputTexture as the texture that's being transferred, displaying a subregion of it. I should mention that this MTKView is configured to be drawn as a result of a setNeedsDisplay rather than as one with an internal timer:

id<MTLRenderCommandEncoder> encoder = [commandBuffer renderCommandEncoderWithDescriptor:renderPassDescriptor];
encoder.label = @"Vertex Render Encoder";
[encoder setRenderPipelineState:metalVertexPipelineState];

// draw main content
NSUInteger vSize = _vertexInfo.metalVertexCount*sizeof(AAPLVertex);
id<MTLBuffer> mBuff = [self.device newBufferWithBytes:_vertexInfo.metalVertices
                                               length:vSize
                                              options:MTLResourceStorageModeShared];
[encoder setVertexBuffer:mBuff offset:0 atIndex:0];
[encoder setVertexBytes:&_viewportSize length:sizeof(_viewportSize) atIndex:1];
[encoder setFragmentTexture:self.inputTexture atIndex:0];
[encoder drawPrimitives:MTLPrimitiveTypeTriangle vertexStart:0 vertexCount:_vertexInfo.metalVertexCount];
[encoder endEncoding];

[commandBuffer presentDrawable:self.currentDrawable];
[commandBuffer commit];

---

The above code seems to work fine. Having said that, I think we're telling a different story in the Xcode debugger. It's pretty obvious that I'm wasting huge swaths of time doing things this way... That long command buffer is the ancillary monitor view doing a LOT of waiting...

Answer 1

This should be doable. Before you call commit on your commandBuffer, add a completion handler for the command buffer by calling [commandBuffer addCompletedHandler:], then from within the completion handler, grab the color attachments from your renderPassDescriptor.

renderPassDescriptor holds the current set of attachments being drawn to, and is configured automatically by MTKView. The actual textures rotate per frame because MTKView is using triple-buffering to ensure continuous utilization of the GPU, but as long as you're within your completion handler, that particular attachment won't be released for use in a future frame, so you can safely read from it, copy it, etc.

NOTE: Make sure to complete your handler reasonably quickly or your frame rate will drop (because MTKView will quickly run out of render targets and will just sit there until they are released).

Here's a generic code snippet to get you started:

// Grab the current render pass descriptor from MTKView so it's accessible from within the completion block:
__block MTLRenderPassDescriptor *renderPassDescriptor = self.renderPassDescriptor;

[commandBuffer addCompletedHandler:^(id<MTLCommandBuffer> commandBuffer) {
   // This will be called once the GPU has completed rendering your frame.
   // This is your output texture:
   id <MTLTexture> outputTexture = renderPassDescriptor.colorAttachments[0].texture;
}];
[commandBuffer commit];