glue-gluevault-component-pages-rendertargetrenderer

Introduction

The RenderTargetRenderer class can be used to greatly increase the performance of FlatRedBall games which present complex scenes which never or rarely change. For static scenes a RenderTargetRenderer allows for near infinite complexity - specifically it allows for a very large number of visual elements to be drawn with almost no slowdown. Also, the RenderTargetRenderer is an easy way to render to a RenderTarget for post-processing.

Performance Example

This example will show how to render a very large number of Entities with essentially no slowdown. To set up the project:

1. Create a new Glue project

2. Import the following Entity: File:GraphicWithText.entz

3. Create a new Screen. I'll call mine GameScreen

Before we add anything to the game we'll want to turn off any framerate throttling so we can see actual performance differences. To do this open Game1.cs and add the following code to the Game1 constructor:

IsFixedTimeStep = false;
graphics.SynchronizeWithVerticalRetrace = false;

Next we'll add code to our GameScreen. To do this, open the GameScreen.cs file and modify the CustomInitialize and CustomActivity methods as follows:

void CustomInitialize()
{
    // This was written in 2015 on a laptop
    // Increase this if using more powerful 
    // computers to cause serious slowdown:
    const int instances = 10000;
    for(int i = 0; i < instances; i++)
    {
        var instance = new Entities.GraphicWithText();

        Camera.Main.PositionRandomlyInView(instance, 40, 140);

        // goign to bring in the Y a little so we can read debug output:
        instance.Y *= .8f;
        instance.Y -= 30;

        instance.ConvertToManuallyUpdated();
    }
}

void CustomActivity(bool firstTimeCalled)
{
    FlatRedBall.Debugging.Debugger.Write(1 / TimeManager.SecondDifference);
}

1. Switch to Glue

2. Right-click on the Objects folder under the GameScreen

3. Select "Add Object"

4. Verify "FlatRedBall or Custom Type" is selected

5. Select the Sprite type

6. Call the Sprite RenderTargetSprite

Now we can switch to code to create a Texture2D for the Sprite. To do this, replace the CustomInitialize function with the following:

void CustomInitialize()
{
    var renderer = new EntityToTexture.RenderTargetRenderer(
        Camera.Main.DestinationRectangle.Width, Camera.Main.DestinationRectangle.Height);

    // This was written in 2015 on a laptop
    // Increase this if using more powerful 
    // computers to cause serious slowdown:
    const int instances = 10000;
    for(int i = 0; i < instances; i++)
    {
        var instance = new Entities.GraphicWithText(ContentManagerName, false);

        instance.AddToManagers(renderer.Layer);

        Camera.Main.PositionRandomlyInView(instance, 40, 140);

        // goign to bring in the Y a little so we can read debug output:
        instance.Y *= .8f;
        instance.Y -= 30;

        instance.ConvertToManuallyUpdated();
    }

    renderer.PerformRender(ContentManagerName, "custom texture");

    RenderTargetSprite.Texture = renderer.Texture;
    RenderTargetSprite.Width = Camera.Main.OrthogonalWidth;
    RenderTargetSprite.Height = Camera.Main.OrthogonalHeight;
    
}

Further optimizations

The example above shows how to perform a single render for all visuals and then to reuse that in a regular FRB Sprite for maximum performance. Of course, if the entities were being created only for a single render then we would want to destroy the entities after the render was finished. The CustomInitialize would be modified as follows:

void CustomInitialize()
{
    var renderer = new EntityToTexture.RenderTargetRenderer(
        Camera.Main.DestinationRectangle.Width, Camera.Main.DestinationRectangle.Height);

    var list = new List<Entities.GraphicWithText>();

    // This was written in 2015 on a laptop
    // Increase this if using more powerful 
    // computers to cause serious slowdown:
    const int instances = 10000;
    for(int i = 0; i < instances; i++)
    {
        var instance = new Entities.GraphicWithText(ContentManagerName, false);
        list.Add(instance);

        instance.AddToManagers(renderer.Layer);

        Camera.Main.PositionRandomlyInView(instance, 40, 140);

        // goign to bring in the Y a little so we can read debug output:
        instance.Y *= .8f;
        instance.Y -= 30;

        instance.ConvertToManuallyUpdated();
    }

    renderer.PerformRender(ContentManagerName, "custom texture");

    // Now that the render is finished we can destroy all the objects:
    foreach(var item in list)
    {
        item.Destroy();
    }

    RenderTargetSprite.Texture = renderer.Texture;
    RenderTargetSprite.Width = Camera.Main.OrthogonalWidth;
    RenderTargetSprite.Height = Camera.Main.OrthogonalHeight;
    
}

The immediate destruction of the entities does not necessarily boost frame rate, but it does remove objects from the game which can reduce ram usage.