GPURenderBundleEncoder: drawIndirect() method

The drawIndirect() method of the GPURenderBundleEncoder interface draws primitives using parameters read from a GPUBuffer.

Syntax

drawIndirect(indirectBuffer, indirectOffset)

Parameters

indirectBuffer

A GPUBuffer containing the vertexCount, instanceCount, firstVertex, and firstInstance values needed to carry out the drawing operation. The buffer must contain a tightly packed block of four 32-bit unsigned integer values representing the values (16 bytes total), given in the same order as the arguments for GPURenderBundleEncoder.draw(). So for example:

const uint32 = new Uint32Array(4);
uint32[0] = 3; // The vertexCount value
uint32[1] = 1; // The instanceCount value
uint32[2] = 0; // The firstVertex value
uint32[3] = 0; // The firstInstance value

// Write values into a GPUBuffer
device.queue.writeBuffer(buffer, 0, uint32, 0, uint32.length);

Note: The indirect-first-instance feature needs to be enabled for non-zero firstInstance values to be used. If the indirect-first-instance feature is not enabled and firstInstance is not zero, the drawIndirect() call will be treated as a no-op.

indirectOffset

The offset, in bytes, into indirectBuffer where the value data begins.

Return value

None (Undefined).

Validation

The following criteria must be met when calling drawIndirect(), otherwise a GPUValidationError is generated and the GPURenderBundleEncoder becomes invalid:

• indirectBuffer's GPUBuffer.usage contains the GPUBufferUsage.INDIRECT flag.
• indirectOffset + the total size specified by the value parameters in the indirectBuffer is less than or equal to the indirectBuffer's GPUBuffer.size.
• indirectOffset is a multiple of 4.

Examples

// …

// Create GPURenderBundleEncoder
const bundleEncoder = device.createRenderBundleEncoder(descriptor);

// Set pipeline and vertex buffer
bundleEncoder.setPipeline(renderPipeline);
bundleEncoder.setVertexBuffer(0, vertexBuffer);

// Create drawIndirect values
const uint32 = new Uint32Array(4);
uint32[0] = 3;
uint32[1] = 1;
uint32[2] = 0;
uint32[3] = 0;

// Create a GPUBuffer and write the draw values into it
const drawValues = device.createBuffer({
  size: 16,
  usage: GPUBufferUsage.COPY_DST | GPUBufferUsage.INDIRECT,
});
device.queue.writeBuffer(drawValues, 0, uint32, 0, uint32.length);

// Draw the vertices
bundleEncoder.drawIndirect(drawValues, 0);

// End the bundle recording
const renderBundle = bundleEncoder.finish();

// …

Specifications

Browser compatibility

See also

• The WebGPU API