RenderTexture of a Container not rendered/shown on screen

[HarsimranVirk 0]

Hey, I want to ask if there's a way to create render textures of displayObjects which aren't rendered/shown on screen? 

For example, let's say I have a container which has the sprites of normal maps, I want to create a render texture of this container which I could then maybe use in a shader. Now, I obviously wouldn't want this container to be visible at all, if I make it invisible, the renderTexture is going to be empty as well. 

So, the use case is that I have a container which is just used to create textures that could be used in a shader, and I dont want this container to be visible in the scene. Is there a way to achieve this? 

[Jammy 51]

Yes, I do this by setting them offscreen -1000,-1000 alternatively have a hidden pixi instance and use that. Other may have more suggestions tho.
edit; Also, im pretty sure you can just add what you want to a container and use renderTexture and never add the container to the stage or another container?

Edited July 21, 2020 by Jammy

[ivan.popelyshev 1092]

> For example, let's say I have a container which has the sprites of normal maps, I want to create a render texture of this container which I could then maybe use in a shader. 

just use container that is not added to stage.

Just in case, here is basic lighting example: https://pixijs.io/examples/#/plugin-layers/lighting.js , it uses pixi-layers "useRenderTexture" feature, basically same as you want to do by hands - render container into texture, use somewhere else

[HarsimranVirk 0]

3 hours ago, ivan.popelyshev said:

just use container that is not added to stage.

 

Thanks for the reply @ivan.popelyshev 

 

Also, I found my exact problem I guess. I was adding app.renderer.render(container, renderTexture) inside the default ticker of PIXI.Application, and I think the result of this is cleared  because the default ticker finally calls app.renderer.render(app.stage) which clears the screen? Is this correct?

If it is correct, then I guess this shouldn't be a problem in a custom game loop if handled correctly, right? 

Thank you 😄

Edited July 21, 2020 by HarsimranVirk

[ivan.popelyshev 1092]

if you dont want to clear it - there's third param, "false".

As for application, every time its mentioned i tell people to study https://github.com/pixijs/pixi.js/wiki/v5-Custom-Application-GameLoop and make their own application class instead of using default pixi.