Texture

A Texture is an image that lives on the graphics card. Generators make one, filters take one in and put a changed one out, and a Window shows one on screen. Every texture is flat: it has a width and a height in pixels and nothing else.

A texture also has a pixel format, which says how each pixel stores its color. Most operators produce 8 bit RGBA, and a texture input accepts any format, so the format rarely needs attention. An image with three color channels gets a fourth, fully opaque, when it is loaded.

A texture input with nothing connected gives the operator nothing to work on. Most operators then produce nothing, and a few fall back to a small black texture.

Texture ports are orange. A texture output connects only to a texture input.