Blit passes

Overview

Your app can use a block information transfer (blit) pass to manage data within, and copy data between, buffers, textures, and other Metal resources. Start by creating a blit command encoder by calling an MTLCommandBuffer instance’s makeBlitCommandEncoder() method. Then use the MTLBlitCommandEncoder instance’s methods to encode individual commands of your blit pass.

You also have the option to customize a blit pass’s runtime behavior, such as sampling GPU hardware data. To enable these options, configure an MTLBlitPassDescriptor instance and pass it to the command buffer’s makeBlitCommandEncoder(descriptor:) method. For more information about sampling GPU hardware data in a blit pass, see the articles in GPU counters and counter sample buffers, including:

• Sampling GPU data into counter sample buffers

• Converting a GPU’s counter data into a readable format

Topics

Encoding a blit pass

• MTLBlitCommandEncoder
• MTLBlitOption

Configuring a blit command encoder

• MTLBlitPassDescriptor
• MTLBlitPassSampleBufferAttachmentDescriptor
• MTLBlitPassSampleBufferAttachmentDescriptorArray

See Also

Command encoders

• Render passes
• Compute passes
• Machine learning passes
• Indirect command encoding
• Ray tracing with acceleration structures