A buffer is defined as a region of memory that holds the data for an image to be displayed on a screen. Think of it as a ‘screen’. Vizzy has two buffer types.
Screen buffer
This is the buffer that everything gets eventually rendered to by default in Vizzy. While this is not shown to you, every layer is its own buffer (to allow for effects), but all of their outputs eventually become composited to this screen buffer.
Did you know?
When you turn 3D mode on, you are seeing all layer buffers at the same time, which is why they don’t obscure each other.
Layer buffer
This is a buffer that gets created when you render a layer to a buffer. Every layer will have its own layer buffer. It allows items and effects (even in other layers) to use the image output of this buffer.
Warning!
Rendering a layer to a buffer stops it from being rendered to the screen, which means you have to render it yourself using the Image item, the Transform effect, a custom shader or the Render layer effect.
You should never leave buffers not rendered or hanging!