stride3d/stride · error · InvalidOperationException

A negative number of mip maps is not allowed.

Error message

A negative number of mip maps is not allowed.

What it means

The VideoTexture constructor rejects a negative maxMipMapCount because a mip chain cannot have fewer than zero extra levels. The value is passed through to texture/sampler setup, so the constructor fails fast with InvalidOperationException when it is negative.

Solutions

1. Set videoComponent.MaxMipMapCount to 0 or a positive value before allocating the texture.
2. If 'auto mipmaps' was intended, pass 0 (or the maximum) rather than -1, per this API's convention.
3. Audit serialized assets/prefabs containing the video component for a -1 MaxMipMapCount and fix them.

Example fix

// before
videoComponent.MaxMipMapCount = -1; // 'auto' (wrong convention)
videoInstance.AllocateVideoTexture(w, h); // throws

// after
videoComponent.MaxMipMapCount = 0;
videoInstance.AllocateVideoTexture(w, h);

// C#
if (maxMipMapCount < 0)
    maxMipMapCount = 0; // clamp before allocating
videoInstance.AllocateVideoTexture(width, height);

// C#
try { videoInstance.AllocateVideoTexture(w, h); }
catch (InvalidOperationException ex) when (ex.Message.Contains("mip maps"))
{
    // fix videoComponent.MaxMipMapCount then retry
}

When it happens

Trigger: Constructing VideoTexture (directly or via VideoInstance.AllocateVideoTexture) with maxMipMapCount < 0, e.g. from videoComponent.MaxMipMapCount being set to -1 in code or a component property.

Common situations: Typo or misunderstanding of the convention (using -1 to mean 'auto'); loading a component asset where MaxMipMapCount was serialized as -1; copying a config value that another engine treats as 'unlimited'.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Must be a positive integer", "Invalid value", "Unsupported": the invalid-argument-value error family, when a library rejects the value you pass — this error's family across 35 libraries.

Related errors

• Invalid video resolution.
• Destination texture is a MSAA texture.
• Source texture is not a MSAA texture.
• The Graphics Resource is a Texture, but its dimension is…
• The options specified for the Texture are not valid.

AI-assisted analysis of stride3d/stride@96fad776d2 (2026-09-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d3035e825213105e. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at sources/engine/Stride.Video/VideoTexture.cs:39

        /// Effect used to create mipmap inside the <see cref="renderTargetTexture"/>
        /// </summary>
        private EffectInstance effectTexture2DCopy;

        private Texture originalTargetTexture;
        private Texture renderTargetTexture;

        private SamplerState minMagLinearMipPointSampler;

        public VideoTexture(GraphicsDevice graphicsDevice, IServiceRegistry serviceRegistry, int width, int height, int maxMipMapCount)
        {
            if (width <= 0 || height <= 0)
            {
                throw new InvalidOperationException("Invalid video resolution.");
            }

            if (maxMipMapCount < 0)
            {
                throw new InvalidOperationException("A negative number of mip maps is not allowed.");
            }

            var effectSystem = serviceRegistry.GetSafeServiceAs<EffectSystem>();

            // We want to sample mip maps using point filtering (to make sure nothing bleeds between mip maps).
            minMagLinearMipPointSampler = SamplerState.New(graphicsDevice, new SamplerStateDescription(TextureFilter.MinMagLinearMipPoint, TextureAddressMode.Clamp));

            // Allocate the effect for copying decoder output texture to our normal render texture
            effectDecoderTextureCopy = new EffectInstance(effectSystem.LoadEffect("SpriteEffectExtTexture").WaitForResult());
            effectDecoderTextureCopy.Parameters.Set(SpriteEffectExtTextureKeys.Gamma, 2.2f);
            effectDecoderTextureCopy.Parameters.Set(SpriteEffectExtTextureKeys.MipLevel, 0.0f);
            effectDecoderTextureCopy.Parameters.Set(SpriteEffectExtTextureKeys.Sampler, minMagLinearMipPointSampler);
            effectDecoderTextureCopy.UpdateEffect(graphicsDevice);

            // Allocate the effect for copying regular 2d textures:
            effectTexture2DCopy = new EffectInstance(effectSystem.LoadEffect("SpriteEffectExtTextureRegular").WaitForResult());
            effectTexture2DCopy.Parameters.Set(SpriteEffectExtTextureKeys.MipLevel, 0.0f);
            effectTexture2DCopy.Parameters.Set(SpriteEffectExtTextureRegularKeys.Sampler, minMagLinearMipPointSampler);

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