stride3d/stride · error · ArgumentException

Element size must be greater than zero for structured…

Q: What causes "Element size must be greater than zero for structured buffers" in stride3d/stride?

Set StructureByteStride to the size of one element (e.g. sizeof(MyStruct) or Marshal.SizeOf ()) in the buffer description.

Error message

Element size must be greater than zero for structured buffers

What it means

A D3D11 structured buffer requires a nonzero element stride (StructureByteStride) so the hardware can index elements. When a Buffer is initialized with BufferFlags.StructuredBuffer and StructureByteStride <= 0, InitializeFromImpl throws ArgumentException because D3D11 cannot create the buffer descriptor without a valid stride.

Solutions

Set StructureByteStride to the size of one element (e.g. sizeof(MyStruct) or Marshal.SizeOf<T>()) in the buffer description.
If you do not need typed element indexing, use BufferFlags.RawBuffer instead of StructuredBuffer.
Validate the description before creating the buffer to fail with a clearer message.

Example fix

// before
var buffer = Buffer.New(device, byteCount * 4, BufferFlags.StructuredBuffer);
// after
var buffer = Buffer.New(device, byteCount, BufferFlags.StructuredBuffer, structureByteStride: sizeof(float));

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

if (desc.BufferFlags.HasFlag(BufferFlags.StructuredBuffer) && desc.StructureByteStride <= 0)
    throw new InvalidOperationException("Structured buffers require a positive StructureByteStride");

Type guard

bool IsValidStructuredBuffer(BufferDescription d) => !d.BufferFlags.HasFlag(BufferFlags.StructuredBuffer) || d.StructureByteStride > 0;

Try / catch

try { buffer = Buffer.New(device, size, BufferFlags.StructuredBuffer); }
catch (ArgumentException ex) when (ex.Message.Contains("Element size")) { /* fix stride and retry */ }

Prevention

Always set StructureByteStride when using StructuredBuffer flag
Prefer RawBuffer if element size is unknown
Wrap buffer creation in a factory that validates descriptions

When it happens

Trigger: Calling Buffer.New / Buffer initialization with BufferFlags.StructuredBuffer set while leaving StructureByteStride at its default 0 or passing a negative value.

Common situations: Declaring only the StructuredBuffer flag in the buffer description without filling in the stride field; copying a raw-buffer (RawBuffer) description and adding the StructuredBuffer flag; forgetting that unlike raw buffers, structured buffers need explicit element size.

Understand the failure class

Background: "missing required argument" and "the following required arguments were not provided": what required-argument errors mean and how to fix them — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of stride3d/stride@96fad776d2 (2026-09-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/338d33a99ec612f7. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at sources/engine/Stride.Graphics/Direct3D11/Buffer.Direct3D11.cs:121

                    bufferDesc.BindFlags |= (uint) BindFlag.IndexBuffer;

                if (bufferDescription.BufferFlags.HasFlag(BufferFlags.VertexBuffer))
                    bufferDesc.BindFlags |= (uint) BindFlag.VertexBuffer;

                if (bufferDescription.BufferFlags.HasFlag(BufferFlags.RenderTarget))
                    bufferDesc.BindFlags |= (uint) BindFlag.RenderTarget;

                if (bufferDescription.BufferFlags.HasFlag(BufferFlags.ShaderResource))
                    bufferDesc.BindFlags |= (uint) BindFlag.ShaderResource;

                if (bufferDescription.BufferFlags.HasFlag(BufferFlags.UnorderedAccess))
                    bufferDesc.BindFlags |= (uint) BindFlag.UnorderedAccess;

                if (bufferDescription.BufferFlags.HasFlag(BufferFlags.StructuredBuffer))
                {
                    bufferDesc.MiscFlags |= (uint) BufferFlags.StructuredBuffer;
                    if (bufferDescription.StructureByteStride <= 0)
                        throw new ArgumentException("Element size must be greater than zero for structured buffers");
                }

                if (bufferDescription.BufferFlags.HasFlag(BufferFlags.RawBuffer))
                    bufferDesc.MiscFlags |= (uint) ResourceMiscFlag.BufferAllowRawViews;

                if (bufferDescription.BufferFlags.HasFlag(BufferFlags.ArgumentBuffer))
                    bufferDesc.MiscFlags |= (uint) ResourceMiscFlag.DrawindirectArgs;

                if (bufferDescription.BufferFlags.HasFlag(BufferFlags.StreamOutput))
                    bufferDesc.BindFlags |= (uint) BindFlag.StreamOutput;

                if (bufferDesc.Usage == Silk.NET.Direct3D11.Usage.Dynamic)
                {
                    bufferDesc.CPUAccessFlags = (uint) CpuAccessFlag.Write;
                    if (bufferDesc.BindFlags == 0)
                        bufferDesc.BindFlags = (uint) BindFlag.ConstantBuffer;
                }

View on GitHub (pinned to 96fad776d2)