Intel's Vulkan Linux Driver Lands Experimental Support For Descriptor Heaps
([Intel] 2 Hours Ago
VK_EXT_descriptor_heap)
- Reference: 0001631922
- News link: https://www.phoronix.com/news/Intel-ANV-Descriptor-Heap-Merge
- Source link:
After the merge request was open the past three months for code originally authored eight months ago, the Intel "ANV" open-source Vulkan driver for Linux systems is now advertising support for descriptor heaps with the VK_EXT_descriptor_heap extension. But for the moment at least it's treated as experimental.
VK_EXT_descriptor_heap was formally introduced back in January with [1]Vulkan 1.4.340 . VK_EXT_descriptor_heap allows for the explicit management of descriptors and the memory used for descriptors. This extension is important for improving the Steam Play (VKD3D-Proton) experience, can help reduce CPU overhead, and all around an efficiency win for modern Vulkan API usage. Intel ANV developers worked on their descriptor heap support even before the extension was finalized and made public albeit has taken until now to get the code across the finish line with being merged now for Mesa 26.2 except for still being hidden behind a new "experimental" flag.
The Radeon RADV driver saw [2]its descriptor heap merged last month in time for this quarter's Mesa 26.1 release (due out very soon now!). NVIDIA with their official, proprietary Vulkan driver has [3]descriptor heap support in the R595 driver series . Now for next quarter's Mesa 26.2 release is descriptor heap for Intel ANV. At the moment at least this support is gated by the ANV_DEBUG=experimental environment variable with the extension otherwise not being advertised. We'll see by the Mesa 26.2 release time if it remains experimental or is promoted to being enabled by default.
[4]This merge request landed the VK_EXT_descriptor_heap support and initially holding up the code were parser issues around untyped descriptor pointers. Hopefully following additional test coverage and user testing this descriptor heap support can be enabled by default for the Intel ANV driver to the benefit of gamers with Arc Graphics.
[1] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Vulkan-1.4.340-Descriptor-Heap
[2] https://www.phoronix.com/news/RADV-Merges-Descriptor-Heap
[3] https://www.phoronix.com/news/NVIDIA-595.58.03-Linux
[4] https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa/-/merge_requests/39478
VK_EXT_descriptor_heap was formally introduced back in January with [1]Vulkan 1.4.340 . VK_EXT_descriptor_heap allows for the explicit management of descriptors and the memory used for descriptors. This extension is important for improving the Steam Play (VKD3D-Proton) experience, can help reduce CPU overhead, and all around an efficiency win for modern Vulkan API usage. Intel ANV developers worked on their descriptor heap support even before the extension was finalized and made public albeit has taken until now to get the code across the finish line with being merged now for Mesa 26.2 except for still being hidden behind a new "experimental" flag.
The Radeon RADV driver saw [2]its descriptor heap merged last month in time for this quarter's Mesa 26.1 release (due out very soon now!). NVIDIA with their official, proprietary Vulkan driver has [3]descriptor heap support in the R595 driver series . Now for next quarter's Mesa 26.2 release is descriptor heap for Intel ANV. At the moment at least this support is gated by the ANV_DEBUG=experimental environment variable with the extension otherwise not being advertised. We'll see by the Mesa 26.2 release time if it remains experimental or is promoted to being enabled by default.
[4]This merge request landed the VK_EXT_descriptor_heap support and initially holding up the code were parser issues around untyped descriptor pointers. Hopefully following additional test coverage and user testing this descriptor heap support can be enabled by default for the Intel ANV driver to the benefit of gamers with Arc Graphics.
[1] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Vulkan-1.4.340-Descriptor-Heap
[2] https://www.phoronix.com/news/RADV-Merges-Descriptor-Heap
[3] https://www.phoronix.com/news/NVIDIA-595.58.03-Linux
[4] https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa/-/merge_requests/39478