When using pipeline libraries in ray tracing pipelines, a library might get linked into different pipelines in an incremental way. An application can have a strategy where a ray tracing pipeline is comprised of N pipeline libraries and is later augumented by creating a new pipeline with N + 1 libraries. Without this extension, all group handles must be re-queried as the group handle is tied to the pipeline, not the library. This is problematic for applications which aim to decouple construction of record buffers and the linkage of ray tracing pipelines.

To aid in this, this extension enables support for querying group handles directly from pipeline libraries. Group handles obtained from a library must remain bitwise identical in any VkPipeline that links to the library.

With this feature, the extension also improves compatibility with DXR 1.1 AddToStateObject(), which guarantees that group handles returned remain bitwise identical between parent and child pipelines. In addition, querying group handles from COLLECTION objects is also supported with that API.

VK_EXT_pipeline_library_group_handles

Name String

VK_EXT_pipeline_library_group_handles

Extension Type

Device extension

Registered Extension Number

499

Revision

1

Extension and Version Dependencies

VK_KHR_ray_tracing_pipeline and VK_KHR_pipeline_library

Contact

• Hans-Kristian Arntzen HansKristian-Work

Extension Proposal

VK_EXT_pipeline_library_group_handles

Other Extension Metadata

Last Modified Date

2023-01-25

IP Status

No known IP claims.

Contributors

• Hans-Kristian Arntzen, Valve
• Stuart Smith, AMD
• Ricardo Garcia, Igalia
• Lionel Landwerlin, Intel
• Eric Werness, NVIDIA
• Daniel Koch, NVIDIA