This extension adds Vulkan support for the SPV_EXT_demote_to_helper_invocation SPIR-V extension. That SPIR-V extension provides a new instruction OpDemoteToHelperInvocationEXT allowing shaders to “demote” a fragment shader invocation to behave like a helper invocation for its duration. The demoted invocation will have no further side effects and will not output to the framebuffer, but remains active and can participate in computing derivatives and in group operations. This is a better match for the “discard” instruction in HLSL.

Promotion to Vulkan 1.3

Functionality in this extension is included in core Vulkan 1.3, with the EXT suffix omitted. The original type, enum and command names are still available as aliases of the core functionality.

VK_EXT_shader_demote_to_helper_invocation

Name String

VK_EXT_shader_demote_to_helper_invocation

Extension Type

Device extension

Registered Extension Number

277

Revision

1

Extension and Version Dependencies

VK_KHR_get_physical_device_properties2 or Version 1.1

Deprecation state

• Promoted to Vulkan 1.3

Contact

• Jeff Bolz jeffbolznv

Other Extension Metadata

Last Modified Date

2019-06-01

Interactions and External Dependencies

• Promoted to Vulkan 1.3 Core

IP Status

No known IP claims.

Interactions and External Dependencies

• This extension requires SPV_EXT_demote_to_helper_invocation
• This extension provides API support for GL_EXT_demote_to_helper_invocation

Contributors

• Jeff Bolz, NVIDIA