Vulkan 1.4.306 was published this morning as the newest routine specification update to this graphics/compute API.
Besides a handful of bug fixes and documentation clarifications, Vulkan 1.4.306 presents two new extensions: VK_EXT_external_memory_metal and VK_KHR_video_maintenance2.
VK_EXT_external_memory_metal is a previously proposed extension for improving memory sharing with Apple’s Metal. VK_EXT_external_memory_metal allows for exporting non-Vulkan handles from Vulkan memory objects that can then be referenced outside the scope of the Vulkan device instance that created them. This Metal External Memory support allows for better memory sharing with Apple Metal drivers.
The other new extension is VK_KHR_video_maintenance2 and is a set of minor video coding updates around Vulkan Video. The changes to this maintenance extension update include:
* Allow video coding control commands (such as video session reset) to be issued without the need for a bound video session parameters object for video decode operations that would otherwise require the use of video session parameters objects.
* Allow applications to specify codec-specific parameter sets inline for each decode operation instead of having to construct video session parameters objects.
* Require support for VK_VIDEO_ENCODE_RATE_CONTROL_MODE_DISABLED_BIT_KHR in all applicable video encode profiles.
* Provide additional guarantees on Video Std parameters that the encoder implementation will not override.
More details on today’s Vulkan 1.4.306 spec update via GitHub.
