Vulkan 1.4.312 is out today as the newest routine spec update to this high performance graphics and compute API. In addition to the usual mundane clarifications and fixes, this update brings two new extensions from Qualcomm and NVIDIA.
The first new extension is VK_NV_external_compute_queue_vendor, which was worked on by several NVIDIA engineers to provide applications and game engines the ability to join compatible external compute APIs to a Vulkan device (VkDevice):
“This extension gives applications the ability to join compatible external compute APIs to a VkDevice. In this way, the extension allows an application to achieve simultaneous execution between work submitted from these compatible external APIs and work that has been submitted through the Vulkan API.”
The spec update doesn’t provide any insight into all of the external APIs they envision leveraging by the VK_NV_external_compute_queue extension.
The other new extension with Vulkan 1.4.312 is Qualcomm’s VK_QCOM_tile_shading. The VK_QCOM_tile_shading extension exposes tile shading within Vulkan. Qualcomm Adreno GPus can operate in either tile-based deferred rendering or immediate-mode rendering with the Adreno GPU driver left to decide the most optimal mode. When engaging this new VK_QCOM_tile_shading extension, the tile-based deferred rendering mode is preferred.
More details on the Vulkan 1.4.312 changes via Vulkan-Docs on GitHub.
Completely separate from today’s Vulkan 1.4.312 update is a presentation from last week that some readers may be interested in around Vulkan Video encode usage:
