Resource binding was over-complicated as I didn't understood the state
manager and vulkan to make the correct decisions at that time. This
refactor will remove a lot of the complexity and improves the performance.
**Performance**
The performance improvement is noticeable in complex grease pencil
scenes.
Grease pencil benchmark file picknick:
- `NVIDIA Quadro RTX 6000` 17 fps -> 24 fps
- `Intel(R) Arc(tm) A750 Graphics (DG2)` 6 -> 21 fps
**Bottle-neck**
The performance improvements originates from moving the update entry
point from state manager to shader interface. The previous implementation
(state manager) had to loop over all the bound resources and find in the
shader interface where it was located in the descriptor set. Ignoring
resources that were not used by the shader. But also making it hard
to determine if descriptor sets actually changed. Previous implementation
assumed descriptor sets always changed.
When descriptor set changed a new descriptor set needed to be allocated.
Most drivers this is a fast operation, but on Intel/Mesa this was measurable
slow. Using an allocation pool doesn't fit the Vulkan API as you are only
able to reuse when the layout matches exactly. Of course doable, but requires
another structure to keep track of the actual layouts.
**Solution**
By using the shader interface as entry point we can:
1. Keep track if there are any changes in the state manager. If not and the
layout is the same, the previous shader can be reused.
2. In stead of looping over each bound resource, we loop over bind points.
**Future extensions**
Bundle all descriptor set uploads just before use. This would be more
in line with how 'modern' Vulkan should be implemented. This PR already
separates the uploading from the updating and technically allows to upload
more than one descriptor set.
Instead of looking 1 set back we should measure if we can handle multiple
or keep track of the different layouts resources to improve the performance
even further.
Optional use `VK_KHR_descriptor_buffer` when available.
Pull Request: https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/pulls/128068
Removes two levels of indirection when updating descriptor sets.
These are the easy ones to remove. Others will be removed in
a future PR.
This is part of reworking of how descriptor sets are used.
This PR Mostly reduces complexity.
Pull Request: https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/pulls/127915
EEVEE can bind layers of a texture that is also used as an attachment. When binding
the image layout of these specific layers can be different that the image layout of
the whole image.
This fixes the known synchronization issues inside EEVEE. wasp_bot, tree_creature and
wanderer scenes can be rendered without any synchronization issue reported by the
Vulkan validation layers.
Design task: #124214
When beginning to render the attachments are being evaluated. If there is an arrayed
texture (with multiple layers) the individual layers of that texture can be tracked
during until the rendering is ended.
When the same texture is bound to a shader it will be a different layer (otherwise
there is a feedback loop, which isn't allowed). The bound layers will typically need
a different layout the transition to the new layout is executed and recorded. When
the rendering ends, the layers are transitioned back to the layout the texture is
expected in.
It can happen that a layer is used multiple times during the same rendering. In
that case the rendering should be suspended to perform the transition. Image layout
transitions are not allowed during rendering.
There is one place where a layer needs to be transited multiple times that is when
EEVEE wants to extract the thickness from the shadow. The thickness is stored inside
the gbuffer_normal which is also used as an attachment. Eval then samples the thickness
from the gbuffer_normal as a sampler. To work around this issue we suspend the rendering
when a `GPU_BARRIER_SHADER_IMAGE_ACCESS` is signaled.
Pull Request: https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/pulls/124407
Vulkan backend has recently switched to a render graph approach. Many
code was left so we could develop the render graph beside the previous
implementation. Last week we removed the switch. This PR will remove
most of the unused code. There might be some left and will be removed
when detected.
Pull Request: https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/pulls/123422
When building the resource access used when adding dispatch/draw commands
to the render graph, the access mask is required. This PR stores the
access mask in the shader interface. When binding the resources referenced
by the state manager, the resource access info struct is populated with
the access flags.
In the near future the resource access info will be passed when adding
a dispatch/draw node to the render graph to generate the links.
Pull Request: https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/pulls/120908
f2ae04db10 introduces missing binding
tracking for SSBO and UBOs. Vulkan relies on validation layers to
report on missing bindings, but the binding information should still
be cleared in the context state manager.
Pull Request: https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/pulls/120814
Until now the Vulkan backend supported a single pre-configured sampler.
This PR realizes creation, caching and freeing of samplers based on what
is required by the state manager.
The implementation is similar to OpenGL or Metal. This fixes many issues
including:
- Textures in workbench and eevee use the correct extend and filtering
- Custom icons render correctly
- Depth sampling issues
- Removes artifacts using EEVEE world shader, lighting and indirect lighting.
Pull Request: https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/pulls/114827
Goal is to reduce the number of command buffer flushes by tracking what is
happening in the different command queues. This is an initial step towards
advanced queue-ing strategies.
The new (intermediate) strategy records commands to different command
buffers based on what they do. There is a command buffer for data transfers,
compute pipelines and graphics pipelines.
When a compute command is recorded it ensures that all graphic commands
are finished. When a graphic command is recorded it ensures all compute
commands are finished. When a graphic or compute command is scheduled
all recorded data transfer commands are scheduled as well.
Some improvements are expected as multiple compute and data transfers
commands can now be scheduled at the same time and don't need to unbind
and rebind render passes. Especially when using EEVEE-Next which is
compute centric the performance change is visible for the user.
Pull Request: https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/pulls/114104
Listing the "Blender Foundation" as copyright holder implied the Blender
Foundation holds copyright to files which may include work from many
developers.
While keeping copyright on headers makes sense for isolated libraries,
Blender's own code may be refactored or moved between files in a way
that makes the per file copyright holders less meaningful.
Copyright references to the "Blender Foundation" have been replaced with
"Blender Authors", with the exception of `./extern/` since these this
contains libraries which are more isolated, any changed to license
headers there can be handled on a case-by-case basis.
Some directories in `./intern/` have also been excluded:
- `./intern/cycles/` it's own `AUTHORS` file is planned.
- `./intern/opensubdiv/`.
An "AUTHORS" file has been added, using the chromium projects authors
file as a template.
Design task: #110784
Ref !110783.
The current Vulkan resource management has some issues as context that
are not active can still use resources that are freed via another
context.
When this happens incorrect data can be read on the GPU and even crash
Blender. When trying to bind something that now contains other memory
pointers.
This change introduces that contexts are tracked via the device.
Context will be registered/unregistered with the device instance.
Unbinding of resources must pass the device and the device will check
all registered contexts. Binding of resources will happen via the active
context only.
On user perspective this now allowes:
- Opening/switching files
- Switching workspaces
- Switching render engines
Pull Request: https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/pulls/108968
A lot of files were missing copyright field in the header and
the Blender Foundation contributed to them in a sense of bug
fixing and general maintenance.
This change makes it explicit that those files are at least
partially copyrighted by the Blender Foundation.
Note that this does not make it so the Blender Foundation is
the only holder of the copyright in those files, and developers
who do not have a signed contract with the foundation still
hold the copyright as well.
Another aspect of this change is using SPDX format for the
header. We already used it for the license specification,
and now we state it for the copyright as well, following the
FAQ:
https://reuse.software/faq/
Initial graphic pipeline targeting. The goal of this PR is to have an initial
graphics pipeline with missing features. It should help identifying
areas that requires engineering.
Current state is that developers of the GPU module can help with the many
smaller pieces that needs to be engineered in order to get it working. It is not
intended for users or developers from other modules, but your welcome to learn
and give feedback on the code and engineering part.
We do expect that large parts of the code still needs to be re-engineered into
a more future-proof implementation.
**Some highlights**:
- In Vulkan the state is kept in the pipeline. Therefore the state is tracked
per pipeline. In the near future this could be used as a cache. More research
is needed against the default pipeline cache that vulkan already provides.
- This PR is based on the work that Kazashi Yoshioka already did. And include
work from him in the next areas
- Vertex attributes
- Vertex data conversions
- Pipeline state
- Immediate support working.
- This PR modifies the VKCommandBuffer to keep track of the framebuffer and its
binding state(render pass). Some Vulkan commands require no render pass to be
active, other require a render pass. As the order of our commands on API level
can not be separated this PR introduces a state engine to keep track of the
current state and desired state. This is a temporary solution, the final
solution will be proposed when we have a pixel on the screen. At that time
I expect that we can design a command encoder that supports all the cases
we need.
**Notices**:
- This branch works on NVIDIA GPUs and has been validated on a Linux system. AMD
is known not to work (stalls) and Intel GPUs have not been tested at all. Windows might work
but hasn't been validated yet.
- The graphics pipeline is implemented with pixels in mind, not with performance. Currently
when a draw call is scheduled it is flushed and waited until it is finished drawing, before
other draw calls can be scheduled. We expected the performance to be worse that it actually
is, but we expect huge performance gains in the future.
- Any advanced drawing (that is used by the image editor, compositor or 3d viewport) isn't
implemented and might crash when used.
- Using multiple windows or resizing of window isn't supported and will stall the system.
Pull Request: https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/pulls/106224
This PR adds support for `GPU_unpack_row_length_set` to the vulkan
backend.
Texture unpacking is used when uploading a part of a texture from
host memory to device memory.
Pull Request: https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/pulls/107360
This patch refactors the texture samples code by mainly splitting the
eGPUSamplerState enum into multiple smaller enums and packing them
inside a GPUSamplerState struct. This was done because many members of
the enum were mutually exclusive, which was worked around during setting
up the samplers in the various backends, and additionally made the API
confusing, like the GPU_texture_wrap_mode function, which had two
mutually exclusive parameters.
The new structure also improved and clarified the backend sampler cache,
reducing the cache size from 514 samplers to just 130 samplers, which
also slightly improved the initialization time. Further, the
GPU_SAMPLER_MAX signal value was naturally incorporated into the
structure using the GPU_SAMPLER_STATE_TYPE_INTERNAL type.
The only expected functional change is in the realtime compositor, which
now supports per-axis repetition control, utilizing new API functions
for that purpose.
This patch is loosely based on an older patch D14366 by Ethan Hall.
Pull Request: https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/pulls/105642
The goal is to solve confusion of the "All rights reserved" for licensing
code under an open-source license.
The phrase "All rights reserved" comes from a historical convention that
required this phrase for the copyright protection to apply. This convention
is no longer relevant.
However, even though the phrase has no meaning in establishing the copyright
it has not lost meaning in terms of licensing.
This change makes it so code under the Blender Foundation copyright does
not use "all rights reserved". This is also how the GPL license itself
states how to apply it to the source code:
<one line to give the program's name and a brief idea of what it does.>
Copyright (C) <year> <name of author>
This program is free software ...
This change does not change copyright notice in cases when the copyright
is dual (BF and an author), or just an author of the code. It also does
mot change copyright which is inherited from NaN Holding BV as it needs
some further investigation about what is the proper way to handle it.
For example
```
OIIOOutputDriver::~OIIOOutputDriver()
{
}
```
becomes
```
OIIOOutputDriver::~OIIOOutputDriver() {}
```
Saves quite some vertical space, which is especially handy for
constructors.
Pull Request: https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/pulls/105594
This patch adds initial support for compute shaders to
the vulkan backend. As the development is oriented to the test-
cases we have the implementation is limited to what is used there.
It has been validated that with this patch that the following test
cases are running as expected
- `GPUVulkanTest.gpu_shader_compute_vbo`
- `GPUVulkanTest.gpu_shader_compute_ibo`
- `GPUVulkanTest.gpu_shader_compute_ssbo`
- `GPUVulkanTest.gpu_storage_buffer_create_update_read`
- `GPUVulkanTest.gpu_shader_compute_2d`
This patch includes:
- Allocating VkBuffer on device.
- Uploading data from CPU to VkBuffer.
- Binding VkBuffer as SSBO to a compute shader.
- Execute compute shader and altering VkBuffer.
- Download the VkBuffer to CPU ram.
- Validate that it worked.
- Use device only vertex buffer as SSBO
- Use device only index buffer as SSBO
- Use device only image buffers
GHOST API has been changed as the original design was created before
we even had support for compute shaders in blender. The function
`GHOST_getVulkanBackbuffer` has been separated to retrieve the command
buffer without a backbuffer (`GHOST_getVulkanCommandBuffer`). In order
to do correct command buffer processing we needed access to the queue
owned by GHOST. This is returned as part of the `GHOST_getVulkanHandles`
function.
Open topics (not considered part of this patch)
- Memory barriers & command buffer encoding
- Indirect compute dispatching
- Rest of the test cases
- Data conversions when requested data format is different than on device.
- GPUVulkanTest.gpu_shader_compute_1d is supported on AMD devices.
NVIDIA doesn't seem to support 1d textures.
Pull-request: #104518