Pipeline cache objects allow the result of pipeline construction to be reused between pipelines and between runs of an application. Reuse between pipelines is achieved by passing the same pipeline cache object when creating multiple related pipelines. Reuse across runs of an application is achieved by retrieving pipeline cache contents in one run of an application, saving the contents, and using them to preinitialize a pipeline cache on a subsequent run. The contents of the pipeline cache objects are managed by the implementation. Applications can manage the host memory consumed by a pipeline cache object and control the amount of data retrieved from a pipeline cache object.
Pipeline cache objects are represented by VkPipelineCache
handles:
VK_DEFINE_NON_DISPATCHABLE_HANDLE(VkPipelineCache)
To create pipeline cache objects, call:
VkResult vkCreatePipelineCache( VkDevice device, const VkPipelineCacheCreateInfo* pCreateInfo, const VkAllocationCallbacks* pAllocator, VkPipelineCache* pPipelineCache);
device
is the logical device that creates the pipeline cache
object.
pCreateInfo
is a pointer to a VkPipelineCacheCreateInfo
structure that contains the initial parameters for the pipeline cache
object.
pAllocator
controls host memory allocation as described in the
Memory Allocation chapter.
pPipelineCache
is a pointer to a VkPipelineCache
handle in
which the resulting pipeline cache object is returned.
![]() | Note |
---|---|
Applications can track and manage the total host memory size of a pipeline
cache object using the |
Once created, a pipeline cache can be passed to the
vkCreateGraphicsPipelines
and vkCreateComputePipelines
commands.
If the pipeline cache passed into these commands is not
VK_NULL_HANDLE
, the implementation will query it for possible reuse
opportunities and update it with new content. The use of the pipeline cache
object in these commands is internally synchronized, and the same pipeline
cache object can be used in multiple threads simultaneously.
![]() | Note |
---|---|
Implementations should make every effort to limit any critical sections
to the actual accesses to the cache, which is expected to be significantly
shorter than the duration of the |
The VkPipelineCacheCreateInfo
structure is defined as:
typedef struct VkPipelineCacheCreateInfo { VkStructureType sType; const void* pNext; VkPipelineCacheCreateFlags flags; size_t initialDataSize; const void* pInitialData; } VkPipelineCacheCreateInfo;
sType
is the type of this structure.
pNext
is NULL
or a pointer to an extension-specific structure.
flags
is reserved for future use.
initialDataSize
is the number of bytes in pInitialData
. If
initialDataSize
is zero, the pipeline cache will initially be
empty.
pInitialData
is a pointer to previously retrieved pipeline
cache data. If the pipeline cache data is incompatible (as defined
below) with the device, the pipeline cache will be initially empty. If
initialDataSize
is zero, pInitialData
is ignored.
Pipeline cache objects can be merged using the command:
VkResult vkMergePipelineCaches( VkDevice device, VkPipelineCache dstCache, uint32_t srcCacheCount, const VkPipelineCache* pSrcCaches);
device
is the logical device that owns the pipeline cache objects.
dstCache
is the handle of the pipeline cache to merge results
into.
srcCacheCount
is the length of the pSrcCaches
array.
pSrcCaches
is an array of pipeline cache handles, which will be
merged into dstCache
. The previous contents of dstCache
are
included after the merge.
![]() | Note |
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The details of the merge operation are implementation dependent, but implementations should merge the contents of the specified pipelines and prune duplicate entries. |
Data can be retrieved from a pipeline cache object using the command:
VkResult vkGetPipelineCacheData( VkDevice device, VkPipelineCache pipelineCache, size_t* pDataSize, void* pData);
device
is the logical device that owns the pipeline cache.
pipelineCache
is the pipeline cache to retrieve data from.
pDataSize
is a pointer to a value related to the amount of data in
the pipeline cache, as described below.
pData
is either NULL
or a pointer to a buffer.
If pData
is NULL
, then the maximum size of the data that can be
retrieved from the pipeline cache, in bytes, is returned in pDataSize
.
Otherwise, pDataSize
must point to a variable set by the user to the
size of the buffer, in bytes, pointed to by pData
, and on return the
variable is overwritten with the amount of data actually written to
pData
.
If pDataSize
is less than the maximum size that can be
retrieved by the pipeline cache, at most pDataSize
bytes will be
written to pData
, and vkGetPipelineCacheData
will return
VK_INCOMPLETE
. Any data written to pData
is valid and can be
provided as the pInitialData
member of the
VkPipelineCacheCreateInfo
structure passed to
vkCreatePipelineCache
.
Applications can store the data retrieved from the pipeline cache, and use
these data, possibly in a future run of the application, to populate new
pipeline cache objects. The results of pipeline compiles, however,
may depend on the vendor ID, device ID, driver version, and other details
of the device. To enable applications to detect when previously retrieved
data is incompatible with the device, the initial bytes written to
pData
must be a header consisting of the following members:
Table 9.1. Layout for pipeline cache header version VK_PIPELINE_CACHE_HEADER_VERSION_ONE
Offset | Size | Meaning |
---|---|---|
0 | 4 | length in bytes of the entire pipeline cache header written as a stream of bytes, with the least significant byte first |
4 | 4 | a |
8 | 4 | a vendor ID equal to
|
12 | 4 | a device ID equal to
|
16 |
| a pipeline cache ID equal to
|
The first four bytes encode the length of the entire pipeline header, in bytes. This value includes all fields in the header including the pipeline cache version field and the size of the length field.
The next four bytes encode the pipeline cache version. This field is
interpreted as a VkPipelineCacheHeaderVersion
value, and must
have one of the following values:
typedef enum VkPipelineCacheHeaderVersion { VK_PIPELINE_CACHE_HEADER_VERSION_ONE = 1, } VkPipelineCacheHeaderVersion;
A consumer of the pipeline cache should use the cache version to interpret the remainder of the cache header.
If pDataSize
is less than what is necessary to store this
header, nothing will be written to pData
and zero will be written to
pDataSize
.
To destroy a pipeline cache, call:
void vkDestroyPipelineCache( VkDevice device, VkPipelineCache pipelineCache, const VkAllocationCallbacks* pAllocator);
device
is the logical device that destroys the pipeline cache
object.
pipelineCache
is the handle of the pipeline cache to destroy.
pAllocator
controls host memory allocation as described in the
Memory Allocation chapter.