## 28.2. Sparse Buffers and Fully-Resident Images

Both `VkBuffer` and `VkImage` objects created with the `VK_IMAGE_CREATE_SPARSE_BINDING_BIT` or `VK_BUFFER_CREATE_SPARSE_BINDING_BIT` bits can be thought of as a linear region of address space. In the `VkImage` case if `VK_IMAGE_CREATE_SPARSE_RESIDENCY_BIT` is not used, this linear region is entirely opaque, meaning that there is no application-visible mapping between pixel location and memory offset.

Unless `VK_IMAGE_CREATE_SPARSE_RESIDENCY_BIT` or `VK_BUFFER_CREATE_SPARSE_RESIDENCY_BIT` are also used, the entire resource must be bound to one or more `VkDeviceMemory` objects before use.

### 28.2.1. Sparse Buffer and Fully-Resident Image Block Size

The sparse block size in bytes for sparse buffers and fully-resident images is reported as `VkMemoryRequirements`::`alignment`. `alignment` represents both the memory alignment requirement and the binding granularity (in bytes) for sparse resources.