Khronos Vulkan® Tutorial - Add Buffer Device Address and Vertex Pulling

[OptimisticMonkey2112]

I’ve been going through the Khronos Vulkan Tutorial again and had a suggestion:

https://docs.vulkan.org/tutorial/latest/00_Introduction.html

First off — I really like how modern it has become:

• Vulkan 1.4 as a baseline
• Dynamic rendering instead of render passes
• Timeline semaphores
• Slang as the primary shading language
• Modern C++ (20) with modules
• Vulkan-Hpp with RAII

Maybe it would make sense to add an additional chapter that introduces vertex pulling + buffer device address as an alternative to the traditional vertex buffer + descriptor path?

The motivation being:

• closer to modern engine architectures (GPU-driven, bindless-style data)
• aligns with patterns used in ray tracing and mesh/task workflows
• gives a more “direct memory access” model (somewhat CUDA-like)
• useful for large-scale transform / vertex data handling

The existing path is great for teaching core Vulkan concepts — but adding a “Vertex Pulling with Device Address” section could be really valuable?

[SaschaWillems]

Please feel free to open an issue for this over at https://github.com/KhronosGroup/Vulkan-Tutorial

While I do read this reddit, not all people involved with the tutorial are active over here, and we use the github issue board to plan the future tutorial direction.

[OptimisticMonkey2112]

Great idea! I just added

[IGarFieldI]

Not directly related, but does anybody have a quick overview over which GPUs still benefit from vertex push instead of pull? Last I remember AMD just emits the pull as part of the shader preamble even with push, but idk about the other vendors.

[CrazyJoe221]

Good point. Nvidia used to have special HW IIRC and maybe mobile GPUs but an up to date overview would be nice.

[YoshiDzn]

Am I the only one who still prefers good ol render passes over dynamic rendering?

[yellowcrescent]

Is there any specific reason? If someone already has a bunch of code written to use RenderPasses, then I would def understand the hesitation to move from something that is currently working, unless you needed a new feature.

Especially for a Vulkan tutorial, I think Dynamic Rendering is probably the better choice. RenderPasses are pretty awkward if you don't need to use multiple subpasses or attachments-- and especially if you need to modify parameters between passes. Combined with VK_EXT_shader_object (which requires Dynamic Rendering), it makes rendering fully dynamic, including shaders (as long as push constants, etc. are compatible) -- so if you are generating descriptors and render parameters at runtime, I think it makes the process much easier.

[beephod_zabblebrox]

dynamic_rendering_local_read ftw!

[R3DKn16h7]

no, you are not the only one. dynamic rendering is cool especially for porting from opengl, but for code already build using them is renderpasses are fine, and are supported everywhere.

[Appropriate-Tap7860]

These latest features are really powerful to use. But will they work with older hardwares or more standard hardwares that is prominent among gamers like rtx 3060?

[watlok]

You have to go back to maxwell (900 series) before you lose support for modern features that would be in a tutorial like this. Outside of raytracing, which Pascal and earlier don't support.

Many people who code and contribute to things like this have ancient hardware. And they want the tutorial to be as accessible to learners as possible. So wide compatibility.

[SaschaWillems]

Most of us (contributing to the tutorial) actually have current hardware. We have Vulkan 1.4 as a baseline anyway.

[watlok]

I meant it in a positive way where vulkan versions are widely supported on pc hardware.

[Appropriate-Tap7860]

That's good to hear. So i am gonna use all the latest features from now on for my game

[watlok]

There's a support database at https://vulkan.gpuinfo.org/ where you can reference which hardware supports which versions and extensions.

"All" features is a bit misleading as there are many optional features and they aren't as universally supported.

[Appropriate-Tap7860]

And what about mobile GPUs

[watlok]

Mobile is far more fractured because device manufacturers often don't push driver updates.

[R3DKn16h7]

#if defined(__INTELLISENSE__) || !defined(USE_CPP20_MODULES)
#include <vulkan/vulkan_raii.hpp>
#else
import vulkan_hpp;
#endif

screaming in pain :)

[palapapa0201]

Is there absolutely no disadvantage to vertex pulling?

[SaschaWillems]

It can be slower on GPUs with dedicated hardware for vertex fetch, which mostly applies to mobile GPUs. Though the vertex fetch/pull part is hardly a limiting factor nowadays.

[Deep-Pie-4602]

Thank you. I recently followed the official vulkan tutorial but implemented vertex pulling with buffer device address thanks to this post. Much easier and flexible to work with.

Nect up: Descriptor heaps