Vulkan 1.2.191 Released With New Extension To Make Wiser Memory Decisions

Vulkan 1.2.191 is out this morning as the latest update to this graphics/compute API. As usual is a variety of bug fixes / clarifications to the specification while this time around is also one new extension.

VK_EXT_pageable_device_local_memory is the new extension to Vulkan 1.2.191. The VK_EXT_pageable_device_local_memory extension allows for indicating to the application that the operating system supports pageable device local memory, in order for the application or game engine to make wiser decisions around memory management.

Additionally, the VK_EXT_pageable_device_local_memory extension adds a new function to set the device memory priority. This new function can be used for dynamically adjusting the priority of existing memory allocations so that the operating systems / driver can use it when determining what memory to potentially page out.

This new extension was worked on by several NVIDIA engineers along with Valve's Hans-Kristian Arntzen known for his VKD3D work, id Software developers, and also AMD.

The updated specification can be viewed at Vulkan.org.

LunarG this weekend also released the latest Vulkan SDK update with the latest goodies there for developers.