C Specification

The VkDescriptorSetLayoutBinding structure is defined as:

// Provided by VK_VERSION_1_0
typedef struct VkDescriptorSetLayoutBinding {
    uint32_t              binding;
    VkDescriptorType      descriptorType;
    uint32_t              descriptorCount;
    VkShaderStageFlags    stageFlags;
    const VkSampler*      pImmutableSamplers;
} VkDescriptorSetLayoutBinding;

Members

  • binding is the binding number of this entry and corresponds to a resource of the same binding number in the shader stages.

  • descriptorType is a VkDescriptorType specifying which type of resource descriptors are used for this binding.

  • descriptorCount is the number of descriptors contained in the binding, accessed in a shader as an array, except if descriptorType is VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_INLINE_UNIFORM_BLOCK in which case descriptorCount is the size in bytes of the inline uniform block. If descriptorCount is zero this binding entry is reserved and the resource must not be accessed from any stage via this binding within any pipeline using the set layout.

  • stageFlags member is a bitmask of VkShaderStageFlagBits specifying which pipeline shader stages can access a resource for this binding. VK_SHADER_STAGE_ALL is a shorthand specifying that all defined shader stages, including any additional stages defined by extensions, can access the resource.

    If a shader stage is not included in stageFlags, then a resource must not be accessed from that stage via this binding within any pipeline using the set layout. Other than input attachments which are limited to the fragment shader, there are no limitations on what combinations of stages can use a descriptor binding, and in particular a binding can be used by both graphics stages and the compute stage.

  • pImmutableSamplers affects initialization of samplers. If descriptorType specifies a VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_SAMPLER or VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_COMBINED_IMAGE_SAMPLER type descriptor, then pImmutableSamplers can be used to initialize a set of immutable samplers. Immutable samplers are permanently bound into the set layout and must not be changed; updating a VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_SAMPLER descriptor with immutable samplers is not allowed and updates to a VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_COMBINED_IMAGE_SAMPLER descriptor with immutable samplers does not modify the samplers (the image views are updated, but the sampler updates are ignored). If pImmutableSamplers is not NULL, then it is a pointer to an array of sampler handles that will be copied into the set layout and used for the corresponding binding. Only the sampler handles are copied; the sampler objects must not be destroyed before the final use of the set layout and any descriptor pools and sets created using it. If pImmutableSamplers is NULL, then the sampler slots are dynamic and sampler handles must be bound into descriptor sets using this layout. If descriptorType is not one of these descriptor types, then pImmutableSamplers is ignored.

Description

The above layout definition allows the descriptor bindings to be specified sparsely such that not all binding numbers between 0 and the maximum binding number need to be specified in the pBindings array. Bindings that are not specified have a descriptorCount and stageFlags of zero, and the value of descriptorType is undefined. However, all binding numbers between 0 and the maximum binding number in the VkDescriptorSetLayoutCreateInfo::pBindings array may consume memory in the descriptor set layout even if not all descriptor bindings are used, though it should not consume additional memory from the descriptor pool.

Note

The maximum binding number specified should be as compact as possible to avoid wasted memory.

Valid Usage
  • VUID-VkDescriptorSetLayoutBinding-descriptorType-00282
    If descriptorType is VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_SAMPLER or VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_COMBINED_IMAGE_SAMPLER, and descriptorCount is not 0 and pImmutableSamplers is not NULL, pImmutableSamplers must be a valid pointer to an array of descriptorCount valid VkSampler handles

  • VUID-VkDescriptorSetLayoutBinding-descriptorType-04604
    If the inlineUniformBlock feature is not enabled, descriptorType must not be VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_INLINE_UNIFORM_BLOCK

  • VUID-VkDescriptorSetLayoutBinding-descriptorType-02209
    If descriptorType is VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_INLINE_UNIFORM_BLOCK then descriptorCount must be a multiple of 4

  • VUID-VkDescriptorSetLayoutBinding-descriptorType-08004
    If descriptorType is VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_INLINE_UNIFORM_BLOCK and VkDescriptorSetLayoutCreateInfo::flags does not contain VK_DESCRIPTOR_SET_LAYOUT_CREATE_DESCRIPTOR_BUFFER_BIT_EXT then descriptorCount must be less than or equal to VkPhysicalDeviceInlineUniformBlockProperties::maxInlineUniformBlockSize

  • VUID-VkDescriptorSetLayoutBinding-flags-08005
    If VkDescriptorSetLayoutCreateInfo::flags contains VK_DESCRIPTOR_SET_LAYOUT_CREATE_EMBEDDED_IMMUTABLE_SAMPLERS_BIT_EXT, descriptorType must be VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_SAMPLER

  • VUID-VkDescriptorSetLayoutBinding-flags-08006
    If VkDescriptorSetLayoutCreateInfo::flags contains VK_DESCRIPTOR_SET_LAYOUT_CREATE_EMBEDDED_IMMUTABLE_SAMPLERS_BIT_EXT, descriptorCount must less than or equal to 1

  • VUID-VkDescriptorSetLayoutBinding-flags-08007
    If VkDescriptorSetLayoutCreateInfo::flags contains VK_DESCRIPTOR_SET_LAYOUT_CREATE_EMBEDDED_IMMUTABLE_SAMPLERS_BIT_EXT, and descriptorCount is equal to 1, pImmutableSamplers must not be NULL

  • VUID-VkDescriptorSetLayoutBinding-descriptorCount-09465
    If descriptorCount is not 0, stageFlags must be VK_SHADER_STAGE_ALL or a valid combination of other VkShaderStageFlagBits values

  • VUID-VkDescriptorSetLayoutBinding-descriptorType-01510
    If descriptorType is VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_INPUT_ATTACHMENT and descriptorCount is not 0, then stageFlags must be 0 or VK_SHADER_STAGE_FRAGMENT_BIT

  • VUID-VkDescriptorSetLayoutBinding-pImmutableSamplers-04009
    The sampler objects indicated by pImmutableSamplers must not have a borderColor with one of the values VK_BORDER_COLOR_FLOAT_CUSTOM_EXT or VK_BORDER_COLOR_INT_CUSTOM_EXT

  • VUID-VkDescriptorSetLayoutBinding-descriptorType-04605
    If descriptorType is VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_MUTABLE_EXT, then pImmutableSamplers must be NULL

  • VUID-VkDescriptorSetLayoutBinding-flags-09466
    If VkDescriptorSetLayoutCreateInfo::flags contains VK_DESCRIPTOR_SET_LAYOUT_CREATE_PER_STAGE_BIT_NV, and descriptorCount is not 0, then stageFlags must be a valid combination of VK_SHADER_STAGE_VERTEX_BIT, VK_SHADER_STAGE_TESSELLATION_CONTROL_BIT, VK_SHADER_STAGE_TESSELLATION_EVALUATION_BIT, VK_SHADER_STAGE_GEOMETRY_BIT, VK_SHADER_STAGE_FRAGMENT_BIT and VK_SHADER_STAGE_COMPUTE_BIT values

Valid Usage (Implicit)
  • VUID-VkDescriptorSetLayoutBinding-descriptorType-parameter
    descriptorType must be a valid VkDescriptorType value

See Also

Document Notes

For more information, see the Vulkan Specification

This page is extracted from the Vulkan Specification. Fixes and changes should be made to the Specification, not directly.

Copyright 2014-2024 The Khronos Group Inc.

SPDX-License-Identifier: CC-BY-4.0