Vulkan 1 3 214 Released Adds Brand New Amd Vendor Extension To Further Improve Ray Tracing

Vulkan 1.3.214 releases to fix numerous errors and add new Ray Tracing extensions for AMD vendors

The new Vulkan update is not a significant change compared to the previous 1.3.213 update but does offer more solved corrections and adds an AMD vendor extension — VK_AMD_shader_early_and_late_fragment_tests. The new Vulkan extension adds SPIR-V SPV_AMD_shader_early_and_late_fragment_tests extension, allowing graphics shaders to opt in to offer early and late fragment tests. This testing is also only provided through AMD. While the SPIR-V SPV_AMD_shader_early_and_late_fragment_tests extension is still waiting for the SPIR-V Registry to approve, it is also an extension created by AMD engineer Tobias Hector that will allow for early and late fragment tests, depending on the situation. Also included in the extension is the ability to add execution modes that will explain the value written by the shader stencil. While this is a minimal update to Vulkan, we have provided the full details below for the commit published. If you want more information, you can also find those details on the official GitHub commit. News Source: Phoronix Public Issues:

• Clarify protected queue creation language for slink:VkDeviceCreateInfo,slink:VkDeviceQueueCreateInfo,slink:VkDeviceQueueGlobalPriorityCreateInfoKHR, andslink:VkDeviceQueueInfo2 (public issue 1761, internal issue 2978).* Add valid usage statements for usage and format features bits forresolve image commands (public pull request 1826).* Add apiext:VK_KHR_depth_stencil_resolve dependency toapiext:VK_KHR_dynamic_rendering (public pull request 1831).* Make some missing API dependencies explicit in XML (public issue 1840).* Mark slink:VkSubresourceLayout2EXT as returnedonly in XML (public pullrequest 1848).* Replace manual links in VK_KHR_ray_tracing_maintenance1 appendix (publicpull request 1849).* Add valid usage statement for pname:pipelinePropertiesIdentifierfeature, and change a valid usage statement to refer to thepname:imageCompressionControlSwapchain feature rather than the relatedextension (public pull request 1852). Internal Issues:
• Fix description of parameters defined byapiext:VK_EXT_depth_clip_control for slink:VkViewport (internal issue3044)* Add valid usage statements to slink:VkGraphicsPipelineCreateInfo banninggraphics pipeline libraries having descriptors for other libraries(internal issue 3080).* Add valid usage statements to slink:VkGraphicsPipelineCreateInfo andflink:vkCmdBindDescriptorSets allowing NULL set layouts withnon-independent sets (internal issue 3082).* Set noautovalidity attribute in XML forflink:vkGetPipelinePropertiesEXT::pname:pPipelineProperties (internalissue 3088).* Update apiext:VK_NV_device_diagnostics_config to add a new config bit(internal merge request 5160).* Clarify unsupported conservative point/line rasterization inslink:VkPipelineRasterizationConservativeStateCreateInfoEXT and in validusage statements for slink:VkGraphicsPipelineCreateInfo (internal mergerequest 5169).* Add missing limittype attributes to XML forslink:VkQueueFamilyProperties* and slink:VkFormatProperties* members(internal merge requests 5171 and 5175).* Improve XML limittype attribute ofslink:VkPhysicalDeviceFragmentShadingRatePropertiesKHR::pname:maxFragmentShadingRateCoverageSamplesfor tool chain usage (internal merge request 5177).* Change description of slink:VkPipelineLayoutCreateInfo::pname:flags nowthat there are flag bits reserved for the underlying type (internalmerge request 5180).* Fix typos in slink:VkGraphicsPipelineCreateInfo valid usage statements(internal merge request 5191).* Move attribute settings used in commonvalidity includes inside validusage blocks to generate correct validusage.json text (internal mergerequest 5195). New Extensions:
• apiext:VK_AMD_shader_early_and_late_fragment_tests