VK_EXT_pipeline_library_group_handles(3)

# VK_EXT_pipeline_library_group_handles(3) Manual Page

## Name

VK_EXT_pipeline_library_group_handles - device extension

## Registered Extension Number

499

## Revision

1

## Ratification Status

Ratified

## Extension and Version Dependencies

VK_KHR_ray_tracing_pipeline
and
VK_KHR_pipeline_library

## Contact

- Hans-Kristian Arntzen [GitHub]HansKristian-Work

## Extension Proposal

VK_EXT_pipeline_library_group_handles

## Other Extension Metadata

Last Modified Date

  2023-01-25

IP Status

  No known IP claims.

Contributors

  - Hans-Kristian Arntzen, Valve

  - Stuart Smith, AMD

  - Ricardo Garcia, Igalia

  - Lionel Landwerlin, Intel

  - Eric Werness, NVIDIA

  - Daniel Koch, NVIDIA

## Description

When using pipeline libraries in ray tracing pipelines, a library might get linked into different pipelines in an incremental way. An application can have a strategy where a ray tracing pipeline is comprised of N pipeline libraries and is later augmented by creating a new pipeline with N + 1 libraries. Without this extension, all group handles must be re-queried as the group handle is tied to the pipeline, not the library. This is problematic for applications which aim to decouple construction of record buffers and the linkage of ray tracing pipelines.

To aid in this, this extension enables support for querying group handles directly from pipeline libraries. Group handles obtained from a library must remain bitwise identical in any `VkPipeline` that links to the library.

With this feature, the extension also improves compatibility with DXR 1.1 AddToStateObject(), which guarantees that group handles returned remain bitwise identical between parent and child pipelines. In addition, querying group handles from COLLECTION objects is also supported with that API.

## New Structures

- Extending VkPhysicalDeviceFeatures2, VkDeviceCreateInfo:

  - VkPhysicalDevicePipelineLibraryGroupHandlesFeaturesEXT

## New Enum Constants

- `VK_EXT_PIPELINE_LIBRARY_GROUP_HANDLES_EXTENSION_NAME`

- `VK_EXT_PIPELINE_LIBRARY_GROUP_HANDLES_SPEC_VERSION`

- Extending VkStructureType:

  - VK_STRUCTURE_TYPE_PHYSICAL_DEVICE_PIPELINE_LIBRARY_GROUP_HANDLES_FEATURES_EXT

## Version History

- Revision 1, 2023-01-25 (Hans-Kristian Arntzen)

  - Initial draft

## See Also

No cross-references are available

## Document Notes

For more information, see the Vulkan Specification.

This page is a generated document. Fixes and changes should be made to the generator scripts, not directly.

## Copyright

Copyright 2014-2026 The Khronos Group Inc.

SPDX-License-Identifier: CC-BY-4.0