BuildTLAS rebuilt the host instance+metadata buffers with an O(n) copy of
every 64 B VkAccelerationStructureInstanceKHR + metadata entry every frame,
unconditionally, then flushed the whole high-water capacity (VK_WHOLE_SIZE)
on both buffers. At the millions-of-instances target that copy dominates the
CPU frame, and the whole-buffer flush costs on non-coherent BAR/VRAM.
Add a generation counter so only changed host-authored fields are copied, and
feed the same dirty span into the ranged FlushDevice(offset, bytes) overload:
- RenderingElement3D::hostDataVersion + MarkHostDataDirty() (bumps a global
monotonic counter). TlasWithBuffer::uploadedVersion records, per frame, the
version last copied into each slot. A slot is copied only when its element
advanced past the recorded version; version 0 ("untracked") reads dirty every
frame, so callers that don't opt in keep the prior copy-every-frame behaviour.
Globally-unique versions make this correct under relocation (Remove's
swap-and-pop, and remove+add that nets the same count on the refit path)
without tracking element identity. The reset on every topology change covers
buffer reallocation and the reshuffled element->slot mapping.
- The dirty [first, last] envelope drives both the copy and the flush: a new
VulkanBuffer::FlushDevice(cmd, access, stage, offset, bytes) overload flushes
+ barriers just that span for instanceBuffer, and the ranged
FlushDevice(offset, bytes) for metadataBuffer. When nothing is dirty both are
skipped — the skipped HOST->build barrier only ever ordered host writes, never
the application's compute-written GPU-owned transform (that compute->build
ordering is the caller's, and is unchanged).
Constraint honoured: transformOwnedByGpu transforms are still never host-copied.
The API field/method are mirrored on the WebGPU class for source portability
(the WebGPU build re-uploads its small mirror wholesale and ignores the version).
New test TLASInstanceDirtyTracking drives the real RT device and reads back the
host-mapped buffers to assert: tracked elements upload once then skip until
re-marked, untracked elements always upload, and relocation on the refit path
re-uploads exactly the moved slots — with zero validation-layer errors over the
ranged flush.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The TLAS metadata buffer is CPU-written every frame (one userMetadata word
per element in BuildTLAS's copy loop) and read by the ray shaders as a
STORAGE_BUFFER via device address every frame. Allocated
HOST_VISIBLE | HOST_COHERENT (system RAM), every per-frame shader read
traversed PCIe — the same cost the sibling instance buffer paid before #65.
Upgrade the request to HOST_VISIBLE with a best-effort DEVICE_LOCAL preference
(BAR/VRAM), keeping the single persistently-mapped buffer. The CPU's writes are
write-only, sequential, never-read-back — the ideal write-combined BAR load —
and the shader reads now hit local VRAM.
Unlike the instance buffer there is no GPU co-write, so the direct upgrade is
unconditional. Staging is still deliberately avoided: this buffer is rewritten
by the CPU every frame, so a per-frame stage+copy+barrier would defeat the
purpose (#75 caveat 2).
Correctness:
- DEVICE_LOCAL is a preference only (depends on #59): GetMemoryType falls back
to plain HOST_VISIBLE (the previous behaviour) on GPUs without resizable BAR.
- HOST_COHERENT is dropped from the required set — the combined type may not be
coherent. A FlushDevice() is added after the copy loop to make the host writes
available on a non-coherent type; it self-gates to a no-op on a coherent type
(#60), so the previous behaviour is preserved wherever the type ends up
coherent. The metadata buffer is not an AS build input and has no GPU
co-write, so it needs neither the build-stage barrier the instance buffer
takes nor a HOST->shader command barrier: the queue submit already orders host
writes made available before it against every command in the submission,
exactly as it did when this buffer was HOST_COHERENT.
Extends the TLASHighWaterMark hardware test with a metadata-buffer assertion
block mirroring #65's instance-buffer check: the chosen memory type must equal
what GetMemoryType resolves for the HOST_VISIBLE | prefer-DEVICE_LOCAL request,
and must be DEVICE_LOCAL wherever a host-visible device-local type is reachable.
The zero-validation-errors check covers the dropped HOST_COHERENT path.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The TLAS instance buffer is rebuilt/refit every frame and is co-written by
both the CPU (host-authored fields) and the GPU (the compute shader writes
the transform field in place for transformOwnedByGpu elements). Allocated
HOST_VISIBLE | HOST_COHERENT (system RAM), both GPU accesses crossed PCIe:
the compute write of the transform, and the AS build's read of the instances.
Upgrade the request to HOST_VISIBLE with a best-effort DEVICE_LOCAL preference
(BAR/VRAM), keeping the single shared, persistently-mapped buffer — no staging,
no copy, no extra barrier. A whole-buffer staging copy was rejected: it would
clobber the GPU-written transforms in this in-place co-write design. Now the
compute write and AS build stay in local VRAM; the CPU's write-only,
sequential, never-read-back field writes are the ideal write-combined BAR load.
Correctness:
- DEVICE_LOCAL is a preference only (depends on #59): GetMemoryType falls back
to plain HOST_VISIBLE (the previous behaviour) on GPUs without resizable BAR.
- HOST_COHERENT is dropped from the required set — the combined type may not be
coherent. The existing FlushDevice(cmd, ...) already establishes host->build
visibility and gates its flush-skip on the *chosen* type's flags (#60), so a
non-coherent BAR type still flushes correctly. The barrier is never removed.
metadataBuffer gets the same upgrade separately (#75).
Extends the TLASHighWaterMark hardware test to assert the chosen memory type
matches the HOST_VISIBLE | prefer-DEVICE_LOCAL request and lands on a
DEVICE_LOCAL type where one is reachable; the existing zero-validation-errors
check covers the dropped HOST_COHERENT path.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
BuildTLAS reallocated the host-visible instanceBuffer and metadataBuffer
on every topology change. They only ever need to hold at least
primitiveCount entries (the AS build reads exactly primitiveCount via
tlasRangeInfo, and the copy loop writes [0, primitiveCount)), so a
shrink — or any growth that still fits the previous capacity — can reuse
the existing allocation. Gate the two Resize calls on a high-water-mark
check, removing two of the four reallocations on a count change. The AS
storage + scratch rebuild below is unchanged: it is tied to the AS
itself and dominates this path regardless.
Adds tests/TLASHighWaterMark driving the real hardware AS-build path: it
asserts a shrink (and within-capacity growth) reuses the buffers while a
growth past the high-water reallocates, that builtInstanceCount still
tracks the live count, and that feeding an oversized instance buffer to
the build produces zero Vulkan validation errors.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
