Crate gfx

gfx

An efficient, low-level, bindless graphics API for Rust.

Overview

Command buffers and encoders

A command buffer is a serialized list of drawing and compute commands. Unlike with vulkan, command buffers are not what you use to create commands, but only the result of creating these commands. Gfx, borrowing metal’s terminology, uses encoders to build command buffers. This means that, in general, users of the gfx crate don’t manipulate command buffers directly much and interact mostly with encoders.

Manipulating an Encoder in gfx corresponds to interacting with:

• a VkCommandBuffer in vulkan,
• a MTLCommandEncoder in metal,
• an ID3D12GraphicsCommandList in D3D12.

OpenGL and earlier versions of D3D don’t have an explicit notion of command buffers or encoders (with the exception of draw indirect commands in late versions of OpenGL, which can be seen as a GPU-side command buffer). They are managed implicitly by the driver.

See:

• The Encoder struct documentation.
• The Command buffer trait documentation.

Factory

The factory is what lets you allocate GPU resources such as buffers and textures.

Each gfx backend provides its own factory type which implements both:

• The Factory trait.
• The FactoryExt trait.

gfx::Factory is roughly equivalent to:

• VkDevice in vulkan,
• ID3D11Device in D3D11,
• MTLDevice in metal.

OpenGL does not have a notion of factory (resources are created directly off of the global context). D3D11 has a DXGI factory but it is only used to interface with other processes and the window manager, resources like textures are usually created using the device.

Device

See the gfx::Device trait.

Pipeline state (PSO)

See the documentation of the gfx::pso module.

Memory management

Handles internally use atomically reference counted pointers to deal with memory management. GPU resources are not destroyed right away when all references to them are gone. Instead they are destroyed the next time Device::cleanup is called.

Examples

See the examples in the repository.

Useful resources

• Documentation for some of the technical terms used in the API.
• Learning gfx tutorial.
• See the blog for more explanations and annotated examples.

Re-exports

pub use pso::PipelineState;

pub use pso::buffer::VertexBuffer;

pub use pso::buffer::InstanceBuffer;

pub use pso::buffer::RawVertexBuffer;

pub use pso::buffer::ConstantBuffer;

pub use pso::buffer::RawConstantBuffer;

pub use pso::buffer::Global;

pub use pso::buffer::RawGlobal;

pub use pso::resource::ShaderResource;

pub use pso::resource::RawShaderResource;

pub use pso::resource::UnorderedAccess;

pub use pso::resource::Sampler;

pub use pso::resource::TextureSampler;

pub use pso::target::DepthStencilTarget;

pub use pso::target::DepthTarget;

pub use pso::target::StencilTarget;

pub use pso::target::RenderTarget;

pub use pso::target::RawRenderTarget;

pub use pso::target::BlendTarget;

pub use pso::target::BlendRef;

pub use pso::target::Scissor;

pub use pso::bundle::Bundle;

Modules

buffer	Memory buffers
format	Universal format specification. Applicable to textures, views, and vertex buffers.
handle	Resource handles
macros	Convenience macros Various helper macros.
mapping	Memory mapping
memory	Types to describe the properties of memory allocated for gfx resources.
preset	State presets
pso	A typed high-level graphics pipeline interface.
shade	Shaders Shader parameter handling.
state	Fixed-function hardware state.
texture	Texture creation and modification.
traits	public re-exported traits

Macros

gfx_constant_struct	Defines a structure that is used in a constant buffer.
gfx_defines	Defines vertex, constant and pipeline formats in one block.
gfx_format	Defines a shorthand for a format.
gfx_pipeline	Defines a set of pipeline-associated structures, and also adds new constuctor for the Init structure.
gfx_pipeline_base	Defines a set of pipeline-associated structures.
gfx_vertex_struct	Defines a structure that is used in a vertex buffer.

Structs

DomainShader
Encoder	Graphics Command Encoder
GeometryShader
HullShader
Mirror	Mirroring flags, used for blitting
PixelShader
ProgramInfo	Metadata about a program.
Rect	A screen space rectangle
Slice	A Slice dictates in which and in what order vertices get processed. It is required for processing a PSO.
VertexShader

Enums

CombinedError	An error from creating textures with views at the same time.
CopyError	An error occuring in memory copies.
IndexBuffer	Type of index-buffer used in a Slice.
PipelineStateError	Error creating a PipelineState
Primitive	Describes what geometric primitives are created from vertex data.
ResourceViewError	Error creating either a ShaderResourceView, or UnorderedAccessView.
ShaderSet	A complete set of shaders to link a program. TODO: TransformFeedback
SubmissionError
TargetViewError	Error creating either a RenderTargetView, or DepthStencilView.
UniformValue	A value that can be uploaded to the device as a uniform.
UpdateError	An error occuring in buffer/texture updates.

Traits

CommandBuffer	An interface of the abstract command buffer. It collects commands in an efficient API-specific manner, to be ready for execution on the device.
Device	A Device is responsible for submitting CommandBuffers to the GPU.
Factory	Overview
IntoIndexBuffer	A helper trait to create IndexBuffers from different kinds of data.
Resources	Different types of a specific API.

Type Definitions

ColorValue	A color with floating-point components.
CopyBufferResult	Result type returned when copying a buffer into another buffer.
CopyBufferTextureResult	Result type returned when copying buffer data into a texture.
CopyTextureBufferResult	Result type returned when copying texture data into a buffer.
Depth	A single depth value from a depth buffer.
InstanceCount	Draw number of instances
InstanceParams	Optional instance parameters: (instance count, buffer offset)
Layer	A depth value, specifying which plane to select out of a 3D texture.
Level	Mipmap level to select in a texture.
Stencil	A single value from a stencil stencstencil buffer.
SubmissionResult
VertexCount	Draw vertex count.