registry/vulkan/appendices/VK_EXT_blend_operation_advanced.txt

// Copyright 2017-2021 The Khronos Group Inc.
//
// SPDX-License-Identifier: CC-BY-4.0

include::{generated}/meta/{refprefix}VK_EXT_blend_operation_advanced.txt[]

=== Other Extension Metadata

*Last Modified Date*::
    2017-06-12
*Contributors*::
  - Jeff Bolz, NVIDIA

=== Description

This extension adds a number of "`advanced`" blending operations that can:
be used to perform new color blending operations, many of which are more
complex than the standard blend modes provided by unextended Vulkan.
This extension requires different styles of usage, depending on the level of
hardware support and the enabled features:

  - If
    slink:VkPhysicalDeviceBlendOperationAdvancedFeaturesEXT::pname:advancedBlendCoherentOperations
    is ename:VK_FALSE, the new blending operations are supported, but a
    memory dependency must: separate each advanced blend operation on a
    given sample.
    ename:VK_ACCESS_COLOR_ATTACHMENT_READ_NONCOHERENT_BIT_EXT is used to
    synchronize reads using advanced blend operations.

  - If
    slink:VkPhysicalDeviceBlendOperationAdvancedFeaturesEXT::pname:advancedBlendCoherentOperations
    is ename:VK_TRUE, advanced blend operations obey primitive order just
    like basic blend operations.

In unextended Vulkan, the set of blending operations is limited, and can: be
expressed very simply.
The ename:VK_BLEND_OP_MIN and ename:VK_BLEND_OP_MAX blend operations simply
compute component-wise minimums or maximums of source and destination color
components.
The ename:VK_BLEND_OP_ADD, ename:VK_BLEND_OP_SUBTRACT, and
ename:VK_BLEND_OP_REVERSE_SUBTRACT modes multiply the source and destination
colors by source and destination factors and either add the two products
together or subtract one from the other.
This limited set of operations supports many common blending operations but
precludes the use of more sophisticated transparency and blending operations
commonly available in many dedicated imaging APIs.

This extension provides a number of new "`advanced`" blending operations.
Unlike traditional blending operations using ename:VK_BLEND_OP_ADD, these
blending equations do not use source and destination factors specified by
elink:VkBlendFactor.
Instead, each blend operation specifies a complete equation based on the
source and destination colors.
These new blend operations are used for both RGB and alpha components; they
must: not be used to perform separate RGB and alpha blending (via different
values of color and alpha elink:VkBlendOp).

These blending operations are performed using premultiplied colors, where
RGB colors can: be considered premultiplied or non-premultiplied by alpha,
according to the pname:srcPremultiplied and pname:dstPremultiplied members
of slink:VkPipelineColorBlendAdvancedStateCreateInfoEXT.
If a color is considered non-premultiplied, the (R,G,B) color components are
multiplied by the alpha component prior to blending.
For non-premultiplied color components in the range [eq]#[0,1]#, the
corresponding premultiplied color component would have values in the range
[eq]#[0 {times} A, 1 {times} A]#.

Many of these advanced blending equations are formulated where the result of
blending source and destination colors with partial coverage have three
separate contributions: from the portions covered by both the source and the
destination, from the portion covered only by the source, and from the
portion covered only by the destination.
The blend parameter
slink:VkPipelineColorBlendAdvancedStateCreateInfoEXT::pname:blendOverlap
can: be used to specify a correlation between source and destination pixel
coverage.
If set to ename:VK_BLEND_OVERLAP_CONJOINT_EXT, the source and destination
are considered to have maximal overlap, as would be the case if drawing two
objects on top of each other.
If set to ename:VK_BLEND_OVERLAP_DISJOINT_EXT, the source and destination
are considered to have minimal overlap, as would be the case when rendering
a complex polygon tessellated into individual non-intersecting triangles.
If set to ename:VK_BLEND_OVERLAP_UNCORRELATED_EXT, the source and
destination coverage are assumed to have no spatial correlation within the
pixel.

In addition to the coherency issues on implementations not supporting
pname:advancedBlendCoherentOperations, this extension has several
limitations worth noting.
First, the new blend operations have a limit on the number of color
attachments they can: be used with, as indicated by
slink:VkPhysicalDeviceBlendOperationAdvancedPropertiesEXT::pname:advancedBlendMaxColorAttachments.
Additionally, blending precision may: be limited to 16-bit floating-point,
which may: result in a loss of precision and dynamic range for framebuffer
formats with 32-bit floating-point components, and in a loss of precision
for formats with 12- and 16-bit signed or unsigned normalized integer
components.

include::{generated}/interfaces/VK_EXT_blend_operation_advanced.txt[]

=== Issues

None.

=== Version History

  * Revision 1, 2017-06-12 (Jeff Bolz)
    - Internal revisions
  * Revision 2, 2017-06-12 (Jeff Bolz)
    - Internal revisions