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Written more documentation - about lost allocations.

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Adam Sawicki 2018-03-09 18:18:34 +01:00
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<div class="textblock"><p>If your game oversubscribes video memory, if may work OK in previous-generation graphics APIs (DirectX 9, 10, 11, OpenGL) because resources are automatically paged to system RAM. In Vulkan you can't do it because when you run out of memory, an allocation just fails. If you have more data (e.g. textures) that can fit into VRAM and you don't need it all at once, you may want to upload them to GPU on demand and "push out" ones that are not used for a long time to make room for the new ones, effectively using VRAM (or a cartain memory pool) as a form of cache. Vulkan Memory Allocator can help you with that by supporting a concept of "lost allocations".</p>
<p>To create an allocation that can become lost, include <a class="el" href="vk__mem__alloc_8h.html#ad9889c10c798b040d59c92f257cae597a5f436af6c8fe8540573a6d22627a6fd2">VMA_ALLOCATION_CREATE_CAN_BECOME_LOST_BIT</a> flag in <a class="el" href="struct_vma_allocation_create_info.html#add09658ac14fe290ace25470ddd6d41b" title="Use VmaAllocationCreateFlagBits enum. ">VmaAllocationCreateInfo::flags</a>. Before using a buffer or image bound to such allocation in every new frame, you need to query it if it's not lost. To check it: call <a class="el" href="vk__mem__alloc_8h.html#a86dd08aba8633bfa4ad0df2e76481d8b" title="Returns current information about specified allocation. ">vmaGetAllocationInfo()</a> and see if <a class="el" href="struct_vma_allocation_info.html#ae0bfb7dfdf79a76ffefc9a94677a2f67" title="Handle to Vulkan memory object. ">VmaAllocationInfo::deviceMemory</a> is not <code>VK_NULL_HANDLE</code>. If the allocation is lost, you should not use it or buffer/image bound to it. You mustn't forget to destroy this allocation and this buffer/image.</p>
<p>To create an allocation that can become lost, include <a class="el" href="vk__mem__alloc_8h.html#ad9889c10c798b040d59c92f257cae597a5f436af6c8fe8540573a6d22627a6fd2">VMA_ALLOCATION_CREATE_CAN_BECOME_LOST_BIT</a> flag in <a class="el" href="struct_vma_allocation_create_info.html#add09658ac14fe290ace25470ddd6d41b" title="Use VmaAllocationCreateFlagBits enum. ">VmaAllocationCreateInfo::flags</a>. Before using a buffer or image bound to such allocation in every new frame, you need to query it if it's not lost. To check it: call <a class="el" href="vk__mem__alloc_8h.html#a86dd08aba8633bfa4ad0df2e76481d8b" title="Returns current information about specified allocation and atomically marks it as used in current fra...">vmaGetAllocationInfo()</a> and see if <a class="el" href="struct_vma_allocation_info.html#ae0bfb7dfdf79a76ffefc9a94677a2f67" title="Handle to Vulkan memory object. ">VmaAllocationInfo::deviceMemory</a> is not <code>VK_NULL_HANDLE</code>. If the allocation is lost, you should not use it or buffer/image bound to it. You mustn't forget to destroy this allocation and this buffer/image.</p>
<p>To create an allocation that can make some other allocations lost to make room for it, use <a class="el" href="vk__mem__alloc_8h.html#ad9889c10c798b040d59c92f257cae597a68686d0ce9beb0d4d1b9f2b8b1389a7e">VMA_ALLOCATION_CREATE_CAN_MAKE_OTHER_LOST_BIT</a> flag. You will usually use both flags <a class="el" href="vk__mem__alloc_8h.html#ad9889c10c798b040d59c92f257cae597a68686d0ce9beb0d4d1b9f2b8b1389a7e">VMA_ALLOCATION_CREATE_CAN_MAKE_OTHER_LOST_BIT</a> and <a class="el" href="vk__mem__alloc_8h.html#ad9889c10c798b040d59c92f257cae597a5f436af6c8fe8540573a6d22627a6fd2">VMA_ALLOCATION_CREATE_CAN_BECOME_LOST_BIT</a> at the same time.</p>
<p>Warning! Current implementation uses quite naive, brute force algorithm, which can make allocation calls that use <a class="el" href="vk__mem__alloc_8h.html#ad9889c10c798b040d59c92f257cae597a68686d0ce9beb0d4d1b9f2b8b1389a7e">VMA_ALLOCATION_CREATE_CAN_MAKE_OTHER_LOST_BIT</a> flag quite slow. A new, more optimal algorithm and data structure to speed this up is planned for the future.</p>
<p><b>Q: When interleaving creation of new allocations with usage of existing ones, how do you make sure that an allocation won't become lost while it's used in the current frame?</b></p>
<p>It is ensured because <a class="el" href="vk__mem__alloc_8h.html#a86dd08aba8633bfa4ad0df2e76481d8b" title="Returns current information about specified allocation. ">vmaGetAllocationInfo()</a> not only returns allocation parameters and checks whether it's not lost, but when it's not, it also atomically marks it as used in the current frame, which makes it impossible to become lost in that frame. It uses lockless algorithm, so it works fast and doesn't involve locking any internal mutex.</p>
<p>It is ensured because <a class="el" href="vk__mem__alloc_8h.html#a86dd08aba8633bfa4ad0df2e76481d8b" title="Returns current information about specified allocation and atomically marks it as used in current fra...">vmaGetAllocationInfo()</a> not only returns allocation parameters and checks whether it's not lost, but when it's not, it also atomically marks it as used in the current frame, which makes it impossible to become lost in that frame. It uses lockless algorithm, so it works fast and doesn't involve locking any internal mutex.</p>
<p><b>Q: What if my allocation may still be in use by the GPU when it's rendering a previous frame while I already submit new frame on the CPU?</b></p>
<p>You can make sure that allocations "touched" by <a class="el" href="vk__mem__alloc_8h.html#a86dd08aba8633bfa4ad0df2e76481d8b" title="Returns current information about specified allocation. ">vmaGetAllocationInfo()</a> will not become lost for a number of additional frames back from the current one by specifying this number as <a class="el" href="struct_vma_allocator_create_info.html#a21ea188dd212b8171cb9ecbed4a2a3a7" title="Maximum number of additional frames that are in use at the same time as current frame. ">VmaAllocatorCreateInfo::frameInUseCount</a> (for default memory pool) and <a class="el" href="struct_vma_pool_create_info.html#a9437e43ffbb644dbbf7fc4e50cfad6aa" title="Maximum number of additional frames that are in use at the same time as current frame. ">VmaPoolCreateInfo::frameInUseCount</a> (for custom pool).</p>
<p>You can make sure that allocations "touched" by <a class="el" href="vk__mem__alloc_8h.html#a86dd08aba8633bfa4ad0df2e76481d8b" title="Returns current information about specified allocation and atomically marks it as used in current fra...">vmaGetAllocationInfo()</a> will not become lost for a number of additional frames back from the current one by specifying this number as <a class="el" href="struct_vma_allocator_create_info.html#a21ea188dd212b8171cb9ecbed4a2a3a7" title="Maximum number of additional frames that are in use at the same time as current frame. ">VmaAllocatorCreateInfo::frameInUseCount</a> (for default memory pool) and <a class="el" href="struct_vma_pool_create_info.html#a9437e43ffbb644dbbf7fc4e50cfad6aa" title="Maximum number of additional frames that are in use at the same time as current frame. ">VmaPoolCreateInfo::frameInUseCount</a> (for custom pool).</p>
<p><b>Q: How do you inform the library when new frame starts?</b></p>
<p>You need to call function <a class="el" href="vk__mem__alloc_8h.html#ade56bf8dc9f5a5eaddf5f119ed525236" title="Sets index of the current frame. ">vmaSetCurrentFrameIndex()</a>.</p>
<p>Example code:</p>