Name

    ARB_indirect_parameters

Name Strings

    GL_ARB_indirect_parameters

Contact

    Graham Sellers (graham.sellers 'at' amd.com)

Contributors

    ???

Notice

    Copyright (c) 2013 The Khronos Group Inc. Copyright terms at
        http://www.khronos.org/registry/speccopyright.html

Status

    Complete. Approved by the ARB on June 3, 2013.
    Ratified by the Khronos Board of Promoters on July 19, 2013.

Version

    Last Modified Date: 20 June 2013
    Revision: 3

Number

    ARB Extension #154

Dependencies

    OpenGL 4.2 is required.

    This extension is written against Version 4.3 of the Core Profile OpenGL
    Specification, dated February 14, 2013 and Version 4.30 of the OpenGL
    Shading Language Specification, dated February 7, 2013.

Overview

        OpenGL 4.3 (with the introduction of the GL_ARB_multi_draw_indirect
    extension) enhanced the ability of OpenGL to allow a large sets of
    parameters for indirect draws (introduced with OpenGL 4.0) into a buffer
    object and dispatch the entire list with one API call. This allows, for
    example, a shader (such as a compute shader via shader storage buffers,
    or a geometry shader via transform feedback) to produce lists of draw
    commands that can then be consumed by OpenGL without a server-client
    round trip. However, when a variable and potentially unknown number of
    draws are produced by such a shader, it becomes difficult to know how
    many draws are in the output array(s). Applications must resort to
    techniques such as transform feedback primitive queries, or mapping
    buffers containing the content of atomic counters, which can cause stalls
    or bubbles in the OpenGL pipeline.

        This extension introduces the concept of the "parameter buffer", which
    is a target allowing buffers to store parameters for certain drawing
    commands. Also in this extension, new variants of MultiDrawArraysIndirect
    and MultiDrawElementsIndirect are introduced that source some of their
    parameters from this buffer. Further commands could potentially be
    introduced that source other parameters from a buffer.

New Procedures and Functions

        void MultiDrawArraysIndirectCountARB(enum mode,
                                             const void *indirect,
                                             intptr drawcount,
                                             sizei maxdrawcount,
                                             sizei stride);

        void MultiDrawElementsIndirectCountARB(enum mode,
                                               enum type,
                                               const void *indirect,
                                               intptr drawcount,
                                               sizei maxdrawcount,
                                               sizei stride);

New Tokens

    Accepted by the <target> parameters of BindBuffer, BufferData,
    BufferSubData, MapBuffer, UnmapBuffer, GetBufferSubData,
    GetBufferPointerv, MapBufferRange, FlushMappedBufferRange,
    GetBufferParameteriv, and CopyBufferSubData:

        PARAMETER_BUFFER_ARB                                    0x80EE

    Accepted by the <value> parameter of GetIntegerv, GetBooleanv, GetFloatv,
    and GetDoublev:

        PARAMETER_BUFFER_BINDING_ARB                            0x80EF

Additions to Chapter 6 of the OpenGL 4.3 (Core Profile) Specification
(Drawing Commands Using Vertex Arrays)

    Modifications to Section 6.1 "Creating and Binding Buffer Objects"

    Add to Table 6.1: Buffer object binding targets:

    Target name            Purpose               Described in section(s)
    --------------------    ---------------       ------------------------
    PARAMETER_BUFFER_ARB   draw parameters       10.5

Additions to Chapter 10 of the OpenGL 4.3 (Core Profile) Specification
(Drawing Commands Using Vertex Arrays)

    Add to Section 10.5, "Drawing Commands Using Vertex Arrays", after the
    introduction of MultiDrawArraysIndirect, p.311:

    The command

        void MultiDrawArraysIndirectCountARB(enum mode,
                                             const void *indirect,
                                             intptr drawcount,
                                             intptr maxdrawcount,
                                             sizei stride);

    behaves similarly to MultiDrawArraysIndirect, except that <drawcount>
    defines an offset (in bytes) into the buffer object bound to the
    PARAMETER_BUFFER_ARB binding point at which a single <sizei> typed value
    is stored, which contains the draw count. <maxdrawcount> specifies the
    maximum number of draws that are expected to be stored in the buffer.
    If the value stored at <drawcount> into the buffer is greater than
    <maxdrawcount>, an implementation stop processing draws after
    <maxdrawcount> parameter sets. <drawcount> must be a multiple of four.

    Add to Section 10.5, "Drawing Commands Using Vertex Arrays", after the
    introduction of MultiDrawElementsIndirect, p.316:

    The command

        void MultiDrawElementsIndirectCountARB(enum mode,
                                               enum type,
                                               const void *indirect,
                                               intptr drawcount,
                                               sizei maxdrawcount,
                                               sizei stride);

    behaves similarly to MultiDrawElementsIndirect, except that <drawcount>
    defines an offset (in bytes) into the buffer object bound to the
    PARAMETER_BUFFER_ARB binding point at which a single <sizei> typed value
    is stored, which contains the draw count. <maxdrawcount> specifies the
    maximum number of draws that are expected to be stored in the buffer.
    If the value stored at <drawcount> into the buffer is greater than
    <maxdrawcount>, an implementation stop processing draws after
    <maxdrawcount> parameter sets. <drawcount> must be a multiple of four.

Errors

    INVALID_OPERATION is generated by MultiDrawArraysIndirectCountARB or
    MultiDrawElementsIndirectCountARB if no buffer is bound to the
    PARAMETER_BUFFER_ARB binding point.

    INVALID_VALUE is generated by MultiDrawArraysIndirectCountARB or
    MultiDrawElementsIndirectCountARB if <drawcount> is not a multiple of
    four.

    INVALID_OPERATION is generated by MultiDrawArraysIndirectCountARB or
    MultiDrawElementsIndirectCountARB if reading a <sizei> typed value
    from the buffer bound to the PARAMETER_BUFFER_ARB target at the offset
    specified by <drawcount> would result in an out-of-bounds access.

New State

    Append to Table 23.5, "Vertex Array Data (not in Vertex Array objects)"

    +-------------------------------+------+--------------+---------+-----------------------------------+----------+
    | Get Value                     |      | Get          | Initial |                                   |          |
    | Value                         | Type | Command      | Value   | Description                       | Sec      |
    +-------------------------------+------+--------------+---------+-----------------------------------+--------- +
    | PARAMETER_BUFFER_BINDING_ARB  | Z+   | GetIntegerv  | 0       | Indirect parameter buffer binding | 13.5     |
    +-------------------------------+------+--------------+---------+-----------------------------------+--------- +

Issues

    1) Is this extension named appropriately? Is it too generic?

       DISCUSSION: We'd rather lean towards the generic and be forward-looking.
       It's conceivable we could add further commands that source some or all
       of their parameters from a buffer object in the future.

Revision History

    Rev.    Date      Author    Changes
    ----  --------    --------  -----------------------------------------

     1    05/16/2013  gsellers  Initial draft based on multi_draw_indirect2
     2    05/29/2013  gsellers  Rename MultiDrawArraysIndirectCount and
                                MultiDrawElementsIndirectCount.
                                Add issue (1)
     3    06/20/2013  pdaniell  Modify the <indirect> parameter type to
                                const void *.