keywords: Direct3D 12, D3D12, Vulkan, Bindless, Texture and Buffer, DescriptorSet, Descriptor Set Layout, Descriptor Indexing

Summary

Advantages

Difference between array textures (slot-based) and bindless textures:
Array textures are generally restricted by the fact that all textures in the array are required to use the same format and dimensions. Bindless textures are independent in size and format, but can still be accessed directly from the shader and don't require a CPU-side bind call to enable them for the shader.
Quoted from: How are bindless resources different from slot-based resources

The bindless descriptors advantages:
Bindless designs make the cpu side work a lot faster due to the CPU having to do much less work, and the GPU can also go faster due to better utilization as each drawcall is “bigger”. The less drawcalls you use to render your scene, the better, as modern GPUs are really big and have a big ramp up/ramp down time.
Quoted from GPU Driven Rendering Overview

Presentations

Exploration of Bindless Rendering in Vulkan, DirectX 12, and OpenGL [2021-04-21]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVm0HanVTRw

D3D12

Documents

Bindless Descriptors
https://wickedengine.net/2021/04/06/bindless-descriptors/

Binding Bindlessly
https://alextardif.com/Bindless.html

Bindless Texturing for Deferred Rendering and Decals
https://therealmjp.github.io/posts/bindless-texturing-for-deferred-rendering-and-decals/
https://github.com/TheRealMJP/DeferredTexturing

Vulkan

Documents

Managing bindless descriptors in Vulkan
https://dev.to/gasim/implementing-bindless-design-in-vulkan-34no

New game changing Vulkan extensions for mobile: Descriptor Indexing

Vulkan Pills 1: Bindless Textures
https://jorenjoestar.github.io/post/vulkan_bindless_texture/

Bindless descriptor sets
https://vincent-p.github.io/posts/vulkan_bindless_descriptors/

Descriptorless Rendering in Vulkan
https://msiglreith.gitbook.io/blog/descriptorless-rendering-in-vulkan

Presentations

Setting up a bindless rendering pipeline

Resources & Descriptors | “Use Buffers and Images in Vulkan Shaders”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VBVWCg7riQ


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