Intel ANV Vulkan Driver Now Enables Descriptor Heaps By Default

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Back in early May was the experimental enabling of Vulkan descriptor heaps for the Intel ANV open-source driver. After nearly two months of continued testing and improvements, the VK_EXT_descriptor_heap support for Intel graphics on Linux is now enabled by default.

Intel’s ANV Vulkan driver for Mesa 26.2, due for a stable release in August, has flipped on descriptor heap support by default. VK_EXT_descriptor_heap is no longer hidden by an environment variable in now being deemed stable.

VK_EXT_descriptor_heap allows for the explicit management of descriptors and the memory used for descriptors. This extension is important for improving the Steam Play (VKD3D-Proton) experience, can help reduce CPU overhead, and all around an efficiency win for modern Vulkan API usage. The timing is great for this Intel default enabling with yesterday’s DXVK 3.0 enabling descriptor heap usage by default on capable drivers.

More details on the Intel descriptor heap default enabling can be found via this Mesa merge request.

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