# Objective
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/issues/17746
## Solution
- Change `Image.data` from being a `Vec<u8>` to a `Option<Vec<u8>>`
- Added functions to help with creating images
## Testing
- Did you test these changes? If so, how?
All current tests pass
Tested a variety of existing examples to make sure they don't crash
(they don't)
- If relevant, what platforms did you test these changes on, and are
there any important ones you can't test?
Linux x86 64-bit NixOS
---
## Migration Guide
Code that directly access `Image` data will now need to use unwrap or
handle the case where no data is provided.
Behaviour of new_fill slightly changed, but not in a way that is likely
to affect anything. It no longer panics and will fill the whole texture
instead of leaving black pixels if the data provided is not a nice
factor of the size of the image.
---------
Co-authored-by: IceSentry <IceSentry@users.noreply.github.com>
# Objective
When preparing `GpuImage`s, we currently discard the
`depth_or_array_layers` of the `Image`'s size by converting it into a
`UVec2`.
Fixes#16715.
## Solution
Change `GpuImage::size` to `Extent3d`, and just pass that through when
creating `GpuImage`s.
Also copy the `aspect_ratio`, and `size` (now `size_2d` for
disambiguation from the field) functions from `Image` to `GpuImage` for
ease of use with 2D textures.
I originally copied all size-related functions (like `width`, and
`height`), but i think they are unnecessary considering how visible the
`size` field on `GpuImage` is compared to `Image`.
## Testing
Tested via `cargo r -p ci` for everything except docs, when generating
docs it keeps spitting out a ton of
```
error[E0554]: `#![feature]` may not be used on the stable release channel
--> crates/bevy_dylib/src/lib.rs:1:21
|
1 | #![cfg_attr(docsrs, feature(doc_auto_cfg))]
|
```
Not sure why this is happening, but it also happens without my changes,
so it's almost certainly some strange issue specific to my machine.
## Migration Guide
- `GpuImage::size` is now an `Extent3d`. To easily get 2D size, use
`size_2d()`.
This patch adds the infrastructure necessary for Bevy to support
*bindless resources*, by adding a new `#[bindless]` attribute to
`AsBindGroup`.
Classically, only a single texture (or sampler, or buffer) can be
attached to each shader binding. This means that switching materials
requires breaking a batch and issuing a new drawcall, even if the mesh
is otherwise identical. This adds significant overhead not only in the
driver but also in `wgpu`, as switching bind groups increases the amount
of validation work that `wgpu` must do.
*Bindless resources* are the typical solution to this problem. Instead
of switching bindings between each texture, the renderer instead
supplies a large *array* of all textures in the scene up front, and the
material contains an index into that array. This pattern is repeated for
buffers and samplers as well. The renderer now no longer needs to switch
binding descriptor sets while drawing the scene.
Unfortunately, as things currently stand, this approach won't quite work
for Bevy. Two aspects of `wgpu` conspire to make this ideal approach
unacceptably slow:
1. In the DX12 backend, all binding arrays (bindless resources) must
have a constant size declared in the shader, and all textures in an
array must be bound to actual textures. Changing the size requires a
recompile.
2. Changing even one texture incurs revalidation of all textures, a
process that takes time that's linear in the total size of the binding
array.
This means that declaring a large array of textures big enough to
encompass the entire scene is presently unacceptably slow. For example,
if you declare 4096 textures, then `wgpu` will have to revalidate all
4096 textures if even a single one changes. This process can take
multiple frames.
To work around this problem, this PR groups bindless resources into
small *slabs* and maintains a free list for each. The size of each slab
for the bindless arrays associated with a material is specified via the
`#[bindless(N)]` attribute. For instance, consider the following
declaration:
```rust
#[derive(AsBindGroup)]
#[bindless(16)]
struct MyMaterial {
#[buffer(0)]
color: Vec4,
#[texture(1)]
#[sampler(2)]
diffuse: Handle<Image>,
}
```
The `#[bindless(N)]` attribute specifies that, if bindless arrays are
supported on the current platform, each resource becomes a binding array
of N instances of that resource. So, for `MyMaterial` above, the `color`
attribute is exposed to the shader as `binding_array<vec4<f32>, 16>`,
the `diffuse` texture is exposed to the shader as
`binding_array<texture_2d<f32>, 16>`, and the `diffuse` sampler is
exposed to the shader as `binding_array<sampler, 16>`. Inside the
material's vertex and fragment shaders, the applicable index is
available via the `material_bind_group_slot` field of the `Mesh`
structure. So, for instance, you can access the current color like so:
```wgsl
// `uniform` binding arrays are a non-sequitur, so `uniform` is automatically promoted
// to `storage` in bindless mode.
@group(2) @binding(0) var<storage> material_color: binding_array<Color, 4>;
...
@fragment
fn fragment(in: VertexOutput) -> @location(0) vec4<f32> {
let color = material_color[mesh[in.instance_index].material_bind_group_slot];
...
}
```
Note that portable shader code can't guarantee that the current platform
supports bindless textures. Indeed, bindless mode is only available in
Vulkan and DX12. The `BINDLESS` shader definition is available for your
use to determine whether you're on a bindless platform or not. Thus a
portable version of the shader above would look like:
```wgsl
#ifdef BINDLESS
@group(2) @binding(0) var<storage> material_color: binding_array<Color, 4>;
#else // BINDLESS
@group(2) @binding(0) var<uniform> material_color: Color;
#endif // BINDLESS
...
@fragment
fn fragment(in: VertexOutput) -> @location(0) vec4<f32> {
#ifdef BINDLESS
let color = material_color[mesh[in.instance_index].material_bind_group_slot];
#else // BINDLESS
let color = material_color;
#endif // BINDLESS
...
}
```
Importantly, this PR *doesn't* update `StandardMaterial` to be bindless.
So, for example, `scene_viewer` will currently not run any faster. I
intend to update `StandardMaterial` to use bindless mode in a follow-up
patch.
A new example, `shaders/shader_material_bindless`, has been added to
demonstrate how to use this new feature.
Here's a Tracy profile of `submit_graph_commands` of this patch and an
additional patch (not submitted yet) that makes `StandardMaterial` use
bindless. Red is those patches; yellow is `main`. The scene was Bistro
Exterior with a hack that forces all textures to opaque. You can see a
1.47x mean speedup.

## Migration Guide
* `RenderAssets::prepare_asset` now takes an `AssetId` parameter.
* Bin keys now have Bevy-specific material bind group indices instead of
`wgpu` material bind group IDs, as part of the bindless change. Use the
new `MaterialBindGroupAllocator` to map from bind group index to bind
group ID.