AMD Render Pipeline Shaders (RPS) SDK

Copyright (c) 2023 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. All rights reserved.

The AMD Render Pipeline Shaders (RPS) SDK is released under the AMD INTERNAL EVALUATION LICENSE. Please see file LICENSE.txt for full license details.

Introduction

The AMD Render Pipeline Shaders (RPS) SDK is a comprehensive and extensible Render Graph framework.

Since the debut of explicit graphics APIs (Direct3D 12 and Vulkan®), Render Graphs (or Frame Graphs) have been proposed as an elegant and efficient solution to various problems such as generating resource barriers, managing transient memory and scheduling GPU workload. In practice, it is non-trivial to implement a render graph system from scratch, and it requires effort to keep it optimal according to hardware, API and content changes. Porting effects and techniques between different render graph systems may also consume extra engineering time.

The RPS SDK intends to make Render Graphs more easily accessible and to provide a generally optimal barrier generator and (aliasing) memory scheduler. RPS also tries to simplify Render Graph construction by extending HLSL with attributes and intrinsics to create a domain specific language for render graph programming. This enables opt-in applications to program Render Graphs implicitly via a high-level, declarative programming model, allowing users to focus on the render pipeline logic rather than node configuration details. We call the extended language "Render Pipeline Shader Language", or RPSL.

The SDK has a compiler-like architecture. It includes a frontend used to specify resources and a node sequence, a runtime compiler which compiles the linear node sequence into a graph and schedules it, and a runtime backend that converts the scheduled render graph into graphics API commands.

The RPS SDK is built with controllability and extensibility in mind. The HLSL language extension and API provide a rich set of controls for customizing its behavior. Both the frontend, the runtime render graph compiler, and the backend can be extended and customized.

Content Structure

Notable directories and files of the SDK:

• ./include: Main public API headers.
• ./src: Main implementation sources and C++ class definitions.
• ./tools/rps_hlslc: The RPSL compiler toolchain (Windows x64, Linux x64).
• ./tools/rps_hlslc/rpsl/rpsl.h: The RPSL language documentation embedded in a header file.
• ./tools/rps_visualizer: A library to visualize RPS render graph resources and memory layout. Please refer to README.md for more details.
• ./tools/rps_explorer: A tool to load and test RPSL files.
• ./tests/console and ./tests/gui: Test cases. Currently also serve as samples.

Build

Prerequisites

• OS: Windows 10 21H2 or later.
• Compiler: A C++11 compliant compiler. Tested compilers include Visual C++ toolset v141 or later (VS2017+) and Clang 15.0.1.
• CMake: CMake 3.12.1 or later.
• Vulkan SDK 1.2.162.1 or later (If the Vulkan backend and its dependents are desired).

Submodule dependencies

The SDK has catch2 and imgui as external git submodule dependencies. If you didn't initially clone with --recursive or another method that fetches the submodule dependencies automatically, please git submodule init and git submodule update inside the SDK clone directory to fetch them before attempting to build.

Build Steps

The SDK uses CMake. There are a few ways to start:

• Using default build batch file ./build.bat.

• Manually config using CMake:

  cmake -S ./ -B ./build -A x64
  cmake --build ./build --config RelWithDebInfo

Running Tests & RPSL Explorer

After a successful build:

• By default (or when CMake option RpsBuildTests is ON), all tests can be executed by running ctest from the build folder:

  cd build
  ctest -C RelWithDebInfo

• By default, the RPSL Explorer binaries can be located at ./build/tools/rpsl_explorer/<config_name>/. Run rpsl_explorer.exe and open an RPSL file to start hacking!

Documentation

The main sources of documentation for the RPS public APIs are inlined Doxygen-style comments, which can be built into HTML documents if Doxygen is installed (tested with Doxygen version 1.9.2):

doxygen

Integration

If the parent project uses CMake, RPS can be added as a subdirectory, e.g.:

set(RpsRootSolutionFolder "rps")
add_subdirectory(libs/AMD/rps)

RPS can also be integrated as pre-built static libraries, or you may include the RPS sources directly.

The main header to include is ./include/rps/rps.h. A few macros (RPS_D3D12_RUNTIME, RPS_VK_RUNTIME, RPS_D3D11_RUNTIME) can be used to selectively enable default runtime backends.

RPSL files can be compiled into C source code with the provided RPS-HLSLC tool chain at development time. The generated .C file can be integrated into the engine or application sources. Typical usage:

rps-hlslc.exe <rpsl_file_name> [-od <outout_directory>] [-m <override_module_name>] ...

Please see ./tools/rps_hlslc/README.md for usage details.

Currently, the RPS SDK is released under the AMD Internal Evaluation License. We welcome everyone to try it out and appreciate any feedback! If you are interested in using it in a future engine or title product, please contact an AMD Alliance Manager or Developer Technology engineer.

Third-Party Software

• Catch2
• Dear ImGui
• Microsoft DirectX Shader Compiler
• LLVM
• LLVM-CBE (C Backend)

Attribution

• AMD, the AMD Arrow logo, Radeon, Crossfire, and combinations thereof are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries.
• Microsoft, DirectX, Visual Studio, and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.