vkd3d/ANNOUNCE

The Wine team is proud to announce that release 1.3 of vkd3d, the Direct3D to
Vulkan translation library, is now available.

This release contains improvements that are listed in the release notes below.
The main highlights are:

  - Initial HLSL compilation support.
  - Shader model 5.1 descriptor array support.
  - Support for disassembling Direct3D shaders.

The source is available from the following location:

  https://dl.winehq.org/vkd3d/source/vkd3d-1.3.tar.xz

The current source can also be pulled directly from the git repository:

  https://source.winehq.org/git/vkd3d.git/

Vkd3d is available thanks to the work of multiple people. See the file AUTHORS
for the complete list.

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What's new in vkd3d 1.3
=======================


*** libvkd3d

- Newly implemented Direct3D 12 features:
  - Root signature support for unbounded descriptor tables.
  - Unordered-access view counters in pixel shaders. These were previously
    only supported in compute shaders.
  - Output merger logical operations.
  - Retrieving CPU/GPU timestamp calibration values. This requires support for
    the VK_EXT_calibrated_timestamps extension.
  - The `mirror_once' texture addressing mode. This requires support for the
    VK_KHR_sampler_mirror_clamp_to_edge extension.

- New interfaces:
  - The vkd3d_host_time_domain_info structure extends the
    vkd3d_instance_create_info structure, and can be used to specify how to
    convert between timestamps and tick counts. If left unspecified, a tick
    is assumed to take 100 nanoseconds.

- Various bug fixes.


*** libvkd3d-shader

- New features:
  - Initial support for HLSL compilation and preprocessing. This is an ongoing
    effort; although support for many features is already implemented, support
    for many more isn't yet.
  - Support for disassembling Direct3D byte-code shaders to Direct3D assembly.
  - Support for parsing the legacy Direct3D byte-code format used by Direct3D
    shader model 1, 2, and 3 shaders. In the current vkd3d-shader release,
    only Direct3D assembly is supported as a target for these; we intend to
    support SPIR-V as a target in a future release.

- New features for the SPIR-V target:
  - Support for various aspects of Direct3D shader model 5.1 descriptor
    arrays, including unbounded descriptor arrays, UAV counter arrays, dynamic
    indexing of descriptor arrays, and non-uniform indexing of descriptor
    arrays. With the exception of some special cases, this requires support
    for the SPV_EXT_descriptor_indexing extension in the target environment.
  - Support for double precision floating-point operations.
  - Support for indirect addressing of tessellation control shader inputs.
  - Stencil export. I.e., writing stencil values from shaders. This requires
    support for the SPV_EXT_shader_stencil_export extension in the target
    environment.
  - Support for the Direct3D shader model 4+ `precise' modifier.
  - Support for Direct3D shader model 4+ global resource memory barriers.

New interfaces:
  - vkd3d_shader_preprocess() provides support for preprocessing shaders.
  - The vkd3d_shader_preprocess_info structure extends the
    vkd3d_shader_compile_info structure, and can be used to specify
    preprocessing parameters like preprocessor macro definitions.
  - The vkd3d_shader_hlsl_source_info structure extends the
    vkd3d_shader_compile_info structure, and can be used to specify HLSL
    compilation parameters like the target profile and entry point.
  - The vkd3d_shader_descriptor_offset_info structure extends the
    vkd3d_shader_interface_info structure, and can be used to specify offsets
    into descriptor arrays referenced by shader interface bindings. This
    allows mapping multiple descriptor arrays in a shader to a single binding
    point in the target environment, and helps with mapping between the
    Direct3D 12 and Vulkan binding models.
  - The VKD3D_SHADER_COMPILE_OPTION_API_VERSION compile option can
    be used to specify the version of the libvkd3d-shader API the
    application is targeting. If left unspecified,
    VKD3D_SHADER_API_VERSION_1_2 will be used.

- Various shader translation fixes, for tessellation shaders in particular.


*** vkd3d-compiler

- New source and target types:
  - The `hlsl' source type specifies High Level Shader Language source code.
  - The `d3d-asm' target type specifies Direct3D assembly shaders.
  - The `d3dbc' format specifies legacy Direct3D byte-code, which is used for
    Direct3D shader model 1, 2, and 3 shaders.
  - The existing `dxbc-tpf' format can now also be used as a target format.

- New command line options:
  - `-E' can be used to specify the input should only be preprocessed.
  - `-e'/`--entry' can be used to specify the entry point for HLSL and/or
    SPIR-V shaders.
  - `-p'/`--profile' can be used to specify the target profile for HLSL
    shaders.

- When no source type is explicitly specified, vkd3d-compiler will attempt to
  determine the source type from the provided input. Note that this is
  intended as a convenience for interactive usage only, and the heuristics
  used are subject to future change. Non-interactive usage of vkd3d-compiler,
  for example in build scripts, should always explicitly specify source and
  target types.

- When no target type is explicitly specified, a default will be chosen based
  on the source type. Like the earlier mentioned source type detection, this
  is intended for interactive usage only.

- vkd3d-compiler will default to colour output if it can determine that the
  output is a colour-capable teleprinter.

- New environment variables:
  - NO_COLOUR/NO_COLOR can be used to disable default colour output.
  See the README for more detailed descriptions and how to use these.


*** libvkd3d-utils

- New interfaces:
  - D3DCreateBlob() provides support for creating ID3DBlob objects.
  - D3DPreprocess() provides support for preprocessing HLSL source code.
  - D3DCompile() and D3DCompile2() provide support for compiling HLSL source
    code.


*** build

- The `gears' and `triangle' demo applications are installed as `vkd3d-gears'
  and `vkd3d-triangle'. These were originally intended more as documentation
  than as end-user executables, but there's some value in using them for
  diagnostic purposes, much like e.g. `glxgears'.

- The VULKAN_LIBS configure variable is used when detecting the Vulkan
  library.

- Builds for the Microsoft Windows target platform no longer require support
  for POSIX threads. Windows synchronisation primitives are used instead.

- If ncurses is available, it will be use by vkd3d-compiler to determine the
  capabilities of the connected teleprinter, if any.