Vulkan 1.4.351 Released with Six New Extensions Including Ray Tracing Improvement

The Khronos Group has released Vulkan 1.4.351, a new version of the graphics and compute API. The update introduces six new extensions that expand the API's capabilities across different hardware vendors.

Six new extensions expand Vulkan capabilities

Key additions include VK_KHR_opacity_micromap, which improves ray tracing by adding opacity micromaps to geometry acceleration structures. VK_EXT_shader_split_barrier splits the OpControlBarrier instruction into two separate barrier operations, OpControlBarrierArriveEXT and OpControlBarrierWaitEXT. For AMD Radeon GPUs, VK_AMD_gpa_interface provides a GPU Performance API interface for performance counters, streaming performance monitors, and SQTT thread traces.

Qualcomm contributed three new extensions. VK_QCOM_elapsed_timer_query offers an elapsed time query similar to OpenGL's ARB_timer_query. VK_QCOM_image_processing3 supports predefined image gather operations for super resolution and contrast adaptive sharpening. VK_QCOM_shader_multiple_wait_queues adds a loop control hint for multiple wait queues.

The extensions were developed by engineers from multiple organizations, including Valve, Qualcomm, Intel, NVIDIA, and AMD. The release continues Vulkan's trend of adding vendor-specific and cross-vendor features to address diverse use cases in graphics and compute workloads.

Phoronix reported the release. The Khronos Group has not commented on future plans for the API.