spirv-std/`Image!` should expose `AccessQualifier`.

[FishArmy100]

I think it would be beneficial to expose the AccessQualifier in the Image! macro, as at least for wgpu, ReadWrite and ReadOnly storage textures are only supported on native platforms. So, it would be benificial for Images allow for WriteOnly.

[Eduard-Mihai Burtescu]

Oh I'm really sorry I haven't checked what SPIR-V's "Access Qualifier" is.
The reason it's optional and not included in spirv_std::Image seems to be that it's Kernel-only.

That is, this is an OpenCL feature, not a Vulkan one, and wgpu couldn't possibly make use of it (unless they misunderstood the specification, too?).

The Vulkan feature is NonWritable/NonReadable on the OpVariable, seems like, just like StorageBuffers.

It does seem weird to put it in the attribute in the #[spirv(...)] img: Image!(...) declaration, as the Image<...> type could really use the knowledge, and a writable &Image behaves more like a &[Cell<u32>]/&[AtomicU32] (relying on interior mutability), if that makes sense.

It may be possible to pretend that it is a parameter on image types, or even reuse the AccessQualifier (and rewrite it away to the Vulkan equivalent), but that seems a bit sketchy, not sure what to do about it for now.

(cc @Algorhythm-sxv - sorry you ended up implementing a different feature that the needed one)

[Algorhythm-sxv]

@eddyb is there a workaround to allow use of a wgpu StorageTexture using the attribute syntax then? I see the AccessQualifier in spirv-headers but no documentation on how to use it, or if it's possible to use it.

[Eduard-Mihai Burtescu]

This is the relevant part of my message:

The Vulkan feature is NonWritable/NonReadable on the OpVariable, seems like, just like StorageBuffers.

We currently support toggling NonWritable for buffers based on whether you use &T vs &mut T with #[spirv(storage_buffer, ...)] entry-point parameter declarations, since:

• #1011

In theory, we could do it for images based on &Image vs &mut Image, but like I was saying earlier that doesn't fit very well IMO, since images already behaves as if they wrap interior mutability anyway, and also that doesn't cover NonReadable (because Rust has nothing like a "write-only reference"), which I believe you need?

There's two possible paths, as I see it:

• #[spirv(descriptor_set = ..., binding = ..., non_readable)] img: &Image!(...) in the entry-point params
  • this has been proposed before at least for buffers: #692
  • this seems potentially problematic in terms of being able to turn off methods on the actual types, as the Image<...> would have no information about how it's used
• Image!(..., non_readable) - in the type, even if Vulkan SPIR-V does not store that information there

  • ideally mapped to e.g. struct Image<..., const READABLE: bool, const WRITABLE: bool> to allow impl blocks to select whether they need one or the other (or work regardless), tho see also the trait HasImageFoo pattern

  • this might cause problems depending on the exact details, because the SPIR-V spec states:

    It is invalid to declare multiple non-aggregate, non-pointer type ``s having the same opcode and operands.

    • that is, you would want tests which use the same identical Image<...> type with only these new differences being toggled between them, to show that they don't lead to duplicated definitions or ID conflicts

  • in theory this could even be done with the same syntax and names as for the OpenCL feature (i.e. like in your PR), but at some point those would have to be replaced with the Vulkan equivalent (entry.rs can generate the Vulkan annotations at the same time, and then you have to remove AccessQualifier from the type, replacing all uses of the type, or maybe just never generate the AccessQualifier in the first place, getting you back to what I was saying earlier, but with the downside of seemingly-OpenCL concepts used with Vulkan shaders)