Blog: Reducing Draw Time Hitching with VK_EXT_graphics_pipeline_library

Khronos has introduced a new extension named VK_EXT_graphics_pipeline_library that allows for shaders to be compiled much earlier than at full Pipeline State Object (PSO) creation time. By leveraging this extension, I was able to avoid many causes of frame hitches due to PSOs being late-created at draw time in the Source 2 Vulkan renderer. The extension spec was released today and SDK support will follow soon, you can track the release status at https://github.com/KhronosGroup/Vulkan-Docs/issues/1808.