A Look Inside D3D12 Resource State Barriers

Shikha Kaul

Many D3D12 developers have become accustomed to managing resource state transitions and read/write hazards themselves using the ResourceBarrier API. Prior to D3D12, such details were handled internally by the driver.  However, D3D12 command lists cannot provide the same deterministic state tracking as D3D10 and D3D11 device contexts.  Therefore, state transitions need to be scheduled during D3D12 command list recording. When used responsibly, applications are able to minimize GPU cache flushes and resource state changes. However, it can be tricky to properly leverage resource barriers for correct behavior while also keeping performance penalties low.

Shikha Kaul

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