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docs/drivers/panfrost/varyings.rst

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+Varyings
+========
+
+This is the naming convention followed by the hardware (slightly different
+from Vulkan naming):
+
+- "Attribute": per-vertex data
+- "Varying": per-fragment data
+
+Thus vertex shaders always interact with attributes and fragment/pixel shaders
+only interact with varyings (commonly shortened to "VAR").
+
+
+Hardware descriptors
+--------------------
+
+Before Valhall there were two types of hardware descriptors:
+
+- ``AttributeDescriptor``: Descriptor for a single attribute in a larger buffer,
+  contains offset, stride and the in-memory format.
+- ``BufferDescriptor``: Buffer, when used for attributes and varyings it
+  contains: pointer, size and stride
+
+Midgard (v5)
+------------
+Attributes are loaded/stored using ``LD_ATTR``/``ST_ATTR``, those query the
+attribute descriptors and buffer descriptors to find the real global memory
+offset before loading/storing.
+All varyings are loaded using ``LD_VAR``, including flat attributes (using a
+modifier), and special attributes (position, psiz, ecc...).  Special attributes
+require a special descriptor, that is not backed by any buffer, it generates
+data on-the-fly.
+There is a concept of in-memory format and register format, the first is written
+inside of the ``AttributeDescriptor`` while the register format is a modifier of
+the instructions, when those two disagree the hardware will try to convert them,
+this is only supported between int-int or float-float operations.
+
+
+Bifrost (v6)
+------------
+Changes:
+
+- ``ST_ATTR`` is replaced by ``LEA_ATTR`` and ``ST_CVT`` pairs.
+
+  - ``LEA_ATTR`` queries memory address and format from the appropriate
+    descriptor.
+  - ``ST_CVT`` performs the actual conversion and memory store.
+- A new ``LD_VAR_SPECIAL`` is introduced, now special attributes do not need
+  special descriptors.
+- ``LD_VAR`` only handles interpolated varyings, flat varyings are now handled
+  by ``LD_VAR_FLAT``.
+
+Valhall (v9)
+------------
+Valhall introduced layout-specific instructions, ``LEA_BUF`` and ``LD_VAR_BUF``,
+those do not use ``AttributeDescriptor`` but read ``BufferDescriptor`` directly.
+These new instructions bake the offset and in-memory format of the attribute
+inside of the shader code itself, saving a lookup.  If all shaders in a program
+use those instructions, we can remove all ``AttributeDescriptor``.  If the
+shaders aren't compiled together, one of the shaders cannot know the data layout,
+and it needs to fall back to the old ``AttributeDescriptor``-based path.  We
+also have to fall back to ``AttributeDescriptor`` completely if the attribute
+offset overflows the immediate field.
+
+``LD_VAR_BUF`` only supports ``.f16`` and ``.f32`` as register modifiers, we can
+also load (flat) ints with those.  We need to specify no conversion
+(``.f16.src_flat16`` or ``.f32.src_flat32``), but with those we can load both
+16-bit and 32-bit integers.
+
+In this architecture we assume the VS always uses IDVS, emitting attribute data
+with ``LEA_BUF`` (instead of ``LEA_ATTR``), and never emit varying
+``AttributeDescriptor`` for VS.
+
+Challenges
+----------
+Theoretically, the output types from the VS and input types from the FS should
+always agree.  In practice we cannot trust the varyings types given to us,
+here are some challenging examples:
+
+* Shaders are allowed to use the same types with different precision modifiers.
+* ``nir_opt_varying`` erases highp flat types with "float32" and packs them
+  together.
+* Some games like to play with ``intBitsToFloat`` / ``floatBitsToInt``, so it's
+  possible to have VS write int and FS read float (in that case, we treat the
+  underlying bits as float, allowing for NaN normalization)
+
+In practice you have to follow these rules:
+
+* Only FS knows a varying smoothness, VS sees everything as flat.
+* When linked together, you cannot trust highp flat types, but you can trust
+  precision
+* While loading/storing data, mistaking a float for an int is ok, mistaking an
+  int for a float seems to be lossy even without bit-size conversions.  Be
+  conservative on what you say is a float.
+* You cannot lower flat varyings after they passed through ``nir_opt_varying``
+
+Current implementation rules:
+
+* VS decides the memory layout
+* Descriptor formats can mismatch between stages (eg. VS int - FS float)
+* Descriptor formats always match what the instructions are using
+
+
+To regain the type information:
+
+* in VS, every highp varying is written as U32
+* in FS, highp flat varyings are read as U32, highp smooth are read as F32
+* for mediump, we trust the original type