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pipeline
The ordered assembly line of stages a GPU runs to turn 3D geometry into the colored pixels on screen.
The graphics pipeline is a fixed sequence of stages — vertex processing, primitive assembly, rasterization, fragment shading, and output — each feeding the next like a factory line. Some stages are programmable (you write shaders for them) and some are fixed-function. In Vulkan, 'a pipeline' also means a single baked object that freezes all this configuration together so the GPU can run it efficiently.
See also
- rasterizerThe GPU component that turns geometric shapes into the actual grid of pixels that fill them.
- primitive assemblyThe pipeline stage that groups individual vertices into the actual shapes (triangles, lines) to be drawn.
- pipeline-creation timeThe moment shaders get compiled to native GPU machine code — when a Vulkan pipeline object is built, before any drawing.
- render pass / subpassVulkan's way of formally declaring a chunk of rendering and its internal steps up front, so the GPU can optimize it.
Referenced by
perspective divide · pipeline-creation time · pixel lane / fragment lane · primitive assembly · primitive restart · push constant · rasterizer · rasterizer / rasterization · render pass / subpass · retained mode