VK_QCOM_image_processing3

Other Extension Metadata

Last Modified Date

2026-05-08

Interactions and External Dependencies

• This extension provides API support for GL_QCOM_image_processing3
• Interacts with VK_QCOM_tile_shading
• Interacts with VK_QCOM_image_processing
• Interacts with VK_QCOM_image_processing2

Contributors

• Matthew Netsch, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.
• Jonathan Wicks, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.
• Liang Li, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.
• Wooyoung Kim, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.

Description

This extension introduces a new SPIR-V built-in function to support predefined image gather operations used in popular image processing algorithms such as super resolution upscaling and contrast-adaptive sharpening.

The OpImageGatherQCOM instruction supports the following modes:

• GatherH2QCOM - produces an image gather with an extra horizontal offset
• GatherV2QCOM - produces an image gather with an extra vertical offset. Combined with OpImageGather and GatherH2QCOM, this is useful for creating a 12-tap filter for upscaling.
• GatherDQCOM - produces an image gather by sampling the cardinal offsets. Combined with a point sample of the center texel, this is useful for creating a 5-tap sharpening filter (eg. CAS).
• Gather4x1QCOM - produces an image gather by sampling 4 texels in a horizontal row. This is useful for kernels requiring vectorized loads, and can help with cache locality for linear access.

Each of the image processing instructions operate on the same sampled images that the OpImage*Gather instructions support with the exception of cube-maps, depth comparison, ConstOffsets, and sparse residency check.

Implementations of this extension should support these operations natively at the HW instruction level, offering potential performance gains as well as ease of development.

This extension also adds some block matching improvements over VK_QCOM_image_processing and VK_QCOM_image_processing2 by exposing more formats and wrap modes.

New Structures

• Extending VkPhysicalDeviceFeatures2, VkDeviceCreateInfo:
  • VkPhysicalDeviceImageProcessing3FeaturesQCOM

New Enum Constants

• VK_QCOM_IMAGE_PROCESSING_3_EXTENSION_NAME
• VK_QCOM_IMAGE_PROCESSING_3_SPEC_VERSION
• Extending VkStructureType:
  • VK_STRUCTURE_TYPE_PHYSICAL_DEVICE_IMAGE_PROCESSING_3_FEATURES_QCOM

If VK_QCOM_image_processing is supported:

• Extending VkFormatFeatureFlagBits2:
  • VK_FORMAT_FEATURE_2_BLOCK_MATCHING_SXD_BIT_QCOM

New SPIR-V Capabilities

• ImageGatherLinearQCOM
• ImageGatherExtendedModesQCOM

Version History

• Revision 1, 2026-05-08 (Matthew Netsch)