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Using Descriptor Tables

  • Article

Descriptor tables, each identifying a range in a descriptor heap, are bound at slots defined by the current root signature on a command list.

Shaders can locate resources referenced by the descriptors that make up the descriptor table. Other resource bindings - Index Buffers, Vertex Buffer, Stream Output Buffers, Render Targets, and Depth Stencil are done directly on a command list rather than via descriptors. To summarize:

The following resource references can share the same descriptor table and heap:

  • Shader resource views
  • Unordered access views
  • Constant buffer views

The following resource references must be in their own descriptor heap:

  • Samplers

The following resources are not placed in descriptor tables or heaps, but are bound directly using command lists:

  • Index buffers
  • Vertex buffers
  • Stream output buffers
  • Render targets
  • Depth stencil views

Indexing Descriptor Tables

Shaders cannot dynamically index across descriptor table boundaries from a given call-site in the shader. However, the selection of a descriptor within a descriptor table is allowed to be dynamically indexed in shader code within ranges of the same descriptor type (such as indexing across a contiguous region of SRVs).

Descriptor Tables