Ability to create pointers to Workgroup/Shared memory in shaders

[Cazadorro]

Feature request for workgroup/shared memory pointers.

Ideally we could get pointers to workgroup/shared memory like in cuda/opencl.

void foo(float * ptr){
...
}

...

shared float x[32];
foo(&x);

On the vulkan discord there was discussion after the first vulkanized event about the fact in hardware, there are performance considerations for being able to deal with both shared/global pointers in a function. So for the purposes of this feature request, the only thing actually being requested is the features of PhysicalStorageBuffer, but for just the workgroup storage class.

This would allow us to

• re-interpret cast data
• more easily target SPIR-V as a language
• more easily write functions in GLSL (as BufferDeviceAddress/and physicalstoragebuffer allowed us to do)

[marty-johnson59]

@cazadorro, thanks for the input and sorry for the delayed reply. We are just now gearing up for the next round of projects, and will add this request to the discussion queue to determine how it fits into plans/priorities.