DirectX / OpenGL(Vulkan) concepts mapping chart

Question

Often a similar hardware feature is exposed via DirectX and OpenGL using different terminology.

For example:
Constant Buffer / Uniform Buffer Object
RWBuffer / SSBO

I am looking for an exhaustive chart that describes which DirectX terminology is used to refer to which OpenGL concept, and vice-versa.
Where can I find such a resource?

Answer 1

I haven't been able to find such a chart on the web, so I made one here. (Everyone, feel free to add, elaborate, or correct any mistakes. Some of these are just best guesses based on a partial understanding of the API and hardware internals.)

API Basics

D3D11                          OpenGL 4.x
-----                          ----------
device                         context
immediate context              (implicit; no specific name)
deferred context               (no cross-vendor equivalent, but see
                                GL_NV_command_list)
swap chain                     (implicit; no specific name)
(no cross-vendor equivalent)   extensions
debug layer; info queue        GL_KHR_debug extension

Shaders

D3D11              OpenGL 4.x
-----              ----------
pixel shader       fragment shader
hull shader        tessellation control shader
domain shader      tessellation evaluation shader
(vertex shader, geometry shader, and compute shader
 are called the same in both)

registers          binding points
semantics          interface layouts
SV_Foo semantics   gl_Foo builtin variables

class linkage      subroutines

(no equivalent)    program objects; program linking

(D3D11's normal
 behavior; no      separate shader objects
 specific name)

Geometry and Drawing

D3D11              OpenGL 4.x
-----              ----------
vertex buffer      vertex attribute array buffer; vertex buffer object
index buffer       element array buffer
input layout       vertex array object (sort of)

Draw               glDrawArrays
DrawIndexed        glDrawElements
(instancing and indirect draw are called similarly in both)
(no equivalent)    multi-draw, e.g. glMultiDrawElements​

stream-out         transform feedback
DrawAuto           glDrawTransformFeedback​

predication        conditional rendering
(no equivalent)    sync objects

Buffers and Textures

D3D11                    OpenGL 4.x
-----                    ----------
constant buffer          uniform buffer object
typed buffer             texture buffer
structured buffer        (no specific name; subset of SSBO features)
UAV buffer; RWBuffer     SSBO (shader storage buffer object)
UAV texture; RWTexture   image load/store

shader resource view     texture view
sampler state            sampler object

interlocked operations   atomic operations
append/consume buffer    SSBO + atomic counter

discard buffer/texture   invalidate buffer/texture
(no equivalent)          persistent mapping
(D3D11's normal
 behavior; no            immutable storage
 specific name)
(implicitly inserted     glMemoryBarrier; glTextureBarrier
 by the API)

Render Targets

D3D11                     OpenGL 4.x
-----                     ----------
(no equivalent)           framebuffer object
render target view        framebuffer color attachment
depth-stencil view        framebuffer depth-stencil attachment
multisample resolve       blit multisampled buffer to non-multisampled one

multiple render targets   multiple color attachments
render target array       layered image

(no equivalent)           renderbuffer

Queries

D3D11                       OpenGL 4.x
-----                       ----------
timestamp query             timer query
timestamp-disjoint query    (no equivalent)
(no equivalent)             time-elapsed query
occlusion query             samples-passed query
occlusion predicate query   any-samples-passed query
pipeline statistics query   (no equivalent in core, but see
                             GL_ARB_pipeline_statistics_query)
SO statistics query         primitives-generated/-written queries 
(no equivalent)             query buffer object

Compute Shaders

D3D11                     OpenGL 4.x
-----                     ----------
thread                    invocation
thread group              work group
thread group size         local size
threadgroup variable      shared variable

group sync                "plain" barrier
group memory barrier      shared memory barrier
device memory barrier     atomic+buffer+image memory barriers
all memory barrier        group memory barrier

Other Resources

• Porting from DirectX11 to OpenGL 4.2 – not exhaustive, but a quick discussion of common porting issues
• MSDN: GLSL-to-HLSL porting guide – lists correspondences and differences between GLSL and HLSL shading languages

Answer 2

Here's a non-exhaustive list of Vulkan and DirectX 12. This is cobbled together using criteria similar to that of Nathan's.

Overall both APIs are surprisingly similar. Things like shader stages remain unchanged from DX11 and OpenGL. And obviously, DirectX uses views to make things visible to shaders. Vulkan also uses views, but they are less frequent.

Shader visibility behavior differs a bit between the two. Vulkan uses a mask to determine if a descriptor is visible to the various shader stages. DX12 handles this a little differently, resource visibility is either done on single stage or all stages.

I broke the descriptor set / root parameter stuff down best I could. Descriptor handling is one of the areas that vary greatly between the two APIs. However, the end result is fairly similar.

API Basics

Vulkan                              DirectX 12
---------------                     ---------------
n/a                                 IDXGIFactory4
VkInstance                          n/a
VkPhysicalDevice                    IDXGIAdapter1
VkDevice                            ID3D12Device
VkQueue                             ID3D12CommandQueue
VkSwapchain                         IDXGISwapChain3
VkFormat                            DXGI_FORMAT
SPIR-V                              D3D12_SHADER_BYTECODE
VkFence                             fences
VkSemaphore                         n/a
VkEvent                             n/a

Vulkan's WSI layer supplies images for the swapchain. DX12 requires creation resources to represent the image.

General queue behavior is pretty similar between both. There's a bit of idiosyncrasy when submitting from multiple threads.

Will try to update as I remember more stuff...

Command Buffer and Pool

Vulkan                              DirectX 12
---------------                     ---------------
VkCommandPool                       ID3D12CommandAllocator
VkCommandBuffer                     ID3D12CommandList/ID3D12GraphicsCommandList

Verbiage about command pool/allocator from Vulkan/DX12 docs state the behavior in very different words - but the actual behavior is pretty similar. Users are free to allocate many command buffers/lists from the pool. However, only one command buffer/list from the pool can be recording. Pools cannot be shared between threads. So multiple threads require multiple pools. You can also begin recording immediately after submitting the command buffer/list on both.

DX12 command list are created in an open state. I find this a bit annoying since I'm used to Vulkan. DX12 also requires and explicit reset of the command allocator and command list. This is an optional behavior in Vulkan.

Descriptors

Vulkan                              DirectX 12
---------------                     ---------------
VkDescriptorPool                    n/a
VkDescriptorSet                     n/a
VkDescriptorSetLayout               n/a
VkDescriptorSetLayoutBinding        RootParameter**
n/a                                 ID3D12DescriptorHeap

** RootParameter - not an exact equivalent to VkDescriptorSetLayoutBinding but similar thinking in the bigger picture.

VkDescriptorPool and ID3D12DescriptorHeaps are sort of similar (thanks Nicolas) in that they both manage allocation of the descriptors themselves.

It should be noted that DX12 only supports at most two descriptor heaps bound to a command list at any given time. One CBVSRVUAV and one sampler. You can have as many descriptor tables as you want referencing these heaps.

On the Vulkan side, there is a hard limit to the max number of descriptor sets that you tell the descriptor pool. On both you have to do a bit of manual accounting on the number of descriptors per type the pool/heap can have. Vulkan is also more explicit with the type of descriptors. Whereas on DX12 descriptors are either CBVSRVUAV or sampler.

DX12 also has a feature where you can sort of bind a CBV on the fly using SetGraphicsRootConstantBufferView. However, the SRV version of this, SetGraphicsRootShaderResourceView, does not work on textures. It's in the docs - but may also take you a couple of hours to figure this out if you're not a careful reader.

Pipeline

Vulkan                              DirectX 12
---------------                     ---------------
VkPipelineLayout                    RootSignature***
VkPipeline                          ID3D12PipelineState
VkVertexInputAttributeDescription   D3D12_INPUT_ELEMENT_DESC
VkVertexInputBindingDescription     "

* **RootSignature - not an exact equivalent to VkPipelineLayout.

DX12 combines the vertex attribute and binding into a single description.

Images and Buffers

Vulkan                              DirectX 12
---------------                     ---------------
VkImage                             ID3D12Resource
VkBuffer                            ID3D12Resource
uniform buffer                      constant buffer
index buffer                        index buffer
vertex buffer                       vertex buffer
VkSampler                           sampler
barriers/transitions                barriers/transitions

Barriers on both APIs break down a bit different, but have similar net result.

RenderPasses / RenderTargets

Vulkan                              DirectX 12
---------------                     ---------------
VkRenderPass                        render pass
VkFramebuffer                       collection of ID3D12Resource
subpass                             n/a
n/a                                 render target

Vulkan render passes have a nice auto-resolve feature. DX12 doesn't have this AFIAK. Both APIs provide functions for manual resolve.

There's not a direct equivalence between VkFramebuffer and any objects in DX12. A collection of ID3D12Resource that map to RTVs is a loose similarity.

VkFramebuffer acts more or less like an attachment pool that VkRenderPass references using an index. Subpasses within a VkRenderPass can reference any of the attachments in a VkFramebuffer assuming the same attachment isn't referenced more than once per subpass. Max number of color attachments used at once is limited to VkPhysicalDeviceLimits.maxColorAttachments.

DX12's render targets are just RTVs that are backed by an ID3D12Resource objects. Max number of color attachments used at once is limited to D3D12_SIMULTANEOUS_RENDER_TARGET_COUNT (8).

Both APIs require you to specify the render targets/passes at the creation of the pipeline objects. However, Vulkan allows you to use compatible render passes, so you're not locked into the ones you specify during the pipline creation. I haven't tested it on DX12, but I would guess since it's just an RTV, this is also true on DX12.