Memory mapping

To "map memory" in Vulkan means to obtain a CPU pointer to VkDeviceMemory, to be able to read from it or write to it in CPU code. Mapping is possible only of memory allocated from a memory type that has VK_MEMORY_PROPERTY_HOST_VISIBLE_BIT flag. Functions vkMapMemory(), vkUnmapMemory() are designed for this purpose. You can use them directly with memory allocated by this library, but it is not recommended because of following issue: Mapping the same VkDeviceMemory block multiple times is illegal - only one mapping at a time is allowed. This includes mapping disjoint regions. Mapping is not reference-counted internally by Vulkan. Because of this, Vulkan Memory Allocator provides following facilities:

Mapping functions

The library provides following functions for mapping of a specific VmaAllocation: vmaMapMemory(), vmaUnmapMemory(). They are safer and more convenient to use than standard Vulkan functions. You can map an allocation multiple times simultaneously - mapping is reference-counted internally. You can also map different allocations simultaneously regardless of whether they use the same VkDeviceMemory block. The way it is implemented is that the library always maps entire memory block, not just region of the allocation. For further details, see description of vmaMapMemory() function. Example:

// Having these objects initialized:
 
struct ConstantBuffer
{
    ...
};
ConstantBuffer constantBufferData;
 
VmaAllocator allocator;
VkBuffer constantBuffer;
VmaAllocation constantBufferAllocation;
 
// You can map and fill your buffer using following code:
 
void* mappedData;
vmaMapMemory(allocator, constantBufferAllocation, &mappedData);
memcpy(mappedData, &constantBufferData, sizeof(constantBufferData));
vmaUnmapMemory(allocator, constantBufferAllocation);

When mapping, you may see a warning from Vulkan validation layer similar to this one:

Mapping an image with layout VK_IMAGE_LAYOUT_DEPTH_STENCIL_ATTACHMENT_OPTIMAL can result in undefined behavior if this memory is used by the device. Only GENERAL or PREINITIALIZED should be used.

It happens because the library maps entire VkDeviceMemory block, where different types of images and buffers may end up together, especially on GPUs with unified memory like Intel. You can safely ignore it if you are sure you access only memory of the intended object that you wanted to map.

Persistently mapped memory

Kepping your memory persistently mapped is generally OK in Vulkan. You don't need to unmap it before using its data on the GPU. The library provides a special feature designed for that: Allocations made with VMA_ALLOCATION_CREATE_MAPPED_BIT flag set in VmaAllocationCreateInfo::flags stay mapped all the time, so you can just access CPU pointer to it any time without a need to call any "map" or "unmap" function. Example:

VkBufferCreateInfo bufCreateInfo = { VK_STRUCTURE_TYPE_BUFFER_CREATE_INFO };
bufCreateInfo.size = sizeof(ConstantBuffer);
bufCreateInfo.usage = VK_BUFFER_USAGE_TRANSFER_SRC_BIT;
 
VmaAllocationCreateInfo allocCreateInfo = {};
allocCreateInfo.usage = VMA_MEMORY_USAGE_CPU_ONLY;
allocCreateInfo.flags = VMA_ALLOCATION_CREATE_MAPPED_BIT;
 
VkBuffer buf;
VmaAllocation alloc;
VmaAllocationInfo allocInfo;
vmaCreateBuffer(allocator, &bufCreateInfo, &allocCreateInfo, &buf, &alloc, &allocInfo);
 
// Buffer is already mapped. You can access its memory.
memcpy(allocInfo.pMappedData, &constantBufferData, sizeof(constantBufferData));

There are some exceptions though, when you should consider mapping memory only for a short period of time:

• When operating system is Windows 7 or 8.x (Windows 10 is not affected because it uses WDDM2), device is discrete AMD GPU, and memory type is the special 256 MiB pool of DEVICE_LOCAL + HOST_VISIBLE memory (selected when you use VMA_MEMORY_USAGE_CPU_TO_GPU), then whenever a memory block allocated from this memory type stays mapped for the time of any call to vkQueueSubmit() or vkQueuePresentKHR(), this block is migrated by WDDM to system RAM, which degrades performance. It doesn't matter if that particular memory block is actually used by the command buffer being submitted.
• Keeping many large memory blocks mapped may impact performance or stability of some debugging tools.

Cache flush and invalidate

Memory in Vulkan doesn't need to be unmapped before using it on GPU, but unless a memory types has VK_MEMORY_PROPERTY_HOST_COHERENT_BIT flag set, you need to manually invalidate cache before reading of mapped pointer and flush cache after writing to mapped pointer. Map/unmap operations don't do that automatically. Vulkan provides following functions for this purpose vkFlushMappedMemoryRanges(), vkInvalidateMappedMemoryRanges(), but this library provides more convenient functions that refer to given allocation object: vmaFlushAllocation(), vmaInvalidateAllocation(), or multiple objects at once: vmaFlushAllocations(), vmaInvalidateAllocations().

Regions of memory specified for flush/invalidate must be aligned to VkPhysicalDeviceLimits::nonCoherentAtomSize. This is automatically ensured by the library. In any memory type that is HOST_VISIBLE but not HOST_COHERENT, all allocations within blocks are aligned to this value, so their offsets are always multiply of nonCoherentAtomSize and two different allocations never share same "line" of this size.

Please note that memory allocated with VMA_MEMORY_USAGE_CPU_ONLY is guaranteed to be HOST_COHERENT.

Also, Windows drivers from all 3 PC GPU vendors (AMD, Intel, NVIDIA) currently provide HOST_COHERENT flag on all memory types that are HOST_VISIBLE, so on this platform you may not need to bother.

Finding out if memory is mappable

It may happen that your allocation ends up in memory that is HOST_VISIBLE (available for mapping) despite it wasn't explicitly requested. For example, application may work on integrated graphics with unified memory (like Intel) or allocation from video memory might have failed, so the library chose system memory as fallback.

You can detect this case and map such allocation to access its memory on CPU directly, instead of launching a transfer operation. In order to do that: call vmaGetAllocationMemoryProperties() and look for VK_MEMORY_PROPERTY_HOST_VISIBLE_BIT flag.

VkBufferCreateInfo bufCreateInfo = { VK_STRUCTURE_TYPE_BUFFER_CREATE_INFO };
bufCreateInfo.size = sizeof(ConstantBuffer);
bufCreateInfo.usage = VK_BUFFER_USAGE_UNIFORM_BUFFER_BIT | VK_BUFFER_USAGE_TRANSFER_DST_BIT;
 
VmaAllocationCreateInfo allocCreateInfo = {};
allocCreateInfo.usage = VMA_MEMORY_USAGE_GPU_ONLY;
allocCreateInfo.preferredFlags = VK_MEMORY_PROPERTY_HOST_VISIBLE_BIT;
 
VkBuffer buf;
VmaAllocation alloc;
vmaCreateBuffer(allocator, &bufCreateInfo, &allocCreateInfo, &buf, &alloc, nullptr);
 
VkMemoryPropertyFlags memFlags;
vmaGetAllocationMemoryProperties(allocator, alloc, &memFlags);
if((memFlags & VK_MEMORY_PROPERTY_HOST_VISIBLE_BIT) != 0)
{
    // Allocation ended up in mappable memory. You can map it and access it directly.
    void* mappedData;
    vmaMapMemory(allocator, alloc, &mappedData);
    memcpy(mappedData, &constantBufferData, sizeof(constantBufferData));
    vmaUnmapMemory(allocator, alloc);
}
else
{
    // Allocation ended up in non-mappable memory.
    // You need to create CPU-side buffer in VMA_MEMORY_USAGE_CPU_ONLY and make a transfer.
}

You can even use VMA_ALLOCATION_CREATE_MAPPED_BIT flag while creating allocations that are not necessarily HOST_VISIBLE (e.g. using VMA_MEMORY_USAGE_GPU_ONLY). If the allocation ends up in memory type that is HOST_VISIBLE, it will be persistently mapped and you can use it directly. If not, the flag is just ignored. Example:

VkBufferCreateInfo bufCreateInfo = { VK_STRUCTURE_TYPE_BUFFER_CREATE_INFO };
bufCreateInfo.size = sizeof(ConstantBuffer);
bufCreateInfo.usage = VK_BUFFER_USAGE_UNIFORM_BUFFER_BIT | VK_BUFFER_USAGE_TRANSFER_DST_BIT;
 
VmaAllocationCreateInfo allocCreateInfo = {};
allocCreateInfo.usage = VMA_MEMORY_USAGE_GPU_ONLY;
allocCreateInfo.flags = VMA_ALLOCATION_CREATE_MAPPED_BIT;
 
VkBuffer buf;
VmaAllocation alloc;
VmaAllocationInfo allocInfo;
vmaCreateBuffer(allocator, &bufCreateInfo, &allocCreateInfo, &buf, &alloc, &allocInfo);
 
if(allocInfo.pMappedData != nullptr)
{
    // Allocation ended up in mappable memory.
    // It is persistently mapped. You can access it directly.
    memcpy(allocInfo.pMappedData, &constantBufferData, sizeof(constantBufferData));
}
else
{
    // Allocation ended up in non-mappable memory.
    // You need to create CPU-side buffer in VMA_MEMORY_USAGE_CPU_ONLY and make a transfer.
}