# VkDescriptorType(3) Manual Page

## Name

VkDescriptorType - Specifies the type of a descriptor in a descriptor set

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## C Specification

The type of descriptors in a descriptor set is specified by VkWriteDescriptorSet::`descriptorType`, which must be one of the values:

    // Provided by VK_VERSION_1_0
    typedef enum VkDescriptorType {
        VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_SAMPLER = 0,
        VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_COMBINED_IMAGE_SAMPLER = 1,
        VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_SAMPLED_IMAGE = 2,
        VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_STORAGE_IMAGE = 3,
        VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_UNIFORM_TEXEL_BUFFER = 4,
        VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_STORAGE_TEXEL_BUFFER = 5,
        VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_UNIFORM_BUFFER = 6,
        VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_STORAGE_BUFFER = 7,
        VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_UNIFORM_BUFFER_DYNAMIC = 8,
        VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_STORAGE_BUFFER_DYNAMIC = 9,
        VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_INPUT_ATTACHMENT = 10,
      // Provided by VK_VERSION_1_3
        VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_INLINE_UNIFORM_BLOCK = 1000138000,
      // Provided by VK_KHR_acceleration_structure
        VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_ACCELERATION_STRUCTURE_KHR = 1000150000,
      // Provided by VK_NV_ray_tracing
        VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_ACCELERATION_STRUCTURE_NV = 1000165000,
      // Provided by VK_QCOM_image_processing
        VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_SAMPLE_WEIGHT_IMAGE_QCOM = 1000440000,
      // Provided by VK_QCOM_image_processing
        VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_BLOCK_MATCH_IMAGE_QCOM = 1000440001,
      // Provided by VK_ARM_tensors
        VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_TENSOR_ARM = 1000460000,
      // Provided by VK_EXT_mutable_descriptor_type
        VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_MUTABLE_EXT = 1000351000,
      // Provided by VK_NV_partitioned_acceleration_structure
        VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_PARTITIONED_ACCELERATION_STRUCTURE_NV = 1000570000,
      // Provided by VK_EXT_inline_uniform_block
        VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_INLINE_UNIFORM_BLOCK_EXT = VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_INLINE_UNIFORM_BLOCK,
      // Provided by VK_VALVE_mutable_descriptor_type
        VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_MUTABLE_VALVE = VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_MUTABLE_EXT,
    } VkDescriptorType;

## Description

- `VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_SAMPLER` specifies a sampler descriptor.

- `VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_COMBINED_IMAGE_SAMPLER` specifies a combined image sampler descriptor.

- `VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_SAMPLED_IMAGE` specifies a sampled image descriptor.

- `VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_STORAGE_IMAGE` specifies a storage image descriptor.

- `VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_UNIFORM_TEXEL_BUFFER` specifies a uniform texel buffer descriptor.

- `VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_STORAGE_TEXEL_BUFFER` specifies a storage texel buffer descriptor.

- `VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_UNIFORM_BUFFER` specifies a uniform buffer descriptor.

- `VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_STORAGE_BUFFER` specifies a storage buffer descriptor.

- `VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_UNIFORM_BUFFER_DYNAMIC` specifies a dynamic uniform buffer descriptor.

- `VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_STORAGE_BUFFER_DYNAMIC` specifies a dynamic storage buffer descriptor.

- `VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_INPUT_ATTACHMENT` specifies an input attachment descriptor.

- `VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_INLINE_UNIFORM_BLOCK` specifies an inline uniform block.

- `VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_MUTABLE_EXT` specifies a descriptor of mutable type.

- `VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_SAMPLE_WEIGHT_IMAGE_QCOM` specifies a sampled weight image descriptor.

- `VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_BLOCK_MATCH_IMAGE_QCOM` specifies a block matching image descriptor.

- `VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_TENSOR_ARM` specifies a storage tensor descriptor.

When a descriptor set is updated via elements of VkWriteDescriptorSet, members of `pImageInfo`, `pBufferInfo` and `pTexelBufferView` are only accessed by the implementation when they correspond to descriptor type being defined - otherwise they are ignored. The members accessed are as follows for each descriptor type:

- For `VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_SAMPLER`, only the `sampler` member of each element of VkWriteDescriptorSet::`pImageInfo` is accessed.

- For `VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_SAMPLED_IMAGE`, `VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_STORAGE_IMAGE`, or `VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_INPUT_ATTACHMENT`, only the `imageView` and `imageLayout` members of each element of VkWriteDescriptorSet::`pImageInfo` are accessed.

- For `VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_COMBINED_IMAGE_SAMPLER`, all members of each element of VkWriteDescriptorSet::`pImageInfo` are accessed.

- For `VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_UNIFORM_BUFFER`, `VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_STORAGE_BUFFER`, `VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_UNIFORM_BUFFER_DYNAMIC`, or `VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_STORAGE_BUFFER_DYNAMIC`, all members of each element of VkWriteDescriptorSet::`pBufferInfo` are accessed.

- For `VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_UNIFORM_TEXEL_BUFFER` or `VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_STORAGE_TEXEL_BUFFER`, each element of VkWriteDescriptorSet::`pTexelBufferView` is accessed.

When updating descriptors with a `descriptorType` of `VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_INLINE_UNIFORM_BLOCK`, none of the `pImageInfo`, `pBufferInfo`, or `pTexelBufferView` members are accessed, instead the source data of the descriptor update operation is taken from the VkWriteDescriptorSetInlineUniformBlock structure in the `pNext` chain of `VkWriteDescriptorSet`. When updating descriptors with a `descriptorType` of `VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_ACCELERATION_STRUCTURE_KHR`, none of the `pImageInfo`, `pBufferInfo`, or `pTexelBufferView` members are accessed, instead the source data of the descriptor update operation is taken from the VkWriteDescriptorSetAccelerationStructureKHR structure in the `pNext` chain of `VkWriteDescriptorSet`. When updating descriptors with a `descriptorType` of `VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_ACCELERATION_STRUCTURE_NV`, none of the `pImageInfo`, `pBufferInfo`, or `pTexelBufferView` members are accessed, instead the source data of the descriptor update operation is taken from the VkWriteDescriptorSetAccelerationStructureNV structure in the `pNext` chain of `VkWriteDescriptorSet`. When updating descriptors with a `descriptorType` of `VK_DESCRIPTOR_TYPE_TENSOR_ARM`, none of the `pImageInfo`, `pBufferInfo`, or `pTexelBufferView` members are accessed, instead the source data of the descriptor update operation is taken from the instance of VkWriteDescriptorSetTensorARM in the `pNext` chain of VkWriteDescriptorSet.

## See Also

VK_VERSION_1_0, VkDescriptorGetInfoEXT, VkDescriptorPoolSize, VkDescriptorSetLayoutBinding, VkDescriptorUpdateTemplateEntry, VkImageViewHandleInfoNVX, VkMutableDescriptorTypeListEXT, VkWriteDescriptorSet

## Document Notes

For more information, see the Vulkan Specification

This page is extracted from the Vulkan Specification. Fixes and changes should be made to the Specification, not directly.

## Copyright

Copyright 2014-2025 The Khronos Group Inc.

SPDX-License-Identifier: CC-BY-4.0