opengl - GLSL per-pixel spinlock using imageAtomicCompSwap

Question

OpenGL red book version 9 (OpenGL 4.5) example 11.13 is Simple Per-Pixel Mutex. It uses imageAtomicCompSwap in a do {} while() loop to take a per-pixel lock to prevent simultaneous access to a shared resouce between pixel shader invocations corresponding to the same pixel coordinate.

layout (binding = 0, r32ui) uniform volatile coherent uimage2D lock_image;

void main(void)
{
    ivec2 pos = ivec2(gl_FragCoord.xy);

    // spinlock - acquire
    uint lock_available;
    do {
        lock_available = imageAtomicCompSwap(lock_image, pos, 0, 1);
    } while (lock_available != 0);

    // do some operations protected by the lock
    do_something();

    // spinlock - release
    imageStore(lock_image, pos, uvec4(0));
}

This example results in APPCRASH on both Nvidia and AMD GPUs. I know on these two platforms PS vocations are unable to progress indepenently of each other - a sub-group of threads is executed in lockstep, sharing the control flow (a "warp" of 32 threads in Nvidia's terminology). So it may result in deadlock.

However, there is nowhere that OpenGL spec mentioned "threads executed in lockstep". It only mentioned "The relative order of invocations of the same shader type are undefined.". As in this example, why can we not use atomic operation imageAtomicCompSwap to ensure exclusive access between different PS invocations? Does this mean Nvidia and AMD GPU not conform with OpenGL spec?

Answer 1

As in this example, why can we not use atomic operation imageAtomicCompSwap to ensure exclusive access between different PS invocations?

If you are using atomic operations to lock access to a pixel, you are relying on one aspect of relative order: that all threads will eventually make forward progress. That is, you assume that any thread spinning on a lock will not starve the thread that has the lock of its execution resources. That threads holding the lock will eventually make forward progress and release it.

But since the relative order of execution is undefined, there is no guarantee of any of that. And therefore, your code cannot work. Any code which relies on any aspect of ordering between the invocations of a single shader stage cannot work (unless there are specific guarantees in place).

This is precisely why ARB_fragment_shader_interlock exists.

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That being said, even if there were guarantees of forward progress, your code would still be broken.

You use a non-atomic operation to release the lock. You should be using an atomic set operation.

Plus, as others have pointed out, you need to continue to spin if the return value from the atomic compare/swap is not zero. Remember: all atomic functions return the original value from the image. So if the original value it atomically read is not 0, then it compared false and you don't have the lock.

Now, your code will still be UB by the spec. But it's more likely to work.