Lampshade

Lampshade provides fast, composable GPU histograms, reduction, argmin selection, predicate masks, prefix scan, stream compaction, run-length encoding, and unsigned integer radix sort for Rust applications using wgpu and WGSL.

Benchmarks

Resident GPU-buffer benchmarks include command recording, submission, execution, and reusable workspace management. They exclude host upload and validation readback. Reduction comparisons include the required four-byte scalar readback for both libraries. Inputs are deterministic, outputs are validated, and reported comparisons are medians of independent process medians.

The published-release regression harness runs identical resident workloads against crates.io 0.12.1 on WGPU 29 and the 0.13 development checkout on WGPU 30. The migration run writes raw samples and process medians to JSON while treating cross-runtime timing as characterization, not a same-stack regression gate. The 0.8 typed-pipeline stabilization report records the final fixed-path gate and targeted rechecks. The Lampshade migration report verifies the 0.8 rename against its published 0.7 predecessor. The key-only sort report records the fixed-length u32 8-bit path, large-input validation, and its unchanged key/value control. The ArgMin-by-key report records the new fixed and GPU-counted selector, its full-sort application baseline, and the published-0.11 regression gate. The 0.9 release report records the crates.io 0.8 regression gate, final key-sort/RLE characterization, and identical-package validation on RTX, Jetson Orin, Intel, and Apple GPUs. The WGPU 29 candidate report records an RTX pass and the accepted WGPU 29 Metal completion-boundary cost. Lampshade 0.10 through 0.12 use WGPU 29; 0.13 returns the current development line to WGPU 30. The adjacent downstream spike report separates promising Gaussian-splatting integrations from release readiness. The 0.11 release report records the clean same-runtime regression gate and physical SoA correctness validation on NVIDIA Vulkan, Apple Metal, and Intel Vulkan. The GPU-counted radix report records the Intel portable-SoA speedup, Metal parity, and rejected Metal experiments. The GPU-resident count report separates isolated scheduling cost from full compaction-to-sort/reduction results on RTX, Intel, and two Jetsons, plus fixed-path regression controls.

The comparison tables below are historical pre-0.10 measurements using the runtime versions stated in their linked reports. They remain algorithmic baselines, not evidence for the current release candidate; source-pinned release and downstream integration reports supersede them where available.

Against Massively 0.96

On an RTX 4070 Ti SUPER using Vulkan, Lampshade was faster in every overlapping 100-million-item workload:

The same comparison at 10 million items also favored Lampshade on two Jetson Orin Nano systems:

See the Massively harness and wgpu 30 report for the method, exact revisions, complete matrices, and machine-readable results.

Intel Vulkan

On Intel Alder Lake-N integrated graphics at 10 million items, Lampshade led Massively in every workload. Sort uses the capability-gated 4-bit radix path; reduction uses the portable kernel:

All 74 tests in the historical 0.6 release-candidate suite passed; the counted and typed APIs added later in 0.8 were not part of that Intel run. At 100M, reduction measured 21.983 ms versus 22.836 ms for Massively, a 1.04x lead. The Intel wide-radix report includes 1M-100M results, stage profiles, and measured regression controls. At 100M, the same four speedups are 9.78x, 4.79x, 2.44x, and 2.52x respectively.

Apple Metal

Upgrading from wgpu 28 to wgpu 30 removed the previous host-returning reduction deficit on an M3 Pro. These are final-candidate medians of three independent process medians:

Massively 0.96 could not initialize these Metal pipelines: its generated layouts requested 42 or 47 storage buffers against the adapter limit of 29. The harness records this as an unsupported comparison, not an artificial speedup. Reduction does run in both libraries and uses the same end-to-host scalar boundary. All 74 tests in the historical 0.6 release-candidate suite and every then-current 100M benchmark validator passed on the M3 Pro; the later 0.8 counted and typed APIs were not rerun there. See the wgpu 30 report, the earlier Apple report, and the upstream issue.

Against wgpu_sort

On the tested NVIDIA Vulkan system at 100 million key/value pairs:

The wgpu_sort report documents the pinned baseline and reproduction harness.

Features

• Portable 1-256-bin u32 histograms with workgroup-private counters.
• Wrapping sum, minimum, and maximum reduction for u32 values.
• Lexicographic argmin selection for (u32 key, u32 value) records.
• Inclusive and exclusive u32 prefix scan.
• Reusable comparison predicates that produce compaction-ready masks.
• Stable compaction of u32 values and KeyValue records.
• Adjacent u32 run-length encoding with a GPU-resident run count.
• Stable radix sort for u32 values and (u32 key, u32 value) pairs.
• Stable in-place radix sort for separate u32 key/value buffers, with a native NVIDIA Vulkan path and a transparent portable bridge.
• Explicit key-width bounds that skip unnecessary radix passes.
• Slice APIs for simple upload/execute/readback workflows.
• GPU-buffer APIs for composing work in one command encoder.
• Capacity-bounded sort and reduction driven by GPU-resident item counts.
• Typed buffer views and an ordered pipeline recorder that prepares shared GPU-count metadata automatically.
• Reusable scratch storage and no unsafe blocks in library code.

The Massively and wgpu_sort comparisons above were collected under the former wgpu-primitives package name. The 0.8 rebrand changed package/import names but not those kernels or timing boundaries; newer Lampshade measurements are linked separately.

Installation

Lampshade 0.13 uses wgpu 30. Applications using wgpu 29 can remain on Lampshade 0.12. Tokio is listed because the executable quick start below uses #[tokio::main]; library development dependencies do not propagate to applications.

[dependencies]

lampshade = "0.13"
wgpu = "30"
tokio = { version = "1", features = ["macros", "rt-multi-thread"] }

The predecessor was published as wgpu-primitives = "0.7". Existing users can move to Lampshade and change Rust imports from wgpu_primitives to lampshade. Upgrade Lampshade and wgpu together because public wgpu types from different major versions are not interchangeable. See the 0.13 migration note.

Separate key/value buffers

KeyValueSoaSorter keeps keys and payloads in the caller's separate buffers. The fixed-count API owns its tiny count buffer, so renderers with a CPU-known item count do not need to manufacture GPU metadata:

let mut sorter = lampshade::KeyValueSoaSorter::new(&device, &queue);
sorter.prepare_sort(&keys, &values, item_count)?;

// Per frame: record into the application's existing command encoder.
sorter.record_reserved_sort(&mut encoder, &keys, &values, item_count)?;

For GPU-produced lengths, use prepare_counted_from_word and record_reserved_sort_counted_from_word; the selected prefix never returns to the CPU. On a validated NVIDIA Vulkan device with fixed 32-wide subgroups, Lampshade uses its native four-pass SoA kernel. Other adapters use the same public interface via a pack → portable stable sort → unpack bridge. That fallback preserves correctness and composition, but it uses two internal AoS bridge buffers plus the portable sorter's workspace and is not presented as a performance win.

Applications that create their own device can opt into the native path without hard-coding Lampshade's feature and limit contract:

let soa = lampshade::KeyValueSoaSorter::requirements(&adapter);
let required_features = soa.features(application_features);
let required_limits = soa.limits(application_limits);

let (device, queue) = adapter.request_device(&wgpu::DeviceDescriptor {
    required_features,
    required_limits,
    ..Default::default()
}).await?;

Quick start

use lampshade::{
    ArgminByKey, Compactor, Context, KeyValue, MaskGenerator, Reducer,
    RunLengthEncoder, Scanner, Sorter, U32Predicate,
};

#[tokio::main]
async fn main() -> Result<(), lampshade::Error> {
    let context = Context::init().await?;
    let generator = MaskGenerator::from_context(&context);
    let mut reducer = Reducer::from_context(&context);
    let mut argmin = ArgminByKey::from_context(&context);
    let mut scanner = Scanner::from_context(&context);
    let mut compactor = Compactor::from_context(&context);
    let mut run_length = RunLengthEncoder::from_context(&context);
    let mut sorter = Sorter::from_context(&context);

    let input = [4, 17, 9, 22, 11, 3];
    let mask = generator
        .mask(&input, U32Predicate::GreaterThanOrEqual(10))
        .await?;

    assert_eq!(mask, [0, 1, 0, 1, 1, 0]);
    assert_eq!(reducer.sum(&input).await?, 66);
    assert_eq!(
        argmin
            .argmin(&[KeyValue::new(7, 3), KeyValue::new(7, 1)])
            .await?,
        KeyValue::new(7, 1),
    );
    assert_eq!(scanner.scan_exclusive(&[3, 1, 4, 1]).await?, [0, 3, 4, 8]);
    assert_eq!(compactor.compact(&input, &mask).await?, [17, 22, 11]);
    assert_eq!(
        run_length.encode(&[3, 3, 7, 7, 7, 3]).await?,
        (vec![3, 7, 3], vec![2, 3, 1]),
    );
    assert_eq!(sorter.sort(&input).await?, [3, 4, 9, 11, 17, 22]);
    Ok(())
}

See examples/ for standalone primitives and composed resident pipelines. The particle pipeline filters, stably compacts, and depth-sorts key/entity records with one submission and one final readback.

GPU-resident composition

The pipeline API below has been stable since Lampshade 0.8 and is not present in the published wgpu-primitives 0.7 predecessor.

Applications that already own a wgpu device should reuse it and record multiple primitives before submitting once. The stable pipeline API carries buffer ranges, capacities, and fixed or GPU-resident extents between operations:

let mut primitives = pipeline::Primitives::new(&device, &queue);
let input_view = pipeline::GpuSlice::from_range(&input_buffer, 0..item_count)?;
let mask_output = pipeline::GpuSliceMut::from_range(&mask_buffer, 0..item_count)?;
let compacted = pipeline::GpuSliceMut::from_range(&compacted_buffer, 0..item_count)?;
let sorted = pipeline::GpuSliceMut::from_range(&sorted_buffer, 0..item_count)?;
let sum = pipeline::GpuSliceMut::from_range(&sum_buffer, 0..1)?;
let count = pipeline::GpuCount::new(&output_count)?;

primitives.reserve_workspace(
    pipeline::WorkspaceRequirements::new(item_count)
        .predicate()
        .compact()
        .counted_sort()
        .counted_reduce(),
)?;
primitives.reserve_count(count, item_count)?;

let mut recorder = primitives.record(&mut encoder);
let mask = recorder.mask(
    input_view,
    mask_output,
    U32Predicate::GreaterThanOrEqual(10),
)?;
let compacted = recorder.compact(input_view, mask, compacted, count)?;
let sorted = recorder.sort(compacted, sorted, pipeline::SortOptions::default())?;
recorder.reduce(sorted, sum, U32Reduction::Sum)?;
drop(recorder);
queue.submit(Some(encoder.finish()));

This recording boundary is especially important on WGPU 29 Metal. On the tested M3 Pro, an explicit submit plus Device::poll(Wait) cost about 1.53 ms even for an empty command buffer. Record the whole GPU workflow and synchronize only for a required host readback; calling a host-returning convenience method for every primitive repeatedly pays that runtime cost.

resident_pipeline.rs composes u32 predicate, compaction, sort, and reduction. The particle example proves the same typed flow for KeyValue records: predicate, stable compaction, and stable sort by key. Compaction writes the selected count and later primitives consume it without a CPU synchronization point. The recorder caches a GpuCountPlan internally and schedules its preparation once after the count producer. Existing raw-buffer and explicit-plan APIs remain available.

GpuSlice ranges use element indices and may start at aligned nonzero offsets. Different read/write roles in one primitive must still use distinct underlying buffer handles: WebGPU treats writable storage use as exclusive even for disjoint static binding ranges. reserve_workspace prepares only the requested pipelines and grows only their capacity-dependent workspaces; bind groups and small uniform buffers may still be created while commands are recorded.

Plans default to CountedSortDispatch::Indirect, which sizes radix reduce/scatter launches to the GPU-selected prefix and is the portable choice for unknown or sparse counts. Its histogram scan remains capacity-sized. CountedSortDispatch::Capacity trades inactive workgroups for lower dispatch overhead and should be selected only with workload-specific benchmark evidence.

The command encoder preserves GPU execution order. Rust borrows the encoder and buffers only while recording; no input is cloned or read back. Use KeyValueSorter::new_for_adapter when adapter metadata is available so compatible fast paths can be selected.

The resident methods validate sizes, ranges, alignment, and usages, but do not inspect GPU data. Masks must contain only 0 or 1; declared key-width bounds must contain every key. Primitive participants that read and write must use distinct buffer handles. Full usage requirements are documented on each API at docs.rs.

Applications that own the adapter as well as the device should construct the facade with Primitives::new_for_adapter(&device, &queue, &adapter_info) so measured hardware-specific paths remain available. The repository-only standalone consumer validates this public API boundary and records typed-versus-raw overhead on discrete NVIDIA and integrated Intel GPUs.

See the architecture guide for the public convenience, resident composition, and private kernel/runtime layers. The typed-pipeline guide records the API contract and stabilization evidence.

The public API inventory distinguishes convenience, immediate-submit, recording, prepared-recording, and profiling behavior. It also records why scan, histogram, and separate-buffer SoA sort remain direct primitive APIs instead of being forced into pipeline. Users upgrading from 0.11 should read the short 0.12 migration note.

How it works

• Histogram: each workgroup accumulates up to 256 counters in shared memory, then merges at most one count per bin into the global output. Values outside the requested range are ignored.
• Reduction: each workgroup combines a coalesced input range into one partial value; later passes repeat over the partials until one value remains. A count plan builds the hierarchy and indirect dispatch arguments from a GPU-resident length.
• Argmin by key: each workgroup selects one lexicographic (key, value) minimum, then later passes reduce those candidates to one record. This avoids sorting every record when an application needs only the best candidate.
• Predicate mask: one thread evaluates each value or KeyValue field and writes a 0 or 1.
• Scan: workgroups scan local ranges, recursively scan block totals, then add those totals to produce global prefixes. Supported devices use subgroup operations; others use the portable shared-memory path.
• Compaction: an exclusive mask scan gives stable destination indices. Scatter combines block-local offsets with scanned block totals without materializing another full-size prefix pass.
• Run-length encoding: head flags and an exclusive scan assign each adjacent run an index. Ordered scatter/finalize dispatches write its value, length, and GPU-resident run count. Counted input is clamped to capacity and inactive scan lanes are zeroed without a host readback. Only unique_values[..run_count] and run_lengths[..run_count] are initialized; reused output-buffer tails are unspecified.
• Radix sort: stable least-significant-digit passes ping-pong between buffers. Known key-width bounds reduce the pass count. Compatible NVIDIA Vulkan devices use 8-bit or 4-bit paths, capable Intel Vulkan devices use a 4-bit path, and other adapters retain the portable 2-bit path. GPU-counted key/value sorting inherits compatible NVIDIA and Intel adapter routes while preserving the same stable ordering contract. GPU-counted key-only sorting and remaining key/value adapters use the 2-bit kernel with count-proportional indirect dispatch or explicit capacity dispatch.

Profiling

GPU timestamp spans are available for every primitive when the selected device enables timestamp queries. Context::init intentionally leaves them disabled on Apple Metal and integrated NVIDIA Vulkan because those paths produced incomplete timestamps or corrupted repeated dispatches. Dispatches still carry stable labels for tools such as NVIDIA Nsight Graphics.

$env:WGPU_BACKEND = 'vulkan' # or 'dx12'
$env:WGPU_PRIMITIVES_PROFILE_CASES = 'compact_50'
$env:WGPU_PRIMITIVES_PROFILE_VALIDATE = '1'
cargo run --release --example profile_primitives

Cases include histogram, reduction, argmin-by-key, scan, sort, predicate, value compaction, and key/value compaction at selectable sizes and selectivities. Run-length encoding exposes the same timestamp-span API and has a dedicated Criterion bench across multiple average run lengths. Its dense GPU-counted control is reported against capacity, because counted RLE deliberately scans that full capacity even when the resident count is sparse. See the RTX RLE benchmark for the source-pinned 1M-100M result.

Roadmap

1. Use 0.12 for the final intentional pre-1.0 contract cleanup: publish the API inventory, remove the deprecated v2 alias, and make Error extensible.
2. Use 0.13 for the intentional wgpu 30 public-type migration, then reject public API breaks across the 0.13 patch line while continuously testing the MSRV, documentation, WebAssembly build, and packaged-crate consumer.
3. Maintain physical release coverage on NVIDIA Vulkan, Intel Vulkan, and Apple Metal; treat AMD, DX12, Jetson, and browser runtime as additional coverage until they can be automated reliably.
4. Validate the release candidate through at least two out-of-tree application fixtures with output parity and source-pinned evidence, then soak a 1.0 RC without intentional public breaks.
5. Add derived primitives only when real workloads justify their API and cost.

New primitives require a resident-buffer API, deterministic boundary tests, CPU-reference validation, and reproducible benchmarks.

Development

cargo fmt --all --check

cargo clippy --all-targets --all-features -- -D warnings

cargo +1.87.0 check --lib

cargo check --target wasm32-unknown-unknown --all-features --lib

cargo test --release --lib --tests

cargo check --release --examples --benches

cargo test --doc

RUSTDOCFLAGS="-D warnings" cargo doc --no-deps --all-features

cargo package

python3 validation/package-consumer/run.py target/package/lampshade-0.13.0

Criterion benches cover each primitive plus counted_pipeline and the raw-versus-typed particle_pipeline. GPU integration tests skip when no compatible adapter is available. Set LAMPSHADE_REQUIRE_GPU_TESTS=1 to turn an adapter miss into a test failure; CI sets it while using Mesa's Vulkan software adapter.

License

MIT