SharpNRI

C# bindings for NRI, the NVIDIA Render Interface: one low-level API over Vulkan and D3D12. NRI is explicit, with no hidden management and no automatic barriers, and SharpNRI keeps it that way: NRI's objects become disposable classes, its descs are structs with NRI's field names, and its threading rules are documented rather than hidden.

An independent project, not affiliated with NVIDIA. MIT licensed. Beta: the API may still change between releases.

Quick start

using SharpNRI;
using SharpNRI.Native;

using var device = NriDevice.Create(new NriDeviceOptions
{
    GraphicsApi = GraphicsAPI.D3D12,          // or VK, or NONE
    EnableNriValidation = true,
    EnableGraphicsApiValidation = true,
    MessageHandler = (in NriMessage m) => Console.Error.WriteLine(m),
});
var queue = device.GetQueue(QueueType.GRAPHICS);

The guide covers device creation, resources, descriptors, recording and submitting, every extension, and the caveats next to the API they concern.

Install

From NuGet.org (a prerelease while in beta):

dotnet add package SharpNRI --prerelease

The badge above shows the latest release; take every SharpNRI package at that same version. Each release also carries the same .nupkg files, for a local folder feed.

Package	What it is
SharpNRI	the binding and the native NRI library (Windows x64, Linux x64)
SharpNRI.Descs	every NRI enum and desc struct, with no native code: for code that builds layouts and descs without a device. Versioned by NRI (the major is the NRI version), new only when the descs change
SharpNRI.Testing	a validated headless device per backend, for your own GPU tests
SharpNRI.Native.Upscalers	NRI built with its upscalers (NIS, FSR, XeSS), replacing the library in SharpNRI: reference it, nothing else
SharpNRI.AgilitySDK	build targets that copy Microsoft's D3D12 Agility SDK runtime at NRI's version into AgilitySDK\ and fail the build on another version; your restore takes Microsoft's package

No package ships a vendor upscaler runtime or a Microsoft file; the guide's Packages and install shows how an application adds them.

Platforms

Platform	Backends	Notes
Windows x64	D3D12, Vulkan	no Visual C++ runtime needed (static)
Linux x64	Vulkan	needs the Vulkan loader (libvulkan1)
macOS arm64	Vulkan through MoltenVK	the native library is a release attachment (SharpNRI-native-base-osx-arm64-<tag>.zip) when a macOS build ran, not part of the packages; needs macOS 15+, the Vulkan loader and MoltenVK

.NET 11. NRI's D3D11, Metal and WebGPU backends are not built.

What is bound

All of NRI's Core interface, the device creation and helper interfaces, and the DescriptorHeap, Imgui, LowLatency, MeshShader, RayTracing, Streamer, SwapChain, Upscaler, Video, WrapperD3D12 and WrapperVK extensions. docs/coverage.md lists the bound surface and the test coverage at the commit it was measured on. docs/upscalers.md has what the upscaler tests measured on a local payload with the vendor runtimes (NIS, FSR, XeSS, DLSS super resolution and ray reconstruction on Vulkan and D3D12): render resolutions, accuracy and GPU time per mode. CI cannot run those, since no package ships the vendor runtimes.

Each release pins one NRI release, the major of its version number (N.x.y is NRI vN), built from source with a small set of patches: fixes not yet upstream and a few additions.

Building from source

git submodule update --init
pwsh tools/build-native.ps1
dotnet build SharpNRI.slnx -c Release
dotnet test --solution SharpNRI.slnx -c Release --no-build

Requirements per platform, the build options and how the repository is organised are in AGENTS.md.

Licence

MIT (LICENSE.md). The native libraries carry the licences of the components built into them, listed in THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md.