vkw

vkw - Vulkan API Wrapper. It is lightweight C++ wrapper over Vulkan library. This project is work in progress.

Prerequisites

• Compiler: gcc 12.0+ / msvc 19.44 (core c++20 minimum)
• CMake: 3.30+
• Boost: 1.80+
• Python 3.10+
• Vulkan SDK 1.4.328+: https://vulkan.lunarg.com/

Older versions of components may work, but are not tested with.

Download & Build

First, install all dependencies listed above.

bash:

git clone https://github.com/FixPlus/vkw.git --recursive
cd vkw
cmake -B build -S .
cmake --build build
cmake --install build

IDEs and other platforms:

Open it as a cmake project and follow instructions from your IDE.

Usage

Import in cmake projects

Use find package

find_package(vkw <version>)

Link your project to it:

target_link_libraries(<target name> PUBLIC vkw::vkwrt)

Use in code

API is divided in a few headers, you can include what you need and use:

#include <vkw/Library.hpp>

int main(){
    auto lib = vkw::Library();
    std::cout << "Loaded vulkan: " << lib.instanceAPIVersion() << "\n";
}

Features

• Dynamic vulkan loader

  No hard linking to system vulkan loader (just like in volk). Symbols are fetched according to requested API version. Drivers symbols are fetched directly from driver, skipping instance level dispatch. Extensions and layer's symbols are fetched automatically when used.

• RAII encapsulated vulkan objects

  All objects are wrapped in unique_ptr like structures that manage objects' lifetime.

• Reduced boiler-plate code

  Vulkan countless structure filling routines are wrapped into methods with easy api.

• Extendability

  Although this library encapsulates many manual work with Vulkan C API, it still exposes it for users to extend current implementation by writing new derived classes and methods using C API.

• Embedded SPIRV-Link and SPIRV-Reflect

  Tools for linking and inspecting spirv shader modules are included in this library api, allowing to build and manage shader libraries.

• C ABI shared library

  Majority of this library's code is c-plus-plus headers, however some functionality requires to be wrapped into shared library. It's binary interface is full C ABI and it can be safely re-used and distributed.