D-Vulkan

Automatically-generated D bindings for Vulkan.

Usage with Function Pointers Struct

D-Vulkan, at its core, does not load functions into global variables, like similar bindings do. Instead, functions are loaded into a VulkanFunctions structure. This is because Vulkan functions are inherently tied to the instance, or device, that they were loaded from. For example, global variables would make using the device-specific functions impossible to use with multiple devices.

To use the VulkanFunctions struct:

1. Import via import dvulkan;.
2. Get a pointer to the vkGetInstanceProcAddr, through platform-specific means (ex. loading the Vulkan shared library, using the Derelict loader, or glfwGetInstanceProcAddress if using GLFW).
3. Define a VulkanFunctions structure somewhere (ex. on the stack via VulkanFunctions funcs;)
4. Call VulkanFunctions.loadInitializationFunctions(getProcAddr), where getProcAddr is the address of the loaded vkGetInstanceProcAddr function, to load the following functions:
   • vkGetInstanceProcAddr (sets the function from the passed value)
   • vkCreateInstance
   • vkEnumerateInstanceExtensionProperties
   • vkEnumerateInstanceLayerProperties
5. Create a VkInstance using the above functions.
6. Call VulkanFunctions.loadInstanceFunctions(instance) to load the rest of the functions.
7. (Optional) Call VulkanFunctions.loadDeviceFunctions(device) once you have a VkDevice to load specific functions for a device.

For your convenience, the VulkanFunctions structure includes the fields instance and device, that are set whenever loadInstanceFunctions and loadDeviceFunctions are called, respectively.

Note that the VulkanFunctions struct is fairly large; be sure, if you are passing it around, to pass by reference or pointer.

Usage with Global Functions

For convenience, when the DVulkanGlobalFunctions version is set (it is set in the default configuration), D-Vulkan will generate global variables holding Vulkan functions.

To use the global functions, follow the steps for using the VulkanFunctions struct, but instead of using the VulkanFunctions.load*Functions member functions, use the dvulkan.global.load*Functions global functions instead.

Differences from C Vulkan

• VK_NULL_HANDLE will not work. The C Vulkan headers rely on the fact that 0 in C is implicitly convertible to the null pointer, but that is not the case in D. Instead, use the VK_NULL_[NON_]DISPATCHABLE_HANDLE constants (as approprate for the type) or VkType.init (where Type is the type to get a null handle for).
• All structures have their sType field set to the appropriate value upon initialization; explicit initialization is not needed.
• Without the DVulkanGlobalEnums version (on by default), Vulkan enums must be prefixed by their type, as they are defined as D enums (ex. VkResult.VK_SUCCESS).
• VkPipelineShaderStageCreateInfo.module has been renamed to VkPipelineShaderStageCreateInfo._module, since module is a D keyword.
• The VK_KHR_*_surface extensions are not yet implemented, as they require types from external libraries (X11, XCB, ...). They can be manually loaded with vkGetInstanceProcAddr if needed.

Configurations

D-Vulkan has two configurations, settable via the subConfigurations dub option

• default: The default. Sets the versions DVulkanDerelict, DVulkanAllExtensions, DVulkanGlobalEnums, and DVulkanGlobalFunctions (see below), and includes derelict-util.
• bare: No versions are set, you must specify what you want manually (usually at least DVulkan_VK_VERSION_1_0).

Versions

D-Vulkan has several versions, settable via the versions dub option.

• DVulkanGlobalEnums: Defines global aliases for all enumerations.
• DVulkanGlobalFunctions: Generates global function pointers for Vulkan functions.
• DVulkanDerelict: Includes a small loader for the Vulkan shared library using derelict-util. When using this version with the bare config, you must add derelict-util to your dependencies.
• DVulkan_(EXT): Where (EXT) is an Vulkan version or extension name (ex. VK_VERSION_1_0 or VK_KHR_swapchain), generates bindings

Examples

Examples can be found in the examples directory, and ran with dub run d-vulkan:examplename.

Derelict Loader

D-Vulkan includes a small loader using derelict-util to load the Vulkan shared library when the DVulkanDerelict version is defined.

To use it, call DVulkanDerelict.load(), then either DVulkanDerelict.getInitializationFunctions(), which returns a VulkanFunctions struct containing the initialization functions loaded by VulkanFunctions.getInitializationFunctions, or, if DVulkanGlobalFunctions is also specified, DVulkanDerelict.loadInitializationFunctions() to load the same functions to the global variables.

Examples

Two examples can be found in the examples directory, and can be ran with dub run d-vulkan:examplename.

devices: Lists devices. Uses the derelict loader.

layers: Lists available layers. Uses the derelict loader, global enums, and whitelisted extension loading.

Generating Bindings

To generate bindings, download the Vulkan-Docs repo, copy/move/symlink vkdgen.py into src/spec/, cd there, and execute it, passing in an output folder to place the D files. Requires Python 3.