190 lines
9.0 KiB
Plaintext
190 lines
9.0 KiB
Plaintext
// Copyright (c) 2015-2016 The Khronos Group Inc.
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// Copyright notice at https://www.khronos.org/registry/speccopyright.html
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[[extended-functionality]]
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= Extended Functionality
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Additional functionality may: be provided by layers or extensions. A layer
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cannot: add or modify {apiname} commands, while an extension may: do so.
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There are two kinds of layers and extensions, instance and device. Instance
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layers and extensions are general purpose and do not depend on a specific
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device. Device layers and extensions operate on specific devices, and
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require a valid sname:VkDevice to be used. Instance extensions usually
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affect the operation of the API as a whole, whereas device layers and
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extensions tend to be hardware-specific. Examples of these might be:
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* Whole API validation is an example of a good instance layer.
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* Debug capabilities might make a good instance extension.
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* A layer that provides hardware-specific performance telemetry and
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analysis could be a device layer.
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* Functions to allow an application to use additional hardware features
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beyond the core would be a good candidate for a device extension.
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[[extended-functionality-layers]]
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== Layers
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When a layer is enabled, it inserts itself into the call chain for {apiname}
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commands the layer is interested in. A common use of layers is to validate
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application behavior during development. For example, the implementation
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will not check that {apiname} enums used by the application fall within
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allowed ranges. Instead, a validation layer would do those checks and flag
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issues. This avoids a performance penalty during production use of the
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application because those layers would not be enabled in production.
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To query the available instance layers, call:
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include::../protos/vkEnumerateInstanceLayerProperties.txt[]
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* pname:pPropertyCount is a pointer to an integer related to the number of
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layer properties available or queried, as described below.
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* pname:pProperties is either `NULL` or a pointer to an array of
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slink:VkLayerProperties structures.
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include::../validity/protos/vkEnumerateInstanceLayerProperties.txt[]
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To enable a instance layer, the name of the layer should be added to the
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pname:ppEnabledLayerNames member of slink:VkInstanceCreateInfo when creating
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a slink:VkInstance.
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To query the layers available to a given physical device, call:
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include::../protos/vkEnumerateDeviceLayerProperties.txt[]
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* pname:physicalDevice is the physical device that will be queried.
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* pname:pPropertyCount is a pointer to an integer related to the number of
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layer properties available or queried, as described below.
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* pname:pProperties is either `NULL` or a pointer to an array of
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slink:VkLayerProperties structures.
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include::../validity/protos/vkEnumerateDeviceLayerProperties.txt[]
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To enable a device layer, the name of the layer should be added to the
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pname:ppEnabledLayerNames member of slink:VkDeviceCreateInfo when creating
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a slink:VkDevice.
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For both flink:vkEnumerateInstanceLayerProperties and
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flink:vkEnumerateDeviceLayerProperties, if pname:pProperties is `NULL`, then
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the number of layer properties available is returned in pname:pPropertyCount.
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Otherwise, pname:pPropertyCount must: point to a variable set by the user to
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the number of elements in the pname:pProperties array, and on return the
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variable is overwritten with the number of structures actually written to
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pname:pProperties. If the value of pname:pPropertyCount is less than the
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number of layer properties available, at most pname:pPropertyCount
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structures will be written. If pname:pPropertyCount is smaller than the
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number of layers available, ename:VK_INCOMPLETE will be returned instead of
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ename:VK_SUCCESS, to indicate that not all the available properties were
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returned.
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The definition of sname:VkLayerProperties is:
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include::../structs/VkLayerProperties.txt[]
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* pname:layerName is a null-terminated UTF-8 string specifying the name of
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the layer. Use this name in the pname:ppEnabledLayerNames array passed
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in the slink:VkInstanceCreateInfo and slink:VkDeviceCreateInfo
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structures passed to flink:vkCreateInstance and flink:vkCreateDevice,
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respectively, to enable this layer for an instance or device.
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* pname:apiVersion is the {apiname} version the layer was written to,
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encoded as described in the <<fundamentals-versionnum,API Version
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Numbers and Semantics>> section.
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* pname:implementationVersion is the version of this layer. It is an
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integer, increasing with backward compatible changes.
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* pname:description is a null-terminated UTF-8 string providing additional
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details that can: be used by the application to identify the layer.
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include::../validity/structs/VkLayerProperties.txt[]
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Loader implementations may: provide mechanisms outside the {apiname} API for
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enabling specific layers. Layers enabled through such a mechanism are
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_implicitly enabled_, while layers enabled by including the layer name in
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the pname:ppEnabledLayerNames member of slink:VkDeviceCreateInfo are
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_explicitly enabled_. Except where otherwise specified, implicitly enabled
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and explicitly enabled layers differ only in the way they are enabled.
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Explicitly enabling a layer that is implicitly enabled has no additional
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effect.
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[[extended-functionality-extensions]]
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== Extensions
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Extensions may: define new {apiname} commands, structures, and enumerants.
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For compilation purposes, the interfaces defined by registered extensions,
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including new structures and enumerants as well as function pointer types
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for new commands, are defined in the Khronos-supplied +vulkan.h+ together
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with the core API. However, commands defined by extensions maynot: be
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available for static linking - in which case function pointers to these
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commands should: be queried at runtime as described in
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<<initialization-functionpointers>>. Extensions may: be provided by layers
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as well as by a {apiname} implementation.
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To query the available instance extensions, call:
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include::../protos/vkEnumerateInstanceExtensionProperties.txt[]
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* pname:pLayerName is either `NULL` or the name of a instance layer to
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retrieve extensions from.
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* pname:pPropertyCount is a pointer to an integer related to the number of
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extension properties available or queried, as described below.
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* pname:pProperties is either `NULL` or a pointer to an array of
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slink:VkExtensionProperties structures.
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include::../validity/protos/vkEnumerateInstanceExtensionProperties.txt[]
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Any instance extensions provided by the {apiname} implementation or by
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implicitly enabled layers, but not by explicitly enabled layers, are
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returned when pname:pLayerName parameter is `NULL`. When pname:pLayerName is
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the name of a layer, the instance extensions provided by that layer are
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returned.
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To enable a instance extension, the name of the extension should be added to
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the pname:ppEnabledExtensionNames member of slink:VkInstanceCreateInfo when
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creating a slink:VkInstance.
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To query the extensions available to a given physical device, call:
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include::../protos/vkEnumerateDeviceExtensionProperties.txt[]
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* pname:physicalDevice is the physical device that will be queried.
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* pname:pLayerName is either `NULL` or the name of a device layer to
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retrieve extensions from.
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* pname:pPropertyCount is a pointer to an integer related to the number of
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extension properties available or queried, as described below.
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* pname:pProperties is either `NULL` or a pointer to an array of
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slink:VkExtensionProperties structures.
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include::../validity/protos/vkEnumerateDeviceExtensionProperties.txt[]
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Any device extensions provided by the {apiname} implementation or by
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implicitly enabled layers, but not by explicitly enabled layers, are
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returned when pname:pLayerName parameter is `NULL`. When pname:pLayerName is
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the name of a layer, the device extensions provided by that layer are
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returned.
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To enable a device layer, the name of the layer should be added to the
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pname:ppEnabledExtensionNames member of slink:VkDeviceCreateInfo when
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creating a slink:VkDevice.
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For both flink:vkEnumerateInstanceExtensionProperties and
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flink:vkEnumerateDeviceExtensionProperties, if pname:pProperties is `NULL`,
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then the number of extensions properties available is returned in
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pname:pPropertyCount. Otherwise, pname:pPropertyCount must: point to a
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variable set by the user to the number of elements in the pname:pProperties
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array, and on return the variable is overwritten with the number of
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structures actually written to pname:pProperties. If the value of
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pname:pPropertyCount is less than the number of extension properties
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available, at most pname:pPropertyCount structures will be written. If
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pname:pPropertyCount is smaller than the number of extensions available,
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ename:VK_INCOMPLETE will be returned instead of ename:VK_SUCCESS, to
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indicate that not all the available properties were returned.
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The definition of sname:VkExtensionProperties is:
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include::../structs/VkExtensionProperties.txt[]
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* pname:extensionName is a null-terminated string specifying the name of
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the extension.
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* pname:specVersion is the version of this extension. It is an integer,
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incremented with backward compatible changes.
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include::../validity/structs/VkExtensionProperties.txt[]
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