| # Vulkan Ecosystem Components |
| |
| This project provides the Khronos official Vulkan ICD desktop loader for Windows, Linux, and MacOS. |
| |
| ## CI Build Status |
| |
| | Platform | Build Status | |
| |:--------:|:------------:| |
| | Linux/MacOS | [](https://travis-ci.org/KhronosGroup/Vulkan-Loader) | |
| | Windows |[](https://ci.appveyor.com/project/Khronoswebmaster/vulkan-loader/branch/master) | |
| |
| ## Introduction |
| |
| Vulkan is an explicit API, enabling direct control over how GPUs actually work. |
| As such, Vulkan supports systems that have multiple GPUs, each running with a different driver, or ICD (Installable Client Driver). |
| Vulkan also supports multiple global contexts (instances, in Vulkan terminology). |
| The ICD loader is a library that is placed between a Vulkan application and any number of Vulkan drivers, in order to support multiple drivers and the instance-level functionality that works across these drivers. |
| Additionally, the loader manages inserting Vulkan layer libraries, such as validation layers, between an application and the drivers. |
| |
| This repository contains the Vulkan loader that is used for Linux, Windows, MacOS, and iOS. |
| There is also a separate loader, maintained by Google, which is used on Android. |
| |
| The following components are available in this repository: |
| |
| - [Vulkan header files (Vulkan-Headers submodule)](https://github.com/KhronosGroup/Vulkan-Headers) |
| - [ICD Loader](loader/) |
| - [Loader Documentation](loader/LoaderAndLayerInterface.md) |
| - [Tests](tests/) |
| |
| ## Contact Information |
| |
| - [Lenny Komow](mailto:lenny@lunarg.com) |
| |
| ## Information for Developing or Contributing |
| |
| Please see the [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md) file in this repository for more details. |
| Please see the [GOVERNANCE.md](GOVERNANCE.md) file in this repository for repository |
| management details. |
| |
| ## How to Build and Run |
| |
| [BUILD.md](BUILD.md) |
| Includes directions for building all components. |
| |
| Architecture and interface information for the loader is in |
| [loader/LoaderAndLayerInterface.md](loader/LoaderAndLayerInterface.md). |
| |
| ## License |
| |
| This work is released as open source under a Apache-style license from Khronos |
| including a Khronos copyright. |
| |
| See COPYRIGHT.txt for a full list of licenses used in this repository. |
| |
| ## Acknowledgements |
| |
| While this project has been developed primarily by LunarG, Inc., there are many other |
| companies and individuals making this possible: Valve Corporation, funding |
| project development; Khronos providing oversight and hosting of the project. |
