🌋 Veekay

Getting started

You need C++ compiler, Vulkan SDK and CMake installed before you can build this project.

This project uses C++20 standard and thus requires either of those compilers:

• GCC 10.X
• Clang 10
• Microsoft Visual Studio 2019

Veekay is officially tested on Windows and GNU/Linux platforms, no macOS support yet. If you have a working macOS solution of this code, consider submitting a PR so others can build this example code without a hassle!

1. Downloading the repository

Start by cloning the repository with git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/vladeemerr/veekay

This repository does not contain any submodules, it utilizes CMake's FetchContent feature instead.

2. Configuring the project

Run either one of the CMake lines to download dependencies and configure the project:

cmake --preset debug      # for GNU/Linux (GCC/Clang)
cmake --preset msvc-debug # for Windows (Visual Studio 2019)

If you wish to build in release mode, change debug to release.

If changes are made (added/removed files), or if you want to regenerate project files, rerun the command above.

3. Building

To build the project, use the line below. You are most likely using debug preset, so the directory that will eventually contain your build files is named build-debug.

Likewise for release that directory will be named build-release

Run one those commands, depending on which preset you chose:

cmake --build build-debug --parallel # for debug
cmake --build build-release --parallel # for release

Project structure

Overview

Veekay consists of two parts: library and application

• source directory contains library code
• testbed directory contains application code

Library code contains most of the boilerplate for GLFW, Vulkan and ImGui initialization. Veekay library also takes care of managing swapchain and giving you relevant VkCommandBuffer and VkFramebuffer for you to submit/render to.

However, the majority of your work will happen in testbed. This is where you will write most of your application code. It is already linked with Veekay library and contains its own CMakeLists.txt build recipe for you to modify.

Application code

veekay.hpp header exposes library functionality through a set of callbacks (init, shutdown, update, render) and global variable app.

Look for testbed/main.cpp, this is where you start.

veekay::Application contains important data like window size, VkDevice, VkPhysicalDevice and VkRenderPass (associated with a swapchain).

So, say you want to create a VkBuffer. This is how you would do it:

// You fill info struct before calling vkCreateXXX
vkCreateBuffer(veekay::app.vk_device, &info, nullptr, &vertex_buffer);

Notice the veekay::app.vk_device, veekay is a library namespace, app is a global state variable provided by Veekay and vk_device is a VkDevice contained in app variable.

Running

build-xxx/testbed will contain the executable after successful build

Make sure your working directory is set to the project root! Project root is where this README file resides. Otherwise, the code responsible for loading shaders from files will fail, because relative paths are used.

Compiling shaders

testbed/CMakeLists.txt has build recipe for compiling shader files along with an application. Look for a comment in this file to see how to compile your shaders.