Error creating device, vulkan unsupported when trying to capture with RenderDoc

[portaloffreedom]

When attempting to capture my minimal SDL GPU Program I get the following error.

$ renderdoccmd capture ./build/sdl3gputest
Launching './build/sdl3gputest'
Launched as ID 38921
GPUCreateDevice failed: SDL_HINT_GPU_DRIVER vulkan unsupported!

I can repro this issue with SDL 3.2.24 on both Archlinux (on Intel Arc 770) and OpenSuse Tumbleweed (on amd Vega mobile), running updated packages and drivers. Using Plasma/Wayland.

To initialize SDL, I use the following code (simplified):

SDL_CHECK_ERROR_QUIT(SDL_Init(SDL_INIT_VIDEO), "Failed to initialize SDL");
mDevice = SDL_CreateGPUDevice(SDL_GPU_SHADERFORMAT_SPIRV, true /* debug mode */, "vulkan");
SDL_CHECK_ERROR_FAIL(mDevice,"GPUCreateDevice failed");

if I replace the preferred backend "vulkan" with NULL I get a very similar error

Launching './build/sdl3gputest'
Launched as ID 38921
GPUCreateDevice failed: No supported SDL_GPU backend found!

[thatcosmonaut]

Renderdoc doesn't support Wayland so you'll need SDL_VIDEO_DRIVER=x11 for it to work.

[portaloffreedom]

Ah thank you! Indeed it was that simple 👍