1# Vulkan Ecosystem Components
2
3This project provides the Khronos official Vulkan ICD desktop loader and the Vulkan validation layers for Windows, Linux, and Android.
4
5## CI Build Status
6| Platform | Build Status |
7|:--------:|:------------:|
8| Linux/Android | [![Build Status](https://travis-ci.org/KhronosGroup/Vulkan-LoaderAndValidationLayers.svg?branch=master)](https://travis-ci.org/KhronosGroup/Vulkan-LoaderAndValidationLayers) |
9| Windows |[![Build status](https://ci.appveyor.com/api/projects/status/ri4584d6qramrjiv/branch/master?svg=true)](https://ci.appveyor.com/project/Khronoswebmaster/vulkan-loaderandvalidationlayers/branch/master) |
10
11
12## Introduction
13
14Vulkan is an Explicit API, enabling direct control over how GPUs actually work. By design, minimal error checking is done inside
15a Vulkan driver. Applications have full control and responsibility for correct operation. Any errors in
16how Vulkan is used can result in a crash. This project provides Vulkan validation layers that can be enabled
17to assist development by enabling developers to verify their applications correct use of the Vulkan API.
18
19Vulkan supports multiple GPUs and multiple global contexts (VkInstance). The ICD loader is necessary to
20support multiple GPUs and VkInstance-level Vulkan commands.  Additionally, the loader manages inserting
21Vulkan layer libraries such as validation layers between the application and the ICD.
22
23The following components are available in this repository:
24- [Vulkan header files](include/vulkan/)
25- [*ICD Loader*](loader/)
26- [*Validation Layers*](layers/)
27- [*Mock ICD*](icd/)
28- [*Demos*](demos/)
29- [*Tests*](tests/)
30
31## Contact Information
32* [Tobine Ehlis](mailto:tobine@google.com)
33* [Mark Lobodzinski](mailto:mark@lunarg.com)
34
35## Information for Developing or Contributing:
36
37Please see the [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md) file in this repository for more details.
38Please see the [GOVERNANCE.md](GOVERNANCE.md) file in this repository for repository management details.
39
40## How to Build and Run
41
42[BUILD.md](BUILD.md)
43Includes directions for building all components as well as running validation tests and demo applications.
44
45Information on how to enable the various Validation layers is in
46[layers/README.md](layers/README.md).
47
48Architecture and interface information for the loader is in
49[loader/LoaderAndLayerInterface.md](loader/LoaderAndLayerInterface.md).
50
51## License
52This work is released as open source under a Apache-style license from Khronos including a Khronos copyright.
53
54See COPYRIGHT.txt for a full list of licenses used in this repository.
55
56## Acknowledgements
57While this project has been developed primarily by LunarG, Inc., there are many other
58companies and individuals making this possible: Valve Corporation, funding
59project development; Google providing significant contributions to the validation layers;
60Khronos providing oversight and hosting of the project.
61