zvulkan-bindings

Comprehensive, zero-c-dependency, modular Vulkan bindings for Zig 0.15.2.

Goals

The primary goal of this project is to provide a clean, idiomatic, and robust interface to the Vulkan API for Zig game engines and applications, without relying on C header translation (@cImport) or external generator scripts during the build process.

Key Features

• Zero Dependencies: Pure Zig implementation. No generic vulkan.h translation.
• Modular Architecture: Core API versions (1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3) are separated into distinct modules, allowing you to use strictly what you need.
• Dynamic Loading: Built-in support for loading the Vulkan runtime (libvulkan.so, vulkan-1.dll, etc.) dynamically at runtime. This allows your application to start even if Vulkan is not present, or to handle partial support gracefully.
• WSI Support: Built-in support for Window System Integration extensions (VK_KHR_surface, VK_KHR_swapchain) and platform-specific surfaces (Wayland, XCB, Xlib, Win32).
• Type Safety: Proper Zig enums, packed structs for flags, and optional pointers to ensure type safety where possible while maintaining the raw API mapping.

Status

Installation

Add this package to your build.zig.zon:

zig fetch --save git+https://github.com/felixuxx/zvulkan-bindings.git

Usage

In your build.zig:

const zvulkan = b.dependency("zvulkan_bindings", .{
    .target = target,
    .optimize = optimize,
});
exe.root_module.addImport("zvulkan_bindings", zvulkan.module("zvulkan_bindings"));

In your code:

const std = @import("std");
const vk = @import("zvulkan_bindings");

pub fn main() !void {
    // 1. Initialize Loader (dynamically loads libvulkan)
    var loader = try vk.Loader.init();
    defer loader.deinit();

    // 2. Create Instance
    var instance: vk.Instance = undefined;
    const app_info = vk.core_1_0.ApplicationInfo{
        .api_version = vk.constants.makeApiVersion(0, 1, 3, 0), // Request Vulkan 1.3
        ...
    };
    _ = loader.vkCreateInstance.?(&create_info, null, &instance);

    // 3. Load Instance Functions
    const instance_dispatch = try loader.createInstanceDispatch(instance);
    
    // 4. Use Global/Instance Functions
    // (Core 1.0 functions act as standard, 1.1+ may be optional depending on driver support)
    var device_count: u32 = 0;
    _ = instance_dispatch.vkEnumeratePhysicalDevices(instance, &device_count, null);
}