Name

VK_EXT_tooling_info - device extension

VK_EXT_tooling_info

Name String

VK_EXT_tooling_info

Extension Type

Device extension

Registered Extension Number

246

Revision

1

Extension and Version Dependencies

• Requires Vulkan 1.0

Contact

• Tobias Hector https://github.com/KhronosGroup/Vulkan-Docs/issues/new?title=VK_EXT_tooling_info:%20&body=@tobski%20

Other Extension Metadata

Last Modified Date

2018-11-05

Contributors

• Rolando Caloca
• Matthaeus Chajdas
• Baldur Karlsson
• Daniel Rakos

Description

When an error occurs during application development, a common question is "What tools are actually running right now?" This extension adds the ability to query that information directly from the Vulkan implementation.

Outdated versions of one tool might not play nicely with another, or perhaps a tool is not actually running when it should have been. Trying to figure that out can cause headaches as it is necessary to consult each known tool to figure out what is going on — in some cases the tool might not even be known.

Typically, the expectation is that developers will simply print out this information for visual inspection when an issue occurs, however a small amount of semantic information about what the tool is doing is provided to help identify it programmatically. For example, if the advertised limits or features of an implementation are unexpected, is there a tool active which modifies these limits? Or if an application is providing debug markers, but the implementation is not actually doing anything with that information, this can quickly point that out.

New Commands

• getPhysicalDeviceToolPropertiesEXT

New Structures

• PhysicalDeviceToolPropertiesEXT

New Enums

• ToolPurposeFlagBitsEXT

New Bitmasks

• ToolPurposeFlagsEXT

New Enum Constants

• EXT_TOOLING_INFO_EXTENSION_NAME

• EXT_TOOLING_INFO_SPEC_VERSION

• Extending StructureType:

  • STRUCTURE_TYPE_PHYSICAL_DEVICE_TOOL_PROPERTIES_EXT

If VK_EXT_debug_marker is supported:

• Extending ToolPurposeFlagBitsEXT:

  • TOOL_PURPOSE_DEBUG_MARKERS_BIT_EXT

If VK_EXT_debug_report is supported:

• Extending ToolPurposeFlagBitsEXT:

  • TOOL_PURPOSE_DEBUG_REPORTING_BIT_EXT

If VK_EXT_debug_utils is supported:

• Extending ToolPurposeFlagBitsEXT:

  • TOOL_PURPOSE_DEBUG_MARKERS_BIT_EXT
  • TOOL_PURPOSE_DEBUG_REPORTING_BIT_EXT

Examples

Printing Tool Information

uint32_t num_tools;
VkPhysicalDeviceToolPropertiesEXT *pToolProperties;
vkGetPhysicalDeviceToolPropertiesEXT(physicalDevice, &num_tools, NULL);

pToolProperties = (VkPhysicalDeviceToolPropertiesEXT*)malloc(sizeof(VkPhysicalDeviceToolPropertiesEXT) * num_tools);

vkGetPhysicalDeviceToolPropertiesEXT(physicalDevice, &num_tools, pToolProperties);

for (int i = 0; i < num_tools; ++i) {
    printf("%s:\n", pToolProperties[i].name);
    printf("Version:\n");
    printf("%s:\n", pToolProperties[i].version);
    printf("Description:\n");
    printf("\t%s\n", pToolProperties[i].description);
    printf("Purposes:\n");
    printf("\t%s\n", VkToolPurposeFlagBitsEXT_to_string(pToolProperties[i].purposes));
    if (strnlen_s(pToolProperties[i].layer,VK_MAX_EXTENSION_NAME_SIZE) > 0) {
        printf("Corresponding Layer:\n");
        printf("\t%s\n", pToolProperties[i].layer);
    }
}

Issues

1) Why is this information separate from the layer mechanism?

Some tooling may be built into a driver, or be part of the Vulkan loader etc. - and so tying this information directly to layers would’ve been awkward at best.

Version History

• Revision 1, 2018-11-05 (Tobias Hector)

  • Initial draft

See Also

PhysicalDeviceToolPropertiesEXT, ToolPurposeFlagBitsEXT, ToolPurposeFlagsEXT, getPhysicalDeviceToolPropertiesEXT

Document Notes

For more information, see the Vulkan Specification

This page is a generated document. Fixes and changes should be made to the generator scripts, not directly.