1# Vulkan Loader 2 3This project provides the Khronos official Vulkan Loader for all platforms except [Android](https://android.googlesource.com/platform/frameworks/native/+/master/vulkan/) 4 5## Introduction 6 7Vulkan is an explicit API, enabling direct control over how GPUs actually work. 8As such, Vulkan supports systems that have multiple GPUs, each running with a different driver, or ICD (Installable Client Driver). 9Vulkan also supports multiple global contexts (instances, in Vulkan terminology). 10The ICD loader is a library that is placed between a Vulkan application and any number of Vulkan drivers, in order to support multiple drivers and the instance-level functionality that works across these drivers. 11Additionally, the loader manages inserting Vulkan layer libraries, such as validation layers, between an application and the drivers. 12 13This repository contains the Vulkan loader that is used for Linux, Windows, MacOS, and iOS. 14There is also a separate loader, maintained by Google, which is used on Android. 15 16The following components are available in this repository: 17 18- [ICD Loader](loader/) 19- [Loader Documentation](docs/LoaderInterfaceArchitecture.md) 20- [Tests](tests/) 21 22## Contact Information 23 24- [Charles Giessen](mailto:charles@lunarg.com) 25- [Mark Young](mailto:marky@lunarg.com) 26 27## Information for Developing or Contributing 28 29Please see the [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md) file in this repository for more details. 30Please see the [GOVERNANCE.md](GOVERNANCE.md) file in this repository for repository management details. 31 32## How to Build and Run 33 34[BUILD.md](BUILD.md) includes directions for building all components. 35 36Architecture and interface information for the loader is in [docs/LoaderInterfaceArchitecture.md](docs/LoaderInterfaceArchitecture.md). 37 38## Version Tagging Scheme 39 40Updates to this repository which correspond to a new Vulkan specification release are tagged using the following format: `v<`_`version`_`>` (e.g., `v1.3.266`). 41 42**Note**: Marked version releases have undergone thorough testing but do not imply the same quality level as SDK tags. SDK tags follow the `vulkan-sdk-<`_`version`_`>.<`_`patch`_`>` format (e.g., `vulkan-sdk-1.3.266.0`). 43 44This scheme was adopted following the `1.3.266` Vulkan specification release. 45 46## License 47 48This work is released as open source under a Apache-style license from Khronos including a Khronos copyright. 49 50## Acknowledgements 51 52While this project has been developed primarily by LunarG, Inc., there are many other 53companies and individuals making this possible: Valve Corporation, funding 54project development; Khronos providing oversight and hosting of the project. 55