GitHub - corporateshark/lightweightvk: LightweightVK is a deeply refactored bindless-only fork of https://github.com/facebook/igl. It provides a lean cross-platform graphics API running on top of Vulkan 1.3.
LightweightVK is a deeply refactored bindless-only fork of
which is designed to run on top of Vulkan 1.3 with optional mesh shaders and ray tracing support.
The main goals of LightweightVK:
Lean. Minimalistic API without bloat (no std::vector, std::unordered_map etc in the API).
Bindless. Utilize Vulkan 1.3+ dynamic rendering, descriptor indexing, and buffer device address features for modern bindless-only API design. Ray tracing features are fully integrated with the bindless-only design.
Agile. A playground for experiments to enable quick exploration of ideas and adoption of Vulkan API changes.
Multilingual. In addition to raw SPIR-V, there's built-in support for Glslang (GLSL) and Slang shaders, which is invaluable for rapid prototyping.
Designed for rapid prototyping of modern Vulkan-based renderers.
There are no plans to keep this fork in sync with the IGL upstream, since the API was completely redesigned in a bindless manner.
Discord:
https://discord.com/invite/bEyHyKCrvq
Supported rendering backends
Vulkan 1.3 (Windows, Linux, MacOS, Android) mandatory VK_KHR_dynamic_rendering_local_read
mandatory VK_KHR_maintenance5
mandatory VK_KHR_push_descriptor
mandatory VK_EXT_surface_maintenance1
optional VK_KHR_maintenance6
optional VK_KHR_acceleration_structure
optional VK_KHR_ray_tracing_pipeline
optional VK_KHR_ray_query
optional VK_KHR_fragment_shading_rate
optional VK_EXT_fragment_density_map
optional VK_EXT_fragment_density_map2
optional VK_EXT_dynamic_rendering_unused_attachments
optional VK_EXT_host_image_copy
optional VK_EXT_layer_settings
optional VK_EXT_mesh_shader
Supported platforms
Linux
Windows
MacOS (via KosmicKrisp)
Android
API Support
WindowsLinuxMacOSAndroidVulkan 1.3✔️✔️✔️✔️VK_KHR_acceleration_structure✔️✔️✔️VK_KHR_ray_tracing_pipeline✔️✔️✔️VK_KHR_ray_query✔️✔️✔️VK_EXT_mesh_shader✔️✔️✔️OpenXR 1.1✔️On MacOS, KosmicKrisp and VulkanSDK 1.4.357+ are required.
Build
Before building, run the deployment scripts:
python3 deploy_content.py python3 deploy_deps.py These scripts download external third-party dependencies. Please check
for the full list.
Windows
cd build cmake .. -G "Visual Studio 18 2026" Linux
sudo apt-get install clang xorg-dev libxinerama-dev libxcursor-dev libgles2-mesa-dev libegl1-mesa-dev libglfw3-dev libglew-dev libstdc++-12-dev extra-cmake-modules libxkbcommon-x11-dev wayland-protocols cd build cmake .. -G "Unix Makefiles" ❗ Use cmake .. -G "Unix Makefiles" -DLVK_WITH_WAYLAND=ON to build for Wayland, X11 is used by default.
MacOS
❗ Be sure that VulkanSDK 1.4.357+ for MacOS is installed
https://vulkan.lunarg.com/sdk/home#mac
cd build cmake .. -G "Xcode" Android
❗ Be sure that
is set up.
❗ Be sure that the ANDROID_NDK environment variable points to your Android NDK.
❗ Be sure that the JAVA_HOME environment variable is set to the path of the Java Runtime.
❗ Be sure that the adb platform tool is in the PATH environment variable.
cd build cmake .. -DLVK_WITH_SAMPLES_ANDROID=ON cd android/001_HelloTriangle # or any other sample ./gradlew assembleDebug # or assembleRelease You can also open the project in Android Studio and build it from there.
Before running demo apps on your device, connect the device to a desktop machine and run the deployment script:
python3 deploy_content_android.py NOTE: To run demos on an Android device, it should support Vulkan 1.3. Please check
https://vulkan.gpuinfo.org/listdevices.php?platform=android
NOTE: At the moment, demo apps do not support touch input on Android.
Using the Slang compiler
By default, the
compiler is disabled, and only GLSL shaders are supported through the
compiler. To enable
, configure the project with the following CMake option:
cmake .. -DLVK_WITH_SLANG=ON Screenshots
Check out
https://github.com/corporateshark/lightweightvk/samples
.
A comprehensive set of examples can be found in this repository
3D Graphics Rendering Cookbook: 2nd edition
and in the book
Vulkan 3D Graphics Rendering Cookbook - 2nd Edition
.
Interop with raw Vulkan API calls
The header file lvk/vulkan/VulkanUtils.h offers a collection of functions that allow you to access the underlying Vulkan API objects from LightweightVK handles. This makes it easy to mix LVK and Vulkan code, as shown in the following example:
lvk::Holder<lvk::BufferHandle>vertexBuffer=ctx_->createBuffer({...}); ... lvk::ICommandBuffer&buffer=ctx_->acquireCommandBuffer(); VkCommandBuffercmdBuf=getVkCommandBuffer(buffer); VkBufferbuf=getVkBuffer(vertexBuffer); vkCmdUpdateBuffer(cmdBuf, buf, 0, sizeof(params), ¶ms); ctx_->submit(buffer, ctx_->getCurrentSwapchainTexture());If you'd like to add more helper functions, feel free to submit a pull request.
License
LightweightVK is released under the MIT license, see
for the full text as well as third-party library acknowledgements.