Vulkan Configurator allows overriding the layers configuration used by Vulkan applications at runtime.

A Vulkan application may configure layers when creating a Vulkan Instance. This layers configuration may be overridden using Vulkan Configurator globally or for a selected list of Vulkan applications.

Finally Vulkan Configurator allows using layers from user-defined directories.

Bug reports: Please submit GitHub issues if you encounter any issue.
Information for contributors: All contribution information, FAQ, Roadmap, Known Issues
Build instruction: It requires Qt 5 to be install and Qt bin directory to be added to the PATH environment variable. Vulkan Configurator is built as part of the VulkanTools using CMake build system or alternatively with vkconfig.pro using Qt Creator.

Platform Support

Windows	✔️

Linux	✔️

macOS	✔️

Downloads

Vulkan Configurator is delivered with the Vulkan SDK.

Using the Vulkan Configurator

The Vulkan Configurator is a graphical user interface (GUI) that may be launched from the console using vkconfig.

The tool is distributed differently, depending on the platform:

Ubuntu packages: Upon installing the lunarg-vkconfig package, the tools will be available from the command line as vkconfig.
Linux tarball: The vkconfig executable comes pre-built. Run vkconfig on the command line.
Windows: The tool will be present on the start menu, in the Vulkan SDK menu. User can also invoke from a command line.
macOS: The tool is provided as an application bundle. Run it by double-clicking the bundle from a Finder window.

Terminology

Vulkan Layer: A layer is an optional library that can intercept Vulkan functions on their way from the Vulkan application down to the Vulkan drivers. Multiple layers can be chained together to use multiple layer functionalities simultaneously.

Vulkan Layers Configuration: A collection of Vulkan Layers executed in a specific order with specific settings for each layer.

Vulkan Explicit Layers vs Implicit Layer: An explicit layer has to be explicitly activated by the user from source in vkCreateInstance, using Vulkan Configurator or VK_INSTANCE_LAYERS environment variable. Implicit layers are enabled by their existence on the system by default.

Vulkan Meta-Layer: Meta-layers are a special kind of layer which is only available through the desktop Vulkan Loader. While usual layers are associated with one particular library, a meta-layer is actually a collection layer which contains an ordered list of other layers called component layers.

Vulkan Override Layer: The Vulkan Override Layer is an implicit meta-layer found on the system with the name VK_LAYER_LUNARG_override. It is the mechanism used by Vulkan Configurator to override Vulkan applications layers. This layer contains:

The ordered list of layers to activate
The list of layers to exclude from execution
The list of paths to executables that the layers override applies to. If this list is empty, the override is applied to every application upon startup.

Vulkan Layer settings: Per-layer settings loaded by each layer library and stored in the vk_layer_settings.txt file. This file is located either next to the Vulkan application executable or set globally and applied to all Vulkan applications thanks to Vulkan Configurator. These settings are described here for VK_LAYER_KHRONOS_validation and here for other layers created by LunarG.

Vulkan Layers execution order overview

Vulkan Loader and Layers implementation overview

For detailed information, read the Architecture of the Vulkan Loader Interfaces document.

OS user-specific modifications

The Vulkan Configurator does not make any system-wide changes to a system, but it does make user-specific changes. These changes are documented below:

Linux and macOS

Unix systems store files in the following paths:

$HOME/.local/share/vulkan/implicit_layer.d/VkLayer_override.json tells a Vulkan application which layers to use
$HOME/.local/share/vulkan/settings.d/vk_layer_settings.txt tells Vulkan layers which settings to use
$HOME/.config/LunarG/vkconfig.conf stores the application settings for vkconfig

Windows

Windows systems store files in the following paths:

%TEMP%\VulkanLayerManager\VkLayerOverride.json tells a Vulkan application which layers to use
%TEMP%\VulkanLayerManager\vk_layer_settings.txt tells Vulkan layers which settings to use

In addition, Windows system create registry entries in the following locations:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Khronos\Vulkan\ImplicitLayers will have an entry that points to the JSON file above
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Khronos\Vulkan\Settings will have an entry that points to the text file above
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\LunarG\vkconfig stores the application settings for vkconfig

FAQ

1/ How do I use Vulkan Configurator to override only the Vulkan layers of a selected list of applications?

This is typically done by enabling the "Apply only to the selected list of Vulkan applications" check box.

If this is not working, it's likely that the Vulkan Loader on the system is too old. Version 1.2.141 or newer of the Vulkan Loader is required. Update the Vulkan Loader by installing the latest Vulkan Runtime to enable this feature.

2/ How does my application vk_layer_settings.txt file interacts with Vulkan Configurator?

When *Vulkan Configurator is used to override layers, the local vk_layer_settings.txt file is ignored.

3/ How do environment variables settings interact with Vulkan Configurator?

The short answer is that environment variables and Vulkan Configurator layers settings are mutually exclusive and the interaction between both is undefined.

This is because the interaction between environment variables and Vulkan Configuration layers settings are handled by the layers directly so the responsability of the layers developers.

We are working on defining layers development conventions to resolve this issue properly but in the meantime we highly recommend to use exclusively either environment variables or Vulkan Configurator.

Roadmap

Use Private Settings Layer Extension new APIs to categorize settings and allow layers by developers integration of settings in vkconfig https://github.com/KhronosGroup/Vulkan-ValidationLayers/pull/1920
Improve the layer settings representation and organization.
Full coverage of VK_EXT_debug_utils for message filtering.
Refactor the loader to replace vk_layer_settings.txt and VkLayer_override.json by JSON files generated by Vulkan Configurator.
- Global layers overriding file is placed in VulkanLayerManager directory.
- Local layers overriding file / selected Vulkan application is placed the application directory.
Add full command line arguments to use Vulkan Configurator features and add a test framework.
Improve layer ordering representation and accuracy.
Add multiple command line arguments and environment variables per application.
Add a search field for the launcher log area and button to open the launcher log file, make it possible to browse the log.
Make Vulkan Configurator a service to add an icon in the taskbar when running.
Add display of a detailed description of each layer.
Add preferences to customize Vulkan Configurator UI.
Add a reset to default menu entry
Add a reset configurations context menu to reset a single configuration to default
Make Custom Layer Paths in the layer window should be per configuration settings.

Known Issues

Minor GUI formating issues may still occur on some Linux distributions (Fedora particularly)
Layers will use the override layer settings and ignore the local file with no warning to the user.
Layer paths may not be duplicated in the layer override json file. They currently are.
Layer execution order express in the "Select Layers" window is not accurate, only forced on layers can be ordered.
Layers settings fields are not checked for syntax errors.
The user can't reorder the layers configurations in the list.
Vulkaninfo output is now sorted alphabetically.
On Linux, when run for the first time from the command line, vkcube may not be located and added to the application launcher automatically.
A version or build # needs to be added to the about box.
Layer changes are not autodetected. If changes are made to the layer environment, vkconfig must be restarted.
On macOS, vkcube and vkcubepp need to be run at least once to get past the security checks before they can be used from vkconfig.
The screenshot layer can crash if you do not specify a working directory that is writable by the current user.