SDL_Vulkan_CreateSurface(3)

💖 SDL_Vulkan_CreateSurface(3) 💖

okay bestie, welcome to the SDL3 FUNCTIONS section of the manual, and today's main character is SDL_Vulkan_CreateSurface — she makes Vulkan rendering surfaces for windows, and she's kind of a big deal 💅

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✨ NAME ✨

SDL_Vulkan_CreateSurface</p> — create a Vulkan rendering surface for a window. that's it, that's the gig 🦋

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

#include <SDL3/SDL_vulkan.h>

bool SDL_Vulkan_CreateSurface(SDL_Window *window,
                                  VkInstance instance,
                                  const struct VkAllocationCallbacks *allocator,
                                  VkSurfaceKHR *surface);

look at that signature. gorgeous. no notes 🎀

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💜 DESCRIPTION 💜

okay so first things first, there are two prerequisites and you literally cannot skip them:

• your window has to have been created with the SDL_WINDOW_VULKAN flag, no cap
• your instance has to have been created with the extensions that SDL_Vulkan_GetInstanceExtensions() hands back, all enabled and everything

like, do those two things or this whole vibe check fails, fr fr 😭

and then: if allocator is NULL, Vulkan just uses the system default allocator, easy. that argument gets passed straight through to Vulkan — SDL itself doesn't touch it, doesn't look at it, doesn't have opinions about it. it's giving "middleman who does nothing" 🙈

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🫶 FUNCTION PARAMETERS 🫶

• window — the window you're attaching the Vulkan surface to. the chosen one 👑
• instance — the Vulkan instance handle. your golden ticket ⭐
• allocator — a VkAllocationCallbacks struct, which lets the app pick the allocator that creates the surface. it can be NULL. your call bestie ✨
• surface — a pointer to a VkSurfaceKHR handle where the newly created surface gets output. she's an out-param, she's doing the work 💅

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🔥 RETURN VALUE 🔥

returns true on success or false on failure — and if it's false, go call SDL_GetError() for the tea, she'll tell you what went wrong 😭

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🌈 AVAILABILITY 🌈

this function has been available since SDL 3.2.0 — so if you're on anything older, sorry babe, no surface for you 💀

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👑 SEE ALSO 👑

• SDL_Vulkan_GetInstanceExtensions(3)
• SDL_Vulkan_DestroySurface(3)

(create her, then eventually clean up after her. balance. 🧚)

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and that's the whole page bestie, mwah 💖 this came to you courtesy of Simple Directmedia Layer, version SDL 3.4.18 — go forth and surface responsibly, ily 🎀✨🦋