Chapter 1, Instance and Devices, shows how to get started with the Vulkan API. This chapter explains where to download the Vulkan SDK from, how to connect with the Vulkan Loader library, how to select the physical device on which operations will be performed, and how to prepare and create a logical device.
Chapter 2, Image Presentation, describes how to display Vulkan‑generated images on screen. It explains what a swapchain is and what parameters are required to create it, so we can use it for rendering and see the results of our work.
Chapter 3, Command Buffers and Synchronization, is about recording various operations into command buffers and submitting them to queues, where they are processed by the hardware. Also, various synchronization mechanisms are presented in this chapter.
Chapter 4, Resources and Memory, presents two basic and most important resource types, images and buffers, which allow us to store data. We explain how to create them, how to prepare memory for these resources, and, also, how to upload data to them from our application (CPU).
Chapter 5, Descriptor Sets, explains how to provide created resource to shaders. We explain how to prepare resources so they can be used inside shaders and how to set up descriptor sets, which form the interface between the application and the shaders.
Chapter 6, Render Passes and Framebuffers, shows how to organize drawing operations into sets of separate steps called subpasses, which are organized into render passes. In this chapter we also show how to prepare descriptions of attachments (render targets) used during drawing and how to create framebuffers, which bind specific resources according to these descriptions.
Chapter 7, Shaders, describes the specifics of programming all available graphics and compute shader stages. This chapter presents how to implement shader programs using GLSL programming language and how to convert them into SPIR‑V assemblies – the only form core Vulkan API accepts.
Chapter 8, Graphics and Compute Pipelines, presents the process of creating two available pipeline types. They are used to set up all the parameters graphics hardware needs to properly process drawing commands or computational work.
Chapter 9, Command Recording and Drawing, is about recording all the operations needed to successfully draw 3D models or dispatch computational work. Also, various optimization techniques are presented in this chapter, which can help increase the performance of the application.
Chapter 10, Helper Recipes, shows convenient set of tools no 3D rendering application can do without. It is shown how to load textures and 3D models from files and how to manipulate the geometry inside shaders.
Chapter 11, Lighting, presents commonly used lighting techniques from simple diffuse and specular lighting calculations to normal mapping and shadow mapping techniques.
Chapter 12, Advanced Rendering Techniques, explains how to implement impressive graphics techniques, which can be found in many popular 3D applications such as games and benchmarks.