Surface Creation on Linux

We're going to be writing the Linux specific code for getting a surface in this section. While this code may work on another operating system that uses the XCB library, I cannot guarantee it will.

Surface Create Information

Before we create a surface, we must specify information ahead of time like most Vulkan objects. We'll be using VkXcbSurfaceCreateInfoKHR.

Definition for VkXcbSurfaceCreateInfoKHR:

typedef struct VkXcbSurfaceCreateInfoKHR {
  VkStructureType             sType;
  const void*                 pNext;
  VkXcbSurfaceCreateFlagsKHR  flags;
  xcb_connection_t*           connection;
  xcb_window_t                window;
} VkXcbSurfaceCreateInfoKHR;

Documentation for VkXcbSurfaceCreateInfoKHR:

• sType is the type of this structure and must be VK_STRUCTURE_TYPE_XCB_SURFACE_CREATE_INFO_KHR.
• pNext is NULL or a pointer to an extension-specific structure.
• flags is reserved for future use.
• connection is a pointer to an xcb_connection_t to the X server.
• window is the xcb_window_t for the X11 window to associate the surface with.

Usage for VkXcbSurfaceCreateInfoKHR:

VkXcbSurfaceCreateInfoKHR surfaceCreateInfo = {};
surfaceCreateInfo.sType = VK_STRUCTURE_TYPE_XCB_SURFACE_CREATE_INFO_KHR;
surfaceCreateInfo.pNext = NULL;
surfaceCreateInfo.flags = 0;
surfaceCreateInfo.connection = connection;
surfaceCreateInfo.window = window;

Creating the Surface

Now we can create the surface. We'll be calling the vkCreateXcbSurfaceKHR method to do so.

Definition for vkCreateXcbSurfaceKHR:

VkResult vkCreateXcbSurfaceKHR(
  VkInstance                        instance,
  const VkXcbSurfaceCreateInfoKHR*  pCreateInfo,
  const VkAllocationCallbacks*      pAllocator,
  VkSurfaceKHR*                     pSurface);

Documentation for vkCreateXcbSurfaceKHR:

• instance is the instance to associate the surface with.
• pCreateInfo is a pointer to an instance of the VkXcbSurfaceCreateInfoKHR structure containing parameters affecting the creation of the surface object.
• pAllocator is the allocator used for host memory allocated for the surface object when there is no more specific allocator available.
• pSurface points to a VkSurfaceKHR handle in which the created surface object is returned.

Usage for `vkCreateXcbSurfaceKHR:

VkResult result =
    vkCreateXcbSurfaceKHR(instance, &surfaceCreateInfo, NULL, &surface);
assert(result == VK_SUCCESS);

Please go back to the Chapter 5 page to read about determining the color formats and color spaces for the surface.