libGPULayers provides tooling to rapidly create new Vulkan layer drivers, allowing developers to quickly generate new layers that can be used for ad hoc experiments during development.
In addition, we provide a number of pre-built layers that have been built using these tools. These layers can be used as standalone tools in their own right, and some can be used alongside other Arm tools such as Arm Performance Studio.
Layers drivers provide a standard mechanism to inject diagnostic functionality between an application and the underlying graphics driver. Layer drivers intercept the graphics API calls from the application, perform their diagnostic function, and then make any necessary API calls into the underlying graphics driver to actually perform the rendering operations. The ability to see, and change, everything that the native driver sees makes layers an exceptionally powerful tool for debugging functional and performance issues.
The Vulkan API defines a standard layer driver mechanism. The API uses layers to implement API parameter validation and error checking, but they are also a general purpose mechanism for all kinds of developer tooling.
We support many application developers during their development cycle. We
rarely get access to application source code, so layer drivers provide us with
an invaluable mechanism to make modifications to application API usage. The
GPU Support layer in this project is a a tool we use during technical support
investigations to quickly triage developers problems.
We also use layer drivers as a way to develop new API-aware debug and profiling
capabilities. The performance layers in this repository, such as the
GPU Timeline layer, are often early prototypes that we want to share with
developers to test new ideas and gather feedback. Some are designed to be used
as standalone development tools, others can also be used alongside other Arm
tools such as the Arm Streamline profiler in Arm Performance Studio.
As you can tell, we find layers exceptionally useful. However, creating a new layer from scratch requires a lot of boilerplate code and is fiddly to get right. We therefore also wanted to take this opportunity to share our layer generation tools which make it trivial to create a complete bare-bones layer that is ready to extend and use.
This library is currently tested on devices running Android or Linux, and using Arm® Immortalis™ and Arm Mali™ GPUs. Contributions adding support for other platforms is welcome.
This project is licensed under the MIT license. By downloading any component from this repository you acknowledge that you accept terms specified in the LICENSE.txt file.
Common documentation
- Building a new layer
- Running using a layer on Android
- Running using a layer on Linux
- Frequently asked questions
Layer documentation
If you have issues with the layer framework, or the prebuilt layers, please raise them in the project's GitHub issue tracker.
If you have any questions about Arm GPUs, application development for Arm GPUs, or general mobile graphics development or technology, please submit them on the Arm Community graphics forums.
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