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VK_EXT_direct_mode_display

Other Extension Metadata

Last Modified Date

2016-12-13

IP Status

No known IP claims.

Contributors
  • Pierre Boudier, NVIDIA
  • James Jones, NVIDIA
  • Damien Leone, NVIDIA
  • Pierre-Loup Griffais, Valve
  • Liam Middlebrook, NVIDIA

Description

This is extension, along with related platform extensions, allows applications to take exclusive control of displays associated with a native windowing system. This is especially useful for virtual reality applications that wish to hide HMDs (head mounted displays) from the native platform’s display management system, desktop, and/or other applications.

New Commands

New Enum Constants

  • VK_EXT_DIRECT_MODE_DISPLAY_EXTENSION_NAME
  • VK_EXT_DIRECT_MODE_DISPLAY_SPEC_VERSION

Issues

1) Should this extension and its related platform-specific extensions leverage VK_KHR_display, or provide separate equivalent interfaces.

RESOLVED: Use VK_KHR_display concepts and objects. VK_KHR_display can be used to enumerate all displays on the system, including those attached to/in use by a window system or native platform, but VK_KHR_display_swapchain will fail to create a swapchain on in-use displays. This extension and its platform-specific children will allow applications to grab in-use displays away from window systems and/or native platforms, allowing them to be used with VK_KHR_display_swapchain.

2) Are separate calls needed to acquire displays and enable direct mode?

RESOLVED: No, these operations happen in one combined command. Acquiring a display puts it into direct mode.

Version History

  • Revision 1, 2016-12-13 (James Jones)
    • Initial draft