Load debug layers in VS 2015 (VK_ERROR_LAYER_NOT_PRESENT)

Question

I am currently trying to force Visual Studio to use the debug layer dlls for Vulkan, but somehow it is unable to load the libraries. My steps were those:

Clone https://github.com/KhronosGroup/Vulkan-LoaderAndValidationLayers/blob/master/BUILD.md
Build for Visual Studio 2015 (Release and Debug)
In my Vulkan Application i put this into the Environment variable (for x64 - Debug) (Project Settings -> Debugging): VK_LAYER_PATH=F:\Projects\Vulkan-LoaderAndValidationLayers\build\layers\Debug

When i start my application it runs until it tries to create the Instance, where it returns VK_ERROR_LAYER_NOT_PRESENT and i can see in the output window of Visual Studio that the dlls were indeed not loaded at all. If i just put the "normal" path to the Vulkan binaries in the path above it works fine again. I already checked that there are also the .json files present. This problem is also present if i try to use the Release-DLLs from the LoaderAndValidationLayers folder.

What am i doing wrong? Does anyone have any idea how to make this work?

EDIT: I found out that VK_LAYER_LUNARG_threading seems to be the problem. If i use VK_LAYER_LUNARG_standard_validation it does not load anything. If i just specify all layers included manually (described here: https://vulkan.lunarg.com/app/docs/v1.0.3.1/layers) without the VK_LAYER_LUNARG_threading layer it does work fine. Any idea why this might be?

I have also downloaded and built the Vulkan Loader and Layers from their Git. When I tried out the demos that came with it and turned on the validation, it was giving me the same layer not present error. I figured out that the same layer was causing issues; it had been renamed to the google one (VK_LAYER_GOOGLE_threading) in the demo layer string, but changing it back to VK_LAYER_LUNARG_threading caused it to work for me. Also running VulkanInfo.exe lists it as VK_LAYER_LUNARG_threading still so I guess they didn't change the name yet somewhere. — graeme

Ivan Aksamentov - Drop Ivan Aksamentov - Drop · Accepted Answer · 2016-03-12T17:35:25

Looks like they've slightly changed names of the layers.

Here is the list that works for me:

const char* enabledLayerNames[] = {
    "VK_LAYER_GOOGLE_threading",
    "VK_LAYER_GOOGLE_unique_objects",
    "VK_LAYER_LUNARG_api_dump",
    "VK_LAYER_LUNARG_device_limits",
    "VK_LAYER_LUNARG_draw_state",
    "VK_LAYER_LUNARG_image",
    "VK_LAYER_LUNARG_mem_tracker",
    "VK_LAYER_LUNARG_object_tracker",
    "VK_LAYER_LUNARG_param_checker",
    "VK_LAYER_LUNARG_screenshot",
    "VK_LAYER_LUNARG_swapchain",
//     "VK_LAYER_LUNARG_vktrace",
};

(I just took "name" fields from "C:\VulkanSDK\1.0.5.0\Bin\VkLayer_*.json" files.)

"VK_LAYER_LUNARG_vktrace" is commented, because it provokes an error VK_ERROR_INITIALIZATION_FAILED ("Initialization of an object could not be completed for implementation-specific reasons") on my rig.

You might also want to check if HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Khronos\Vulkan\ExplicitLayers registry key has correct paths to the *.json files

My environment setup:

GPU Nvidia GeForce GT 730M (Kepler)
OS: Windows 10 x64
I've first installed fresh Nvidia driver v 364.51 (tick "clean installation")
uninstalled LunarG VulkanSDK 1.0.3 along with remains (with Revo Uninstaller)
then installed LunarG VulkanSDK 1.0.5

P.S. I haven't edited any files, nor registry. I haven't even recompiled for VS 2015. And it all still links and works somehow.

P.P.S. My physical device reports API version 1.0.4.

Load debug layers in VS 2015 (VK_ERROR_LAYER_NOT_PRESENT)

2 Answers