C Specification

Shader modules contain shader code and one or more entry points. Shaders are selected from a shader module by specifying an entry point as part of pipeline creation. The stages of a pipeline can use shaders that come from different modules. The shader code defining a shader module must be in the SPIR-V format, as described by the Vulkan Environment for SPIR-V appendix.

Shader modules are represented by VkShaderModule handles:

// Provided by VK_VERSION_1_0
VK_DEFINE_NON_DISPATCHABLE_HANDLE(VkShaderModule)

Description

Shader modules are not used in Vulkan SC, but the type has been retained for compatibility https://registry.khronos.org/vulkansc/specs/1.0-extensions/html/vkspec.html#SCID-8.

In Vulkan SC, the shader modules and pipeline state are supplied to an offline compiler which creates a pipeline cache entry which is loaded at pipeline creation time.

Accordingly, SPIR-V module validation rules defined in the https://registry.khronos.org/vulkansc/specs/1.0-extensions/html/vkspec.html#spirvenv section are only indirectly applied in Vulkan SC, as the SPIR-V modules that must adhere to these validation rules are the inputs of the offline pipeline cache compilation process, while the Vulkan SC API only consumes the implementation-specific pipeline caches resulting from this process. However, violations of SPIR-V module validation rules may be detected and reported by validation layers when the corresponding pipeline cache entry contains stage validation index entries with SPIR-V module data.

For completeness, this specification also includes the following shader module creation valid usage clauses that are expected to be referred to by validation layers to report SPIR-V module validation errors:

Valid Usage

  • VUID-VkShaderModuleCreateInfo-codeSize-08735
    If pCode is a pointer to SPIR-V code, codeSize must be a multiple of 4

  • VUID-VkShaderModuleCreateInfo-pCode-08736
    If pCode is a pointer to SPIR-V code, pCode must point to valid SPIR-V code, formatted and packed as described by the Khronos SPIR-V Specification

  • VUID-VkShaderModuleCreateInfo-pCode-08737
    If pCode is a pointer to SPIR-V code, pCode must adhere to the validation rules described by the Validation Rules within a Module section of the SPIR-V Environment appendix

  • VUID-VkShaderModuleCreateInfo-pCode-08738
    If pCode is a pointer to SPIR-V code, pCode must declare the Shader capability for SPIR-V code

  • VUID-VkShaderModuleCreateInfo-pCode-08739
    If pCode is a pointer to SPIR-V code, pCode must not declare any capability that is not supported by the API, as described by the Capabilities section of the SPIR-V Environment appendix

  • VUID-VkShaderModuleCreateInfo-pCode-08740
    If pCode is a pointer to SPIR-V code, and pCode declares any of the capabilities listed in the SPIR-V Environment appendix, one of the corresponding requirements must be satisfied

  • VUID-VkShaderModuleCreateInfo-pCode-08741
    If pCode is a pointer to SPIR-V code, pCode must not declare any SPIR-V extension that is not supported by the API, as described by the Extension section of the SPIR-V Environment appendix

  • VUID-VkShaderModuleCreateInfo-pCode-08742
    If pCode is a pointer to SPIR-V code, and pCode declares any of the SPIR-V extensions listed in the SPIR-V Environment appendix, one of the corresponding requirements must be satisfied

See Also

VK_DEFINE_NON_DISPATCHABLE_HANDLE, VK_VERSION_1_0, VkPipelineShaderStageCreateInfo

Document Notes

For more information, see the Vulkan Specification

This page is extracted from the Vulkan Specification. Fixes and changes should be made to the Specification, not directly.

Copyright

Copyright 2014-2025 The Khronos Group Inc.

SPDX-License-Identifier: CC-BY-4.0