VkApplicationInfo(3)

# VkApplicationInfo(3) Manual Page

## Name

VkApplicationInfo - Structure specifying application information

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## C Specification

The `VkApplicationInfo` structure is defined as:

    // Provided by VK_VERSION_1_0
    typedef struct VkApplicationInfo {
        VkStructureType    sType;
        const void*        pNext;
        const char*        pApplicationName;
        uint32_t           applicationVersion;
        const char*        pEngineName;
        uint32_t           engineVersion;
        uint32_t           apiVersion;
    } VkApplicationInfo;

## Members

- `sType` is a VkStructureType value identifying this structure.

- `pNext` is `NULL` or a pointer to a structure extending this structure.

- `pApplicationName` is `NULL` or is a pointer to a null-terminated UTF-8 string containing the name of the application.

- `applicationVersion` is an unsigned integer variable containing the developer-supplied version number of the application.

- `pEngineName` is `NULL` or is a pointer to a null-terminated UTF-8 string containing the name of the engine (if any) used to create the application.

- `engineVersion` is an unsigned integer variable containing the developer-supplied version number of the engine used to create the application.

- `apiVersion` must be the highest version of Vulkan that the application is designed to use, encoded as described in https://registry.khronos.org/vulkan/specs/latest/html/vkspec.html#extendingvulkan-coreversions-versionnumbers. The patch version number specified in `apiVersion` is ignored when creating an instance object. The variant version of the instance must match that requested in `apiVersion`.

## Description

Vulkan 1.0 implementations were required to return `VK_ERROR_INCOMPATIBLE_DRIVER` if `apiVersion` was larger than 1.0. Implementations that support Vulkan 1.1 or later must not return `VK_ERROR_INCOMPATIBLE_DRIVER` for any value of `apiVersion` .

Note | Because Vulkan 1.0 implementations may fail with `VK_ERROR_INCOMPATIBLE_DRIVER`, applications should determine the version of Vulkan available before calling vkCreateInstance. If the vkGetInstanceProcAddr returns `NULL` for vkEnumerateInstanceVersion, it is a Vulkan 1.0 implementation. Otherwise, the application can call vkEnumerateInstanceVersion to determine the version of Vulkan.

As long as the instance supports at least Vulkan 1.1, an application can use different versions of Vulkan with an instance than it does with a device or physical device.

Note | The Khronos validation layers will treat `apiVersion` as the highest API version the application targets, and will validate API usage against the minimum of that version and the implementation version (instance or device, depending on context). If an application tries to use functionality from a greater version than this, a validation error will be triggered. For example, if the instance supports Vulkan 1.1 and three physical devices support Vulkan 1.0, Vulkan 1.1, and Vulkan 1.2, respectively, and if the application sets `apiVersion` to 1.2, the application can use the following versions of Vulkan: Vulkan 1.0 can be used with the instance and with all physical devices. Vulkan 1.1 can be used with the instance and with the physical devices that support Vulkan 1.1 and Vulkan 1.2. Vulkan 1.2 can be used with the physical device that supports Vulkan 1.2. If we modify the above example so that the application sets `apiVersion` to 1.1, then the application must not use Vulkan 1.2 functionality on the physical device that supports Vulkan 1.2.

Note | Providing a `NULL` VkInstanceCreateInfo::`pApplicationInfo` or providing an `apiVersion` of 0 is equivalent to providing an `apiVersion` of `VK_MAKE_API_VERSION(0,1,0,0)`.

Valid Usage

- VUID-VkApplicationInfo-apiVersion-04010
  If `apiVersion` is not `0`, then it must be greater than or equal to VK_API_VERSION_1_0

Valid Usage (Implicit)

- VUID-VkApplicationInfo-sType-sType
  `sType` must be `VK_STRUCTURE_TYPE_APPLICATION_INFO`

- VUID-VkApplicationInfo-pNext-pNext
  `pNext` must be `NULL`

- VUID-VkApplicationInfo-pApplicationName-parameter
  If `pApplicationName` is not `NULL`, `pApplicationName` must be a null-terminated UTF-8 string

- VUID-VkApplicationInfo-pEngineName-parameter
  If `pEngineName` is not `NULL`, `pEngineName` must be a null-terminated UTF-8 string

## See Also

VK_VERSION_1_0, VkInstanceCreateInfo, VkStructureType

## 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