C Specification

To create buffers, call:

// Provided by VK_VERSION_1_0
VkResult vkCreateBuffer(
    VkDevice                                    device,
    const VkBufferCreateInfo*                   pCreateInfo,
    const VkAllocationCallbacks*                pAllocator,
    VkBuffer*                                   pBuffer);

Parameters

  • device is the logical device that creates the buffer object.

  • pCreateInfo is a pointer to a VkBufferCreateInfo structure containing parameters affecting creation of the buffer.

  • pAllocator controls host memory allocation as described in the Memory Allocation chapter.

  • pBuffer is a pointer to a VkBuffer handle in which the resulting buffer object is returned.

Description

Implementations may fail to create a buffer if the effective usage includes the VK_BUFFER_USAGE_2_DESCRIPTOR_HEAP_BIT_EXT flag, and size is greater than the maximum of maxResourceHeapSize and maxSamplerHeapSize. If this happens, VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_DEVICE_MEMORY will be returned.

Note

This is an issue identified with VK_EXT_descriptor_heap, which we plan to tighten up for the KHR version. Applications using VK_EXT_descriptor_heap may wish to avoid suballocating heaps from the same buffer, instead creating one buffer per heap, to avoid situations where this causes issues.
Valid Usage

  • VUID-vkCreateBuffer-device-09664
    device must support at least one queue family with one of the VK_QUEUE_VIDEO_ENCODE_BIT_KHR, VK_QUEUE_VIDEO_DECODE_BIT_KHR, VK_QUEUE_SPARSE_BINDING_BIT, VK_QUEUE_TRANSFER_BIT, VK_QUEUE_COMPUTE_BIT, or VK_QUEUE_GRAPHICS_BIT capabilities

  • VUID-vkCreateBuffer-flags-00911
    If the flags member of pCreateInfo includes VK_BUFFER_CREATE_SPARSE_BINDING_BIT, and the extendedSparseAddressSpace feature is not enabled, creating this VkBuffer must not cause the total required sparse memory for all currently valid sparse resources on the device to exceed VkPhysicalDeviceLimits::sparseAddressSpaceSize

  • VUID-vkCreateBuffer-flags-09383
    If the flags member of pCreateInfo includes VK_BUFFER_CREATE_SPARSE_BINDING_BIT, the extendedSparseAddressSpace feature is enabled, and the usage member of pCreateInfo contains bits not in VkPhysicalDeviceExtendedSparseAddressSpacePropertiesNV::extendedSparseBufferUsageFlags, creating this VkBuffer must not cause the total required sparse memory for all currently valid sparse resources on the device, excluding VkBuffer created with usage member of pCreateInfo containing bits in VkPhysicalDeviceExtendedSparseAddressSpacePropertiesNV::extendedSparseBufferUsageFlags and VkImage created with usage member of pCreateInfo containing bits in VkPhysicalDeviceExtendedSparseAddressSpacePropertiesNV::extendedSparseImageUsageFlags, to exceed VkPhysicalDeviceLimits::sparseAddressSpaceSize

  • VUID-vkCreateBuffer-flags-09384
    If the flags member of pCreateInfo includes VK_BUFFER_CREATE_SPARSE_BINDING_BIT and the extendedSparseAddressSpace feature is enabled, creating this VkBuffer must not cause the total required sparse memory for all currently valid sparse resources on the device to exceed VkPhysicalDeviceExtendedSparseAddressSpacePropertiesNV::extendedSparseAddressSpaceSize

Valid Usage (Implicit)

  • VUID-vkCreateBuffer-device-parameter
    device must be a valid VkDevice handle

  • VUID-vkCreateBuffer-pCreateInfo-parameter
    pCreateInfo must be a valid pointer to a valid VkBufferCreateInfo structure

  • VUID-vkCreateBuffer-pAllocator-parameter
    If pAllocator is not NULL, pAllocator must be a valid pointer to a valid VkAllocationCallbacks structure

  • VUID-vkCreateBuffer-pBuffer-parameter
    pBuffer must be a valid pointer to a VkBuffer handle

  • VUID-vkCreateBuffer-device-queuecount
    The device must have been created with at least 1 queue

Return Codes
On success, this command returns
On failure, this command returns

See Also

VK_VERSION_1_0, VkAllocationCallbacks, VkBuffer, VkBufferCreateInfo, VkDevice

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 2014-2026 The Khronos Group Inc.

SPDX-License-Identifier: CC-BY-4.0