About this project

In graphics engines and renderers, window management and event handling is often a necessary but tedious task. Most developers choose to abstract this functionality using libraries like GLFW, SDL, or similar tools. While these libraries are robust and feature-rich, they tend to be heavyweight and require installation via NuGet, vcpkg, or manual downloads. This can impact the portability of projects that rely on them.

As a researcher and graphics programming enthusiast, my needs are simpler. I primarily need a window for the rendering surface and basic input handling—just enough to close the window with the Esc key or enable basic camera movement. For such straightforward requirements, using a large library often feels like overkill. Don’t get me wrong—SDL2 is excellent, and GLFW is truly amazing. But for smaller projects, their size and complexity can be unnecessary.

When I looked for lightweight, single-header alternatives, I was surprised to find a lack of options tailored to Vulkan. The OpenGL ecosystem has plenty of solutions, but Vulkan seems to have been overlooked in this area. That’s why I decided to create my own solution.

What started as a utility extracted from my renderer has evolved into a portable, single-header window library designed specifically for Vulkan. It’s simple, lightweight, and focuses on exactly what’s needed—nothing more, nothing less.

This project aims to make creation of a window with a Vulkan surface and basic event handling as simple and portable as possible. If you just need a window with Vulkan surface and basic event handling, this is the tool you need. Library is header-only single file and there is no need for implementation files. Just drop it into you project.

Simple API

The window API was made so it is as simple as possible. Open a window and create a VkSurface in just two lines:

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#define SURFER_PLATFORM_X11
#include "VulkanSurfer.h"

// Create a window
Surfer::Window * window = Surfer::Window::createWindow("Example window", instance, 800, 600 , 100, 100 );

// Get the surface 
VkSurfaceKHR surface = window->getSurface();

// Draw
while (!window->shouldClose()) {
    // poll for events
    window->pollEvents();
    
    // do your rendering
}

// Don't forget to destroy the window
Surfer::Window::destroyWindow(window);

See the full example here.

Callback-based event handling

Event handling is done using simple callback system.

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window->registerKeyPressCallback([](Surfer::KeyCode key) {
    std::cout << "Key pressed " << static_cast<unsigned int>(key) << std::endl;
});

You can find the source code in the official repository.