VkImageView

VkImageView is a Vulkan object that represents a view into an image. Images in Vulkan are raw, multi-dimensional arrays of texels. A VkImageView provides a way to access a specific portion or aspect of this image data.

It defines how the image data should be interpreted. This includes specifying the image format, the range of mipmap levels, the array layers that can be accessed, and the image view type. The image view type determines how the image is presented, such as a 2D texture, a 3D texture, or an array of 2D textures.

Crucially, a VkImageView decouples the image resource itself from its usage in pipelines. This allows a single VkImage to be accessed in multiple ways by different VkImageView objects. For instance, one VkImageView might expose a single mipmap level of an image for rendering, while another VkImageView might expose the entire array of layers for a different purpose.

When creating a VkImageView, you must provide a VkImageViewCreateInfo structure. This structure contains all the necessary information to define the view, including a reference to the VkImage it is associated with, the view type, the format, and subresource range parameters. The subresource range specifies which parts of the image (mipmaps, array layers, and aspects) are accessible through this view.