vkCreateImageView

vkCreateImageView is a Vulkan API function used to create an image view. An image view is an object that describes how an image is accessed, such as its format, swizzle, and subresource range. It allows the Vulkan API to interpret the raw image data for specific purposes like rendering or texture sampling.

To create an image view, you provide a VkImageViewCreateInfo structure, which specifies essential parameters. These include a handle to the VkImage object for which the view is being created, the desired view type (e.g., VkImageViewType_2D for a 2D image), the image format, and component mappings. The component mappings define how the color channels (red, green, blue, alpha) of the image are mapped to the output of the image view.

Additionally, the VkImageViewCreateInfo structure allows you to specify mipmap level and array layer ranges. The mipmap level range determines which mipmaps of the image are accessible through this view, while the array layer range selects a subset of layers in an arrayed image. The flags member can also be used for certain image view creation options.

The vkCreateImageView function takes a VkDevice, a pointer to the VkImageViewCreateInfo structure, and a pointer to a VkImageView handle where the newly created image view handle will be stored. If the creation is successful, the function returns VK_SUCCESS. Otherwise, it returns an appropriate Vulkan error code. The created VkImageView object should be explicitly destroyed using vkDestroyImageView when it is no longer needed to release associated resources.