vkCreatePipelineCache

vkCreatePipelineCache is a Vulkan API function used to create a pipeline cache object. A pipeline cache allows Vulkan to store and retrieve pipeline state objects, which can significantly improve the performance of pipeline creation. When a pipeline object is created, Vulkan can optionally serialize its state into a pipeline cache. Later, when creating a new pipeline, Vulkan can attempt to find a compatible pre-compiled state in the cache, avoiding the need to recompile it from scratch. This is particularly beneficial in applications that frequently create or destroy pipelines, such as games with dynamic rendering or complex scene compositions.

The function takes a VkDevice, a pointer to a VkPipelineCacheCreateInfo structure, and a pointer to a VkPipelineCache handle as arguments. The VkPipelineCacheCreateInfo structure can specify initial data for the cache, allowing for pre-population with existing pipeline states. It can also be used to control the size and behavior of the cache. If the creation is successful, the VkPipelineCache handle will be populated with a handle to the newly created pipeline cache object. The pipeline cache object itself is a Vulkan resource and must be explicitly destroyed using vkDestroyPipelineCache when it is no longer needed to free associated memory and resources.