Introduction to PVRRayTracingSimulation

Overview

PVRRayTracingSimulation is a collection of Vulkan layers that, when active, simulates the capabilities and behavior of a theoretical PowerVR platform that supports ray tracing. To achieve this, this collection of layers does the following:

• Changes queries made to match the capabilities listed in the RayTracingPlatformCapabilities.json file (included with the PVRRayTracingSimulation download package). This is done with the VK_LAYER_LUNARG_device_simulation layer.

• Emulates support for building acceleration structures on the host. This is done with the VK_LAYER_POWERVR_acceleration_structure_host_commands layer.

System Requirements

All the layers require a Vulkan loader and a Vulkan-compatible driver to be supported. In addition, the driver must support the same or more features as the platform being simulated. Notably:

• The driver must support the VK_KHR_ray_tracing_pipeline and VK_KHR_acceleration_structure extensions.

• The driver must have greater capabilities than those in the RayTracingPlatformCapabilities.json file. Not fulfilling this may cause some applications to crash.