vkCreateBuffer(3)

# vkCreateBuffer(3) Manual Page

## Name

vkCreateBuffer - Create a new buffer object

## C Specification

To create buffers, call:

    // Provided by VK_VERSION_1_0
    VkResult vkCreateBuffer(
        VkDevice                                    device,
        const VkBufferCreateInfo*                   pCreateInfo,
        const VkAllocationCallbacks*                pAllocator,
        VkBuffer*                                   pBuffer);

## Parameters

- `device` is the logical device that creates the buffer object.

- `pCreateInfo` is a pointer to a VkBufferCreateInfo structure containing parameters affecting creation of the buffer.

- `pAllocator` controls host memory allocation as described in the Memory Allocation chapter.

- `pBuffer` is a pointer to a VkBuffer handle in which the resulting buffer object is returned.

## Description

Implementations may fail to create a buffer if the effective usage includes the VK_BUFFER_USAGE_2_DESCRIPTOR_HEAP_BIT_EXT flag, and `size` is greater than the maximum of `maxResourceHeapSize` and `maxSamplerHeapSize`. If this happens, VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_DEVICE_MEMORY will be returned.

Note | This is an issue identified with VK_EXT_descriptor_heap, which we plan to tighten up for the KHR version. Applications using VK_EXT_descriptor_heap may wish to avoid suballocating heaps from the same buffer, instead creating one buffer per heap, to avoid situations where this causes issues.

Valid Usage

- VUID-vkCreateBuffer-device-09664
  `device` must support at least one queue family with one of the VK_QUEUE_VIDEO_ENCODE_BIT_KHR, VK_QUEUE_VIDEO_DECODE_BIT_KHR, VK_QUEUE_SPARSE_BINDING_BIT, VK_QUEUE_TRANSFER_BIT, VK_QUEUE_COMPUTE_BIT, or VK_QUEUE_GRAPHICS_BIT capabilities

- VUID-vkCreateBuffer-flags-00911
  If the `flags` member of `pCreateInfo` includes VK_BUFFER_CREATE_SPARSE_BINDING_BIT, and the `extendedSparseAddressSpace` feature is not enabled, creating this `VkBuffer` must not cause the total required sparse memory for all currently valid sparse resources on the device to exceed `VkPhysicalDeviceLimits`::`sparseAddressSpaceSize`

- VUID-vkCreateBuffer-flags-09383
  If the `flags` member of `pCreateInfo` includes VK_BUFFER_CREATE_SPARSE_BINDING_BIT, the `extendedSparseAddressSpace` feature is enabled, and the `usage` member of `pCreateInfo` contains bits not in `VkPhysicalDeviceExtendedSparseAddressSpacePropertiesNV`::`extendedSparseBufferUsageFlags`, creating this `VkBuffer` must not cause the total required sparse memory for all currently valid sparse resources on the device, excluding `VkBuffer` created with `usage` member of `pCreateInfo` containing bits in `VkPhysicalDeviceExtendedSparseAddressSpacePropertiesNV`::`extendedSparseBufferUsageFlags` and `VkImage` created with `usage` member of `pCreateInfo` containing bits in `VkPhysicalDeviceExtendedSparseAddressSpacePropertiesNV`::`extendedSparseImageUsageFlags`, to exceed `VkPhysicalDeviceLimits`::`sparseAddressSpaceSize`

- VUID-vkCreateBuffer-flags-09384
  If the `flags` member of `pCreateInfo` includes VK_BUFFER_CREATE_SPARSE_BINDING_BIT and the `extendedSparseAddressSpace` feature is enabled, creating this `VkBuffer` must not cause the total required sparse memory for all currently valid sparse resources on the device to exceed `VkPhysicalDeviceExtendedSparseAddressSpacePropertiesNV`::`extendedSparseAddressSpaceSize`

- VUID-vkCreateBuffer-pNext-06387
  If using the VkBuffer for an import operation from a VkBufferCollectionFUCHSIA where a VkBufferCollectionBufferCreateInfoFUCHSIA has been chained to `pNext`, `pCreateInfo` must match the VkBufferConstraintsInfoFUCHSIA::`createInfo` used when setting the constraints on the buffer collection with vkSetBufferCollectionBufferConstraintsFUCHSIA

Valid Usage (Implicit)

- VUID-vkCreateBuffer-device-parameter
  `device` must be a valid VkDevice handle

- VUID-vkCreateBuffer-pCreateInfo-parameter
  `pCreateInfo` must be a valid pointer to a valid VkBufferCreateInfo structure

- VUID-vkCreateBuffer-pAllocator-parameter
  If `pAllocator` is not `NULL`, `pAllocator` must be a valid pointer to a valid VkAllocationCallbacks structure

- VUID-vkCreateBuffer-pBuffer-parameter
  `pBuffer` must be a valid pointer to a VkBuffer handle

- VUID-vkCreateBuffer-device-queuecount
  The device must have been created with at least `1` queue

Return Codes

On success, this command returns

  - VK_SUCCESS

On failure, this command returns

  - VK_ERROR_INVALID_OPAQUE_CAPTURE_ADDRESS_KHR

  - VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_DEVICE_MEMORY

  - VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_HOST_MEMORY

  - VK_ERROR_UNKNOWN

  - VK_ERROR_VALIDATION_FAILED

## See Also

VK_VERSION_1_0, VkAllocationCallbacks, VkBuffer, VkBufferCreateInfo, VkDevice

## Document Notes

For more information, see the Vulkan Specification.

This page is extracted from the Vulkan Specification. Fixes and changes should be made to the Specification, not directly.

## Copyright

Copyright 2014-2026 The Khronos Group Inc.

SPDX-License-Identifier: CC-BY-4.0