hmennen90/php-vulkan

PHP Vulkan API bindings for 2D/3D graphics and GPU compute — built for PHPolygon engine

0.5.0 2026-03-23 07:39 UTC

Requires

• php: >=8.1

MIT

• Hendrik Mennen

• graphics
• engine
• game
• compute
• 3d
• 2d
• Vulkan
• gpu

Extension name: ext-vulkan

Supports Zend Thread Safety (ZTS): ✅

Supports non-Thread Safe mode (NTS): ✅

Supported operating systems: no restrictions

Configure flags:

• --with-vulkan=<value> Path to the Vulkan SDK installation directory (auto-detected if not set)

README

PHP extension providing Vulkan API bindings for use with PHPolygon — a 2D/3D engine written in PHP.

Requirements

• PHP >= 8.1
• Vulkan SDK (LunarG / MoltenVK on macOS)
• C compiler (gcc/clang)

Installation

macOS / Linux (From Source)

# Install Vulkan SDK (macOS)
brew install vulkan-sdk

# Build the extension
phpize
./configure --with-vulkan
make
make install

Add to your php.ini:

extension=vulkan

Windows

On Windows, no build toolchain is needed — PHP extensions are distributed as pre-compiled DLLs. Download the matching DLL from the Releases page (match your PHP version and thread-safety mode), then:

1. Copy php_vulkan.dll into your PHP ext\ directory
2. Add extension=vulkan to your php.ini
3. Restart PHP / your web server

Quick Start

<?php
// Create Vulkan instance
$instance = new Vk\Instance(appName: 'MyApp');

// List GPUs
foreach ($instance->getPhysicalDevices() as $device) {
    echo $device->getName() . " (" . $device->getTypeName() . ")\n";
}

API Overview

All classes live in the Vk namespace:

Class	Vulkan Object
Vk\Instance	VkInstance
Vk\PhysicalDevice	VkPhysicalDevice
Vk\Device	VkDevice
Vk\Queue	VkQueue
Vk\Buffer	VkBuffer
Vk\DeviceMemory	VkDeviceMemory
Vk\CommandPool	VkCommandPool
Vk\CommandBuffer	VkCommandBuffer
Vk\ShaderModule	VkShaderModule
Vk\DescriptorSetLayout	VkDescriptorSetLayout
Vk\DescriptorPool	VkDescriptorPool
Vk\DescriptorSet	VkDescriptorSet
Vk\PipelineLayout	VkPipelineLayout
Vk\Pipeline	VkPipeline
Vk\RenderPass	VkRenderPass
Vk\Framebuffer	VkFramebuffer
Vk\Image	VkImage
Vk\ImageView	VkImageView
Vk\Sampler	VkSampler
Vk\Fence	VkFence
Vk\Semaphore	VkSemaphore
Vk\Swapchain	VkSwapchainKHR
Vk\Surface	VkSurfaceKHR

Constants are available via Vk\Vk::CONSTANT_NAME.

Examples

See the examples/ directory:

• 01_enumerate_devices.php — List all GPUs and their properties
• 02_compute_shader.php — Run a compute shader (multiply by 2)
• 03_memory_info.php — Buffer creation and memory operations

License

MIT