C Specification

To allocate descriptor sets from a descriptor pool, call:

// Provided by VK_VERSION_1_0
VkResult vkAllocateDescriptorSets(
    VkDevice                                    device,
    const VkDescriptorSetAllocateInfo*          pAllocateInfo,
    VkDescriptorSet*                            pDescriptorSets);

Parameters

  • device is the logical device that owns the descriptor pool.

  • pAllocateInfo is a pointer to a VkDescriptorSetAllocateInfo structure describing parameters of the allocation.

  • pDescriptorSets is a pointer to an array of VkDescriptorSet handles in which the resulting descriptor set objects are returned.

Description

The allocated descriptor sets are returned in pDescriptorSets.

When a descriptor set is allocated, the initial state is largely uninitialized and all descriptors are undefined, with the exception that samplers with a non-null pImmutableSamplers are initialized on allocation. Descriptors also become undefined if the underlying resource or view object is destroyed. Descriptor sets containing undefined descriptors can still be bound and used, subject to the following conditions:

If a call to vkAllocateDescriptorSets would cause the total number of descriptor sets allocated from the pool to exceed the value of VkDescriptorPoolCreateInfo::maxSets used to create pAllocateInfo->descriptorPool, then the allocation may fail due to lack of space in the descriptor pool. Similarly, the allocation may fail due to lack of space if the call to vkAllocateDescriptorSets would cause the number of any given descriptor type to exceed the sum of all the descriptorCount members of each element of VkDescriptorPoolCreateInfo::pPoolSizes with a type equal to that type.

Additionally, the allocation may also fail if a call to vkAllocateDescriptorSets would cause the total number of inline uniform block bindings allocated from the pool to exceed the value of VkDescriptorPoolInlineUniformBlockCreateInfo::maxInlineUniformBlockBindings used to create the descriptor pool.

If the allocation fails due to no more space in the descriptor pool, and not because of system or device memory exhaustion, then VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_POOL_MEMORY must be returned.

vkAllocateDescriptorSets can be used to create multiple descriptor sets. If the creation of any of those descriptor sets fails, then the implementation must destroy all successfully created descriptor set objects from this command, set all entries of the pDescriptorSets array to VK_NULL_HANDLE and return the error.

Valid Usage (Implicit)

  • VUID-vkAllocateDescriptorSets-device-parameter
    device must be a valid VkDevice handle

  • VUID-vkAllocateDescriptorSets-pAllocateInfo-parameter
    pAllocateInfo must be a valid pointer to a valid VkDescriptorSetAllocateInfo structure

  • VUID-vkAllocateDescriptorSets-pDescriptorSets-parameter
    pDescriptorSets must be a valid pointer to an array of pAllocateInfo->descriptorSetCount VkDescriptorSet handles

  • VUID-vkAllocateDescriptorSets-device-queuecount
    The device must have been created with at least 1 queue

  • VUID-vkAllocateDescriptorSets-pAllocateInfo::descriptorSetCount-arraylength
    pAllocateInfo->descriptorSetCount must be greater than 0

Return Codes
On success, this command returns
On failure, this command returns

See Also

VK_VERSION_1_0, VkDescriptorSet, VkDescriptorSetAllocateInfo, 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