Gtk4/Adwaita/Vulkan/peel (new examples)

marcinsosna · September 12, 2026, 5:19am

I’ve recently discovered ‘peel’ C++ binding for GObjects/Gtk.

Experimenting with it, I came to the topic called ‘Vulkan’

and realized that Gtk4 simply does not have any VulkanView or private Vulkan context etc. yet.

I had found single example in Python for Linux/Wayland.

gist.github.com

https://gist.github.com/omnp/6ac3385e2b3f6cab987d84e6477e636a

gtk-python-example4.py

# Example showing how to create a minimal GTK 4 app with a main window and on it a Wayland subsurface fed by Vulkan.
# The FPS counter printed on the console should show about 60 fps on Gnome/Mutter.
# One may need to install vulkan (the python package) from source.
# Maybe same for pywayland. Mileage may vary.

# I happen to have two discrete GPUs installed in the test computer, one AMD, one NVIDIA, and Intel integrated to top.
# The Radeon is the main one running Gnome/Mutter (after some /usr/share/glvnd/egl_vendor.d/ symlinking happened, that is)
# "Works for me" on the Radeon, when started from Gnome Terminal as python example4.py
# Playing around with switcherooctl style env variables trying to get the Nvidia card to render vulkan while being composited to
# the main window does not work though.

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I converted it into the C++ Vulkan RAII with Adwaita via ‘peel’ and developed further

adapting some example programs from Khronos Vulkan Tutorials.

The results are ‘positive’.

If one is interested in Vulkan Gnome Apps development, here are two experimental projects

GitHub - marcin-sosna20/mini-vulkan: Gtk4/Adwaita/Vulkan demo · GitHub

raw C/C++ only ( no peel )

precompiled shader (no VulaknSDK dependency)

GitHub - marcin-sosna20/gtk4-vulkan-demos: Gtk4/Adwaita/Vulkan/peel Demos · GitHub

This is a bigger one and uses ‘peel’ C++ API

Assets (30MB)

3x Apps

Raytracing example

Overlays test – Vulkan Wayland Surface is below transparent MainWindow

Multiple contexts test