Broken Vulkan install stops the window opening

Your PC's Vulkan install is broken, so Luduvo couldn't open a window. Build 44 works around this by switching to D3D12.

What you see

Luduvo fails to launch straight away on builds 39 to 43.

Who's affected

Seen on an RX 5700 XT, Intel HD 2000 and others.

What to do

1. Update Luduvo to build 44 or newer. It switches to D3D12 when Vulkan is broken.
2. Update your graphics driver from the chip maker's own site.

Don't bother with

• Deleting Vulkan registry entries by hand or copying Vulkan files into System32. One player got Studio working that way, but it's easy to break Windows.

Status

Fixed in build 44. If you still see it, update Luduvo first.

“vulkan drivers on windows are very buggy”

How the Doctor spots it

It looks for log lines like these (patterns, not exact text):

• Failed to create window: Installed Vulkan doesn't implement the VK_KHR_surface extension

Sources

• Build 39 log forum
• Build 42 log forum
• Another report forum
• Build 44 release notes forum

Credits

• Kitty-kitkat, credited in the build 44 notes for the fallback fix

Last checked 26 Sep 2026.