Visual Studio debugger working directory does not match the configuration-specific output directory

[freeDiving]

This issue probably affects all tutorials that use shaders. When running 09_shader_modules—the first tutorial target that uses shaders—from Visual Studio, the application exits with:

failed to open file!

The target loads its shader using a relative path:

readFile("shaders/slang.spv")

With a Visual Studio multi-config generator, CMake places the executable and shader under the active configuration directory. For example, a Debug build produces:

build/09_shader_modules/Debug/09_shader_modules.exe
build/09_shader_modules/Debug/shaders/slang.spv

However, the generated debugger working directory is:

build/09_shader_modules

Consequently, the application looks for:

build/09_shader_modules/shaders/slang.spv

which does not exist.

All Visual Studio build configurations are affected, including Debug, Release, MinSizeRel, and RelWithDebInfo, because their executables and shaders are placed in separate configuration-specific directories while the debugger working directory remains their common parent directory.

Environment

• Windows
• Visual Studio Community 2026
• CMake generator: Visual Studio 18 2026
• Vulkan SDK 1.4.357
• Repository revision: a762d8a

This likely affects all Visual Studio multi-config generators, not only Visual Studio 2026.

Steps to reproduce

1. Configure the attachment projects:

cmake -S attachments -B build -G "Visual Studio 18 2026" -A x64 `
  -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE="C:\path\to\vcpkg\scripts\buildsystems\vcpkg.cmake"

2. Open build/VulkanTutorial.slnx.
3. Set 09_shader_modules as the startup project.
4. Build and run any configuration.

Suspected regression

This appears to have been introduced by commit 7e49123. It changed SHADERS_DIR at lines 88–90 and 112–114 to include $<CONFIG>,

  if(${CMAKE_GENERATOR} MATCHES "Visual Studio.*" OR 
      ${CMAKE_GENERATOR} MATCHES "Ninja Multi-Config")
    set (SHADERS_DIR ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/${SHADER_CHAPTER_NAME}/$<CONFIG>/shaders)

while VS_DEBUGGER_WORKING_DIRECTORY at line 157 continued to use the parent chapter directory.

  if(WIN32)
    if(${CMAKE_GENERATOR} MATCHES "Visual Studio.*")
      set_target_properties(${CHAPTER_NAME} PROPERTIES VS_DEBUGGER_WORKING_DIRECTORY "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/${CHAPTER_NAME}")
    endif()
  endif()

Proposed fix

Use the target’s executable directory as the debugger working directory:

set_target_properties(${CHAPTER_NAME} PROPERTIES
  VS_DEBUGGER_WORKING_DIRECTORY "$<TARGET_FILE_DIR:${CHAPTER_NAME}>"
)

I tested this change locally. CMake generates the correct configuration-specific working directory, and 09_shader_modules runs successfully from Visual Studio.