try to create vulkan device on init and fail with nicer error if we can't

.github/workflows/docs.yml

@@ -108,14 +108,14 @@ jobs:
           pushd fvdb-reality-capture
           pip install -e .
           popd
-          
+
       - name: Build docs
         run: |
           micromamba activate fvdb
           which sphinx-build
           sphinx-build docs/ -E -a _docs_build
           sphinx-build fvdb-reality-capture/docs -E -a _docs_build/reality-capture
-          
+
 
       - name: Upload static files as artifact
         id: deployment

fvdb/viz/_viewer_server.py

@@ -58,6 +58,19 @@ def init(ip_address: str = "127.0.0.1", port: int = 8080, vk_device_id: int = 0,
     """
     global _viewer_server_cpp
     if _viewer_server_cpp is None:
+        try:
+            import nanovdb_editor as editor
+
+            compiler = editor.Compiler()
+            compute = editor.Compute(compiler)
+            di = compute.device_interface()
+            di.create_device_manager(enable_validation=False)
+
+            di.create_device(device_index=vk_device_id, enable_external_usage=False)
+        except Exception as e:
+            raise RuntimeError(
+                f"Failed to create Vulkan device with ID {vk_device_id}. You may have an incompatible version of Vulkan installed."
+            ) from e
         _viewer_server_cpp = ViewerCpp(ip_address=ip_address, port=port, device_id=vk_device_id, verbose=verbose)
     else:
         warnings.warn(