diff --git a/vulkano/src/lib.rs b/vulkano/src/lib.rs
index 288e8c1009..07eb7b18ae 100644
--- a/vulkano/src/lib.rs
+++ b/vulkano/src/lib.rs
@@ -179,6 +179,9 @@ pub use ash::vk::DeviceAddress;
 /// A [`DeviceAddress`] that is known not to equal zero.
 pub type NonNullDeviceAddress = NonZeroU64;
 
+/// Represents a region of device addresses with a stride.
+pub use ash::vk::StridedDeviceAddressRegionKHR as StridedDeviceAddressRegion;
+
 /// Holds 24 bits in the least significant bits of memory,
 /// and 8 bytes in the most significant bits of that memory,
 /// occupying a single [`u32`] in total.
diff --git a/vulkano/src/pipeline/ray_tracing.rs b/vulkano/src/pipeline/ray_tracing.rs
index 3c6e90fc12..abee90419c 100644
--- a/vulkano/src/pipeline/ray_tracing.rs
+++ b/vulkano/src/pipeline/ray_tracing.rs
@@ -52,9 +52,8 @@ use crate::{
         DeviceAlignment,
     },
     shader::{spirv::ExecutionModel, DescriptorBindingRequirements},
-    Validated, ValidationError, VulkanError, VulkanObject,
+    StridedDeviceAddressRegion, Validated, ValidationError, VulkanError, VulkanObject,
 };
-use ash::vk::StridedDeviceAddressRegionKHR;
 use foldhash::{HashMap, HashSet};
 use smallvec::SmallVec;
 use std::{collections::hash_map::Entry, mem::MaybeUninit, num::NonZeroU64, ptr, sync::Arc};
@@ -140,6 +139,12 @@ impl RayTracingPipeline {
         Ok(Self::from_handle(device, handle, create_info))
     }
 
+    /// Creates a new `RayTracingPipeline` from a raw object handle.
+    ///
+    /// # Safety
+    ///
+    /// - `handle` must be a valid Vulkan object handle created from `device`.
+    /// - `create_info` must match the info used to create the object.
     pub unsafe fn from_handle(
         device: Arc<Device>,
         handle: ash::vk::Pipeline,
@@ -196,18 +201,22 @@ impl RayTracingPipeline {
         })
     }
 
+    // Returns the shader groups that the pipeline was created with.
     pub fn groups(&self) -> &[RayTracingShaderGroupCreateInfo] {
         &self.groups
     }
 
+    // Returns the shader stages that the pipeline was created with.
     pub fn stages(&self) -> &[PipelineShaderStageCreateInfo] {
         &self.stages
     }
 
+    /// Returns the `Device` that the pipeline was created with.
     pub fn device(&self) -> &Arc<Device> {
         &self.device
     }
 
+    /// Returns the flags that the pipeline was created with.
     pub fn flags(&self) -> PipelineCreateFlags {
         self.flags
     }
@@ -275,12 +284,12 @@ pub struct RayTracingPipelineCreateInfo {
 
     /// The ray tracing shader stages to use.
     ///
-    /// There is no default value.
+    /// The default value is empty, which must be overridden.
     pub stages: SmallVec<[PipelineShaderStageCreateInfo; 5]>,
 
     /// The shader groups to use. They reference the shader stages in `stages`.
     ///
-    /// The default value is empty.
+    /// The default value is empty, which must be overridden.
     pub groups: SmallVec<[RayTracingShaderGroupCreateInfo; 5]>,
 
     /// The maximum recursion depth of the pipeline.
@@ -377,6 +386,13 @@ impl RayTracingPipelineCreateInfo {
             }));
         }
 
+        if stages.is_empty() {
+            return Err(Box::new(ValidationError {
+                problem: "`stages` is empty".into(),
+                vuids: &["VUID-VkRayTracingPipelineCreateInfoKHR-pLibraryInfo-07999"],
+                ..Default::default()
+            }));
+        }
         for stage in stages {
             stage.validate(device).map_err(|err| {
                 err.add_context("stages")
@@ -407,6 +423,13 @@ impl RayTracingPipelineCreateInfo {
                 })?;
         }
 
+        if groups.is_empty() {
+            return Err(Box::new(ValidationError {
+                problem: "`groups` is empty".into(),
+                vuids: &["VUID-VkRayTracingPipelineCreateInfoKHR-flags-08700"],
+                ..Default::default()
+            }));
+        }
         for group in groups {
             group.validate(stages).map_err(|err| {
                 err.add_context("groups")
@@ -746,32 +769,36 @@ impl RayTracingShaderGroupCreateInfo {
     }
 }
 
-pub struct RayTracingPipelineCreateInfoFields1Vk<'a> {
+pub(crate) struct RayTracingPipelineCreateInfoFields1Vk<'a> {
     pub(crate) stages_vk: SmallVec<[ash::vk::PipelineShaderStageCreateInfo<'a>; 5]>,
     pub(crate) groups_vk: SmallVec<[ash::vk::RayTracingShaderGroupCreateInfoKHR<'static>; 5]>,
     pub(crate) dynamic_state_vk: Option<ash::vk::PipelineDynamicStateCreateInfo<'a>>,
 }
 
-pub struct RayTracingPipelineCreateInfoFields1ExtensionsVk {
+pub(crate) struct RayTracingPipelineCreateInfoFields1ExtensionsVk {
     pub(crate) stages_extensions_vk: SmallVec<[PipelineShaderStageCreateInfoExtensionsVk; 5]>,
 }
 
-pub struct RayTracingPipelineCreateInfoFields2Vk<'a> {
+pub(crate) struct RayTracingPipelineCreateInfoFields2Vk<'a> {
     pub(crate) stages_fields1_vk: SmallVec<[PipelineShaderStageCreateInfoFields1Vk<'a>; 5]>,
     pub(crate) dynamic_states_vk: SmallVec<[ash::vk::DynamicState; 4]>,
 }
 
-pub struct RayTracingPipelineCreateInfoFields3Vk {
+pub(crate) struct RayTracingPipelineCreateInfoFields3Vk {
     pub(crate) stages_fields2_vk: SmallVec<[PipelineShaderStageCreateInfoFields2Vk; 5]>,
 }
 
-/// An object that holds the addresses of the shader groups in a shader binding table.
+/// An object that holds the strided addresses of the shader groups in a shader binding table.
 #[derive(Debug, Clone)]
 pub struct ShaderBindingTableAddresses {
-    pub raygen: StridedDeviceAddressRegionKHR,
-    pub miss: StridedDeviceAddressRegionKHR,
-    pub hit: StridedDeviceAddressRegionKHR,
-    pub callable: StridedDeviceAddressRegionKHR,
+    /// The address of the ray generation shader group handle.
+    pub raygen: StridedDeviceAddressRegion,
+    /// The address of the miss shader group handles.
+    pub miss: StridedDeviceAddressRegion,
+    /// The address of the hit shader group handles.
+    pub hit: StridedDeviceAddressRegion,
+    /// The address of the callable shader group handles.
+    pub callable: StridedDeviceAddressRegion,
 }
 
 /// An object that holds the shader binding table buffer and its addresses.
@@ -782,6 +809,7 @@ pub struct ShaderBindingTable {
 }
 
 impl ShaderBindingTable {
+    /// Returns the addresses of the shader groups in the shader binding table.
     pub fn addresses(&self) -> &ShaderBindingTableAddresses {
         &self.addresses
     }
@@ -837,12 +865,12 @@ impl ShaderBindingTable {
 
         let raygen_stride = align_up(handle_size_aligned, shader_group_base_alignment);
 
-        let mut raygen = StridedDeviceAddressRegionKHR {
+        let mut raygen = StridedDeviceAddressRegion {
             stride: raygen_stride,
             size: raygen_stride,
             device_address: 0,
         };
-        let mut miss = StridedDeviceAddressRegionKHR {
+        let mut miss = StridedDeviceAddressRegion {
             stride: handle_size_aligned,
             size: align_up(
                 handle_size_aligned * miss_shader_count,
@@ -850,7 +878,7 @@ impl ShaderBindingTable {
             ),
             device_address: 0,
         };
-        let mut hit = StridedDeviceAddressRegionKHR {
+        let mut hit = StridedDeviceAddressRegion {
             stride: handle_size_aligned,
             size: align_up(
                 handle_size_aligned * hit_shader_count,
@@ -858,7 +886,7 @@ impl ShaderBindingTable {
             ),
             device_address: 0,
         };
-        let mut callable = StridedDeviceAddressRegionKHR {
+        let mut callable = StridedDeviceAddressRegion {
             stride: handle_size_aligned,
             size: align_up(
                 handle_size_aligned * callable_shader_count,