diff --git a/.gitmodules b/.gitmodules
index 3c782ca01533fefc9c55c6395db7f9b2ba8d29ef..809435efc141118a3e02ac79f4131090b9bd8bb9 100644
--- a/.gitmodules
+++ b/.gitmodules
@@ -7,3 +7,6 @@
 [submodule "modules/asset_loader/lib/json"]
 	path = modules/asset_loader/lib/json
 	url = https://github.com/nlohmann/json.git
+[submodule "modules/asset_loader/lib/stb"]
+	path = modules/asset_loader/lib/stb
+	url = https://github.com/nothings/stb.git
diff --git a/modules/asset_loader/CMakeLists.txt b/modules/asset_loader/CMakeLists.txt
index 6246de8a6e64df08b0929b4d2bf1c1a4a6ca1d8b..8d4c0d6c104187de2d807cceceff529d83d236d6 100644
--- a/modules/asset_loader/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/modules/asset_loader/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -27,8 +27,14 @@ include(config/NLOHMANN_JSON.cmake)
 # Check and load FX-GLTF
 include(config/FX_GLTF.cmake)
 
+# Check and load STB
+include(config/STB.cmake)
+
 # link the required libraries to the module
 target_link_libraries(vkcv_asset_loader ${vkcv_asset_loader_libraries})
 
+# including headers of dependencies and the VkCV framework
+target_include_directories(vkcv_asset_loader SYSTEM BEFORE PRIVATE ${vkcv_asset_loader_includes})
+
 # add the own include directory for public headers
 target_include_directories(vkcv_asset_loader BEFORE PUBLIC ${vkcv_asset_loader_include})
diff --git a/modules/asset_loader/config/STB.cmake b/modules/asset_loader/config/STB.cmake
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..da20d3ec07f98c865b4c6e38518f668b226cbfb9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/modules/asset_loader/config/STB.cmake
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+
+if (EXISTS "${vkcv_asset_loader_lib_path}/stb")
+	list(APPEND vkcv_asset_loader_includes ${vkcv_asset_loader_lib}/stb)
+else()
+	message(WARNING "STB is required..! Update the submodules!")
+endif ()
diff --git a/modules/asset_loader/lib/stb b/modules/asset_loader/lib/stb
new file mode 160000
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..c9064e317699d2e495f36ba4f9ac037e88ee371a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/modules/asset_loader/lib/stb
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Subproject commit c9064e317699d2e495f36ba4f9ac037e88ee371a