Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Mesa]

Link.

This isn't really a game topic by itself but it has pretty massive implications for gaming so I felt like it deserves its own thread here.

So today is the release day of the version 1.0 of the Vulkan API - a free and open source graphics API (think OpenGL; in fact it's made by the same group I think) that's intended as a replacement for OpenGL for Windows, Linux (!!), Android and more (however not for iOS/OSX because Apple, even though they are in the Khronos Group).
While it's still fairly early on, there are some drivers and tech demos available already.

What does it all mean? Well, better perfomance for games and engines that support it (Unity, UE4 and Source 2 are already confirmed by their respective devs to have Vulkan support at some point), easier to port games between systems (super-huge news for Linux people such as myself) and hopefully it will also mean the death of DirectX (12) as we know it (ie. it being Windows 10/Xbox-only).

So while right now it doesn't mean a whole lot, it will hopefully take off in a big way.
(I feel I should probably put in more info about this but I'm not the most well-informed person on the subject. :L)

[Sensei]

I'm hoping this is good enough to make upcoming games free from DX12 shackles before Cortina steals all our personal files.

[Orange Wizard]

ahahaha burn in hell directx you scummy filth (ptw)

[Frumple]

Hell, if it's less CPU devouring than opengl, it can only be an improvement. It's just a question of whether it is, and whether people are going to actually use it.

[sambojin]

If they solidly tie this into Unity, it'll be very good for so many things. Even if they have to middleware the hell out of it for XBone/PS4, it'll be good. Hopefully the console makers do just run with it, so they'll never run out of 3rd party publishers/titles/developers to work with.

Between x86 architecture for all major gaming platforms, Vulkan running GPU calls for everything (including mobile and linux-style small ends), it'll make things easier to do.

They may not necessarily be optimized, but they can actually be credibly done, without a huge clusterfuck in theory. Best thing I've heard in ages for developers.

For gamers as well. It's not my fault if PS4/XBone can't run my stuff properly. It could if they properly implemented Vulkan and made proper drivers for it. Everything else can. Why can't their "uber console"?


I know it's currently looked at as the other way around. But only right now. Vulkan sort of wants you to write your own driver and shaders etc, but give it a few months. There'll be good, quick, generic tie-ins on all fronts, for all major development environments, for every end-user coder/developer, for every major gaming platform. Plus the ability to just "do your own thing" if you really want to (or can) for a platform, if you need to play with hardware directly as a developer.

It's like directX, but for everything (not microsoft/windows exclusive). And within a few months, you'll always wonder what those specific Nvidia/AMD driver updates were ever for (they were for games that you weren't even playing, that didn't play nice with the hardware you have). And better/prettier games and framerates will come from it.

[Drakale]

The press release contains so many buzzwords I think it gave me a headache. Seem like the dude in charge is an NVidia employee?

Anyway, if this allow for more portability I can see the interest.

[Frumple]

OpenGL minus backwards-compatibility

And suddenly my very tentative/idle interest poofs into a cloud of dust >_>

[Orange Wizard]

But doesn't it also means older programs won't run because the drivers won't support older methods or something, or am I talking out my arse?

[Sensei]

But doesn't it also means older programs won't run because the drivers won't support older methods or something, or am I talking out my arse?

Putting Vulkan on your computer will enable you to run games that use the Vulkan graphics API. It won't remove OpenGL from your computer, so any OpenGL program will still run. However, new games which are made with Vulkan and not OpenGL will not run if you don't have Vulkan on your computer, or your computer can't run Vulkan. This is an issue if your computer looks like this:


...except if it does, you probably couldn't run those games regardless. In exchange, Vulkan will be unburdened from a LOT of unnecessary code that allowed OpenGL to correctly interface with your 3DFX Voodoo Rush graphics card so you could run Doom at shockingly hi-res 1024x768 resoltion, or whatever.

[Orange Wizard]

That's not quite what I meant, but whatever.

[Sensei]

Well, in any case, nothing about Vulkan should stop older programs from running under any circumstances.

[miljan]

Vulkan Vs DX11 The Talos Principle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oi7SudxllU

[Chiefwaffles]

Kind of seems unfair to not use DX12.

[Sensei]

DX12 will definitely be the API Vulkan has to truly compete with to survive, but we can't compare the two because there aren't any games/demos that run both Vulkan and Dx12. In fact, are there even any dx12 games out yet?

Incidentally, how did it compare to DX11 in the video? I've not watched it because I'm on mobile.

[Orange Wizard]

DX11 looks a little fuzzier with lighting and such, but Vulkan runs at around ~20 FPS slower.