Vulkan 1.0: the cross-platform API for high-performance graphics

El February 16 of this year the Khronos Group ad the release of Vulkan 1.0 (since the planned launch date at the end of the year 20015 could not be achieved), after two years of hard work it is finally ready to go out into the world. The first game with Vulkan engine is also available in public beta as of 16/02/16, however the Linux situation is not entirely favorable for end users and players as most sellers are still determining if they will help through Linux support on Windows. Ignoring these operating system differences, you need to be sure that your expectations are realistic before trying the new Vulkan game while giving developers time to learn and design for this new graphics API.

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Vulkan 1.0

Volcano is the answer of Khronos Group for Microsoft DirectX 12, Apple's Metal, and the old AMD Mantle API to provide high performance graphics. They first referred to this AP as the "Next Generation OpenGL Initiative", but once named Vulkan, the previous title remained in the past. Vulkan drifts and was built based on ADM Mantle technology which was donated by AMD with the intention of giving Khronos a base on which start developing an API that they could standardize across the industry (just like OpenGL), but Volcano it has evolved much further, already is not tied to AMD's GNC hardware design and is able to fit all use cases in all ecosystems, the API has evolved a lot after being reviewed by many different parties. The President of Khronos, Neil trevett, made it clear that Volcano es much more than a different focus on Mantle.

Between Vulkan's goals this design 3D graphics applications in real time, as games and interactive media across all platforms, likewise, is intended to provide a great variety advantages over other APIsOffering Lower overhead, more direct control over the GPU, and higher performance with lower CPU usage, being able to better distribute work among multiple CPU cores. It is also characterized by being a Cross-platform API that is supported by high-end graphics cards y has OS agnostic to improve the portability of applications created using this API.

Vulkan 1.0 is designed to fit the use cases of the smartphone, desktop and consoles, now is a API with multi-threading capabilities, with much lower overhead compared to OpenGL drivers and what supports pre-compiled shaders via SPIR-V. Unlike other alternative APIs, Vulkan is a cross platform and a true industry standard. Currently exist Volcano SDK available for Android, Linux and Windows, although still in beta phase, AMD and Nvidia have made known that they support Vulkan. Vulkan 1.0 is not the final version, future revisions will come of course once the working group has received feedback from other developers.

¿And what will happen to OpenGL?

While Vulkan 1.0 is at the forefront for take care of high-capacity graphics, OpenGL is not being abandoned by the Khronos Group, the developers in charge of this project will remain and must evolve. vulcan not it is strictly necessary for all game and app developers, this will depend on how much you care about the performance, if you need help from the graphics card, if you are looking for an API that is more accessible, if your workload cannot be parallelized, etc.

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There has also been talk of support addition SPIR-V for OpenGL and other improvements on that front. However the Khronos Group has not officially announced new specifications or updates to OpenGL, but it is a question of being vigilant during the next months.

One of the OpenGL extensions (unofficial) exposed by the NVIDIA driver is the GL_NV_draw_vulkan_image. This extension provides DrawVkImageNV the ability to draw a rectangle that allows to show all or some of the contents of VkImage in Vulkan in a two-dimensional way. This extension will also provide functions for drawing synchronization between Vulkan and OpenGL, basically the extension will provide a way to present content de vulcan dwithin a context OpenGL.

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Games and Vulkan

February 16 Croteam has launched Talos Principle, uploaded in the Steam platform using Vulkan engine. Unfortunately the version of this game for Linux is not yet publicly availablebut soon it will be

El delay it's because search for conformity drivers. These Vulkan 1.0 drivers will released soon since we know that the Windows beta version is available on Steam. From Valve, it is also expected that Dota2 be soon available With the support Volcano, likewise other games will appear in the future.

Michael Label, forum writer Phoronix commented that “as a game developer who had an early involvement in Volcano had been warned No. pretend expect a miracle with the performance of Vulkan games”. This is because the Vulkan API offers many possibilities for better performance and greater optimizations, games and their engines are being tuned for DirectX 11 and OpenGL. It won't be until the appearance of the new games or the redesigned engines around Volcano that there will be a better performance in OpenGL / DX11. This is why games currently available at Volcano can be slower than those existing in the OpenGL processor, this while working on various bugs of the games and drivers.

Although developers of games are excited with the possibilities offered by Vulkan, it will take time so that fully convert. A situation similar to this happened when Direct3D 11 was released and started support games, some time later games started to run faster than Direct3D 9.


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  1.   stalker said

    Good post, to see what it gives of itself for games. Good times are coming for games in the opensource world

  2.   HO2Gi said

    "20015" I think you have a zero left over