Vulkan 1.1.99 Is Out With Two New Extensions

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Vulkan 1.1.99 Is Out With Two New Extensions

Vulkan 1.1.99 is now available to kick off February and features two new extensions plus a number of documentation fixes/clarifications...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Vulkan-1.1.99-Released

[Britoid]

Shouldn't there be a point where they stop adding extensions?

Otherwise, certain drivers will support certain extensions, certain ones won't and we'll get the whole OpenGL mess again. I thought part of the point of Vulkan was that being low-level, more functionality can be done in a cross-driver way, keeping drivers simple.

[smitty3268]

Shouldn't there be a point where they stop adding extensions?

Otherwise, certain drivers will support certain extensions, certain ones won't and we'll get the whole OpenGL mess again. I thought part of the point of Vulkan was that being low-level, more functionality can be done in a cross-driver way, keeping drivers simple.

No, that wasn't the point, and no, they aren't going to stop adding them. If there was any intention of that, extensions wouldn't have been made possible in the first place.

[starshipeleven]

Shouldn't there be a point where they stop adding extensions?

Otherwise, certain drivers will support certain extensions, certain ones won't and we'll get the whole OpenGL mess again. I thought part of the point of Vulkan was that being low-level, more functionality can be done in a cross-driver way, keeping drivers simple.

That's incredibly backwards.
GPU hardware is pretty different, there is no architecture standard like there is for CPUs so even within the same vendor you get significant changes whenever they feel like it.

The more you go low-level the more you see the actual differences and the software using it has to have different code paths for different hardware, that's the whole point. Vulkan isn't supposed to be easier on its users, it's supposed to allow best possible performance.

If you need a single API that papers over any difference in hardware and makes your job easier by implementing a ton of abstraction inside the driver, then it's OpenGL.

[Degra]

Shouldn't there be a point where they stop adding extensions?

Otherwise, certain drivers will support certain extensions, certain ones won't and we'll get the whole OpenGL mess again. I thought part of the point of Vulkan was that being low-level, more functionality can be done in a cross-driver way, keeping drivers simple.

They added 2 extensions, but both of them are optional.
The extensions aren't part of Vulkan Core.
The Vulkan devs are very reluctant at adding more extensions to Vulkan core precisely to help avoid Vulkan becoming the OpenGL mess.
Implementing non-core Vulkan extensions is entirely optional for hardware driver developers, and so as a software dev you can't rely on guaranteed driver support.
Hence as a software dev you will usually have to provide a Vulkan Core compatible code path for drivers lacking the support, and a fast path to make use of the extension.

Any big group like ARM devs or Nvidia devs can add another Vulkan extensions by themselves if they feel like it, but for it to become a core extension the Vulkan board has to agree. Also, as I understand the Vulkan release cycle, they only add extensions to Vulkan Core with major releases, e.g. next one would be Vulkan 1.2.XXX
In 3 years we only had one major update (Vulkan 1.1), so they are being very very reluctant at extending the Core standard, to avoid polluting it.