MoltenVK Now Supports More Vulkan Extensions, Begins Targeting Metal 3.0

[phoronix]

Phoronix: MoltenVK Now Supports More Vulkan Extensions, Begins Targeting Metal 3.0

The open-source MoltenVK project that offers Vulkan API support for Apple devices on iOS and macOS is out with a new release for mapping Vulkan atop Apple's Metal graphics/compute stack...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MoltenVK-1.0.36-Metal-3.0

[tildearrow]

Apple, we want Vulkan support from you.
#DropMetal

In the past, the graphics market was fragmented. We had Commodore 64, Atari, SMS, NES, ZX Spectrum and MSX graphics systems and we had to write code for every single system because they were completely incompatible.
Fast-forward a few years later, and then we have an almost consolidated market: OpenGL, and DirectX. OpenGL would work everywhere (write once, run anywhere) while DirectX would be Windows-only.
But now, the market has been fragmented again. DirectX 12, Vulkan and Metal. Seriously?

[kenjitamura]

From the article and the github release it's unclear to me if they are planning on making future updates Metal 3.0 only or if they're going to branch and maintain both. Their last two releases are titled v1.0.36 and v1.0.36-Metal-3.0

[Termy]

Apple, we want Vulkan support from you.
#DropMetal

In the past, the graphics market was fragmented. We had Commodore 64, Atari, SMS, NES, ZX Spectrum and MSX graphics systems and we had to write code for every single system because they were completely incompatible.
Fast-forward a few years later, and then we have an almost consolidated market: OpenGL, and DirectX. OpenGL would work everywhere (write once, run anywhere) while DirectX would be Windows-only.
But now, the market has been fragmented again. DirectX 12, Vulkan and Metal. Seriously?

Yeah, Apple is pretty dimwitted to force Metal without any valid reason.
It's a shame they don't get ignored for this BS, but instead people put that much effort into it to support it...

[F.Ultra]

Yeah, Apple is pretty dimwitted to force Metal without any valid reason.
It's a shame they don't get ignored for this BS, but instead people put that much effort into it to support it...

Apple knew that they would get away with it and hence the reason: vendor lock-in. Many that develops their initial version on macOS will find it just too hard to port to other systems later on, just how DirectX worked wonders for Microsoft.

[starshipeleven]

But now, the market has been fragmented again. DirectX 12, Vulkan and Metal. Seriously?

Nitpick: Windows drivers always support Vulkan too (if the hardware can do it anyway), so this is Vulkan vs Metal struggle only

[clementhk]

Nitpick: Windows drivers always support Vulkan too (if the hardware can do it anyway), so this is Vulkan vs Metal struggle only

Not on Xbox

[starshipeleven]

Not on Xbox

Nor PS4

Consoles are not PCs, even if using PC hardware.

[LinAGKar]

Nitpick: Windows drivers always support Vulkan too (if the hardware can do it anyway), so this is Vulkan vs Metal struggle only

Not on Fermi, Haswell or Broadwell.

[billhollings]

From the article and the github release it's unclear to me if they are planning on making future updates Metal 3.0 only or if they're going to branch and maintain both. Their last two releases are titled v1.0.36 and v1.0.36-Metal-3.0

To clarify...MoltenVK does not require Metal 3.0...nor do we intend it will in the near future. MoltenVK targets support for iOS 9.0/macOS 10.11 and above.

As you indicate, we currently have two branches in the MoltenVK repository. Since Xcode11/Metal 3.0 is still in Beta...the MoltenVK Metal-3.0 branch exists to provide a place to add functionality that uses Metal-3.0, without requiring that all MoltenVK devs upgrade to Xcode11 while it is still in Beta. Once Xcode11 is out of Beta (typically Sept/Oct each year)...then we will merge the MoltenVK Metal-3.0 branch into master.