Vulkan 1.0 Released: What You Need To Know About This Cross-Platform, High-Performance Graphics API

[pal666]

AMD Vulkan support for Windows is limited to Windows ≥ 7 as well. So Windows XP and Vista aren't really receiving Vulkan support after all, contrary to the trumpeting from the peanut gallery. Not unexpected, as reality rarely fully lives up to evangelism.

what are you smoking? nobody is using/needs vulkan for xp and vista

[theriddick]

Well hopefully AMD get something out in the next couple months or so for at least testing Vulkan benchmarks with. They should feel right at home with this API so if Nvidia outdoes them this time then its going to be a sad day (performance wise). I did recently try the latest test version of Gallium-9 drivers and felt they were quite nice and fast, almost catalyst levels, however I had lots of shader and texture memory overloads so only a couple games worked, I don't think they like the AMD 390X too much...

[Nille_kungen]

Since Vulkan is out, I might well tell you a story.
I don't remember exactly when, but there was an article on Phoronix about Khronos, where Khronos made a form about glnext.
One of the question was about how would you name the new API.
At first I taught F1, like the Rocketdyne F1, the rocket engine of the Saturn V that brought the man on the moon, because it's the most powerful rocket engine ever build. But F1 is like the car racing contest, so it wasn't too appropriate, you know TM staff. Then I taught about the russian rocket engine with the best efficiency, the NK-33 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NK-33
But NK-33 doesn't sound good.
Then I taught about the ESA ariane 5 rocket engine, the Vulcain https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulcain
At first I didn't like the name, but it has some meanings. Vulcan is the roman god of fire and weapon forging, from the heat of the magma camming from the mantle out of the Etna.
Since Khronos makes standard API, like Vulcan was forging weapons using the mantles heat and Vulcain is inteed also a powerful rocket engine. It made perfect sense to suggest the name Vulkan.

Now I don't remember if I wrote Vulcan or Vulcain or Vulkan, nor does it mean that Khronos has seen my suggestion, but I was very surprised when it was announced that it would be named so.

All i saw in my head reading this was https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIT0WT_HYeE
I guess you meant this article.

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Khronos-OpenGL-Next-Help

I liked your story.

[bridgman]

Peeing vinegar just makes you dance harder.

That would make a great signature line.

What does it mean ?

[rabcor]

So now that that's that, how about we get some "get started" guides for developing with vulkan? I mean to the point code sample ones, not the whirlpool of a mess vulkan talks and presentations have been up to this point.

How about a simple: Make a colorful spinning triangle with Vulkan and C!?

[bridgman]

Yep, I already have emails out to a couple of key people asking for something like that.

[eidolon]

what are you smoking? nobody is using/needs vulkan for xp and vista

On the desktop, XP, even now, still has a larger market share than Linux. Just considering Steam gamers alone, there are currently more gamers on XP than Linux. They have no free upgrade path to DirectX 12 (by way of Windows 10); Vulkan likely would have been welcomed by these gamers if it opened up the possibility for future games on the platform. The Talos Principle is an example of a relatively recent game available for Windows XP, but many newer games don't support XP.

This being said, my previous post wasn't making a case for Vulkan support for XP and Vista (nor am I in earnest making one now, as I don't think there is sufficient reason to support operating systems that have reached their end of life*), but stated that support for them didn't materialize, as I expected.

*Technically, Vista still has a year of extended support left

[roboman2444]

I wonder when Serious Sam 3 will also get a vulkan renderer.
They are the same engine if i am not mistaken.

[azari]

On the desktop, Vista's market share is not very far behind Linux's, and XP, even now, still has greater market share. Just considering Steam gamers alone, there are currently more gamers on XP than Linux. They have no free upgrade path to DirectX 12 (by way of Windows 10); Vulkan likely would have been welcomed by these gamers if it opened up the possibility for future games on the platform.

Except that what matters isn't how many XP or Vista gamers are still out there; what matters is how many of those XP/Vista gamers have graphics cards that are capable of supporting Vulkan in the first place, like the GCN series in the case of AMD (or perhaps even HD 5000 & 6000 series).

Chances are that people who are still running XP and Vista are not in the power user demographic, they are likely people who don't upgrade their software or hardware very often, and this is especially true of Vista since it was hated by almost everyone. There may still be a few stubborn XP luddite fanboys out there with modern-ish hardware that actually upgrade their drivers regularly, but that specific demographic as I described it is probably far smaller than even Linux; perhaps even smaller than a single distribution's marketshare.

I wonder when Serious Sam 3 will also get a vulkan renderer.
They are the same engine if i am not mistaken.

Just because something uses the same engine, it doesn't mean they will go through all the pain of testing the new engine with all their old games and fixing all the bugs that come up. In fact, I doubt they can even justify the work hours they put into it even for The Talos Principle, I'm guessing they're just preparing the engine for their next game, and figure they may as well use an actual game as their testbed. However, if you contrast Valve's DotA2 Vulkan port, that makes a lot more sense because it's a multiplayer eSport game which is an ongoing revenue source for Valve, and will continue to be for years to come, so the reason they chose that as their first Vulkan game makes a lot of sense.

[duby229]

I don't think it actually matters at all, but if counting china, XP still has a huge marketshare.