Ashes of the Singularity Confirms Planned Vulkan Linux Port

[duby229]

Lets be first to ask.... does it support EMA on Linux?

I mean this, dunno how to call that maybe "Shits Together" technology

http://anandtech.com/Show/Index/9740...eview#comments

It does sound pretty interesting. I did read that article and although it's really just a tech demo it clearly illustrates just what is possible. Honestly I think it's going to be of most advantage to users that have both an APU and a dGPU. We'll see later as actual games get released.

[schmidtbag]

The only thing that really concerns me is when AMD will get Vulkan support for linux. Intel doesn't really have much pressure to get it done since no serious gamers use intel graphics. I'm sure the nvidia closed-source drivers will be relatively quick to support it. But catalyst is getting closer and closer to being phased-out while mesa still has a lot of catching up to do. Then again, I'm not sure how much of the existing mesa code can be used for Vulkan.

[duby229]

The only thing that really concerns me is when AMD will get Vulkan support for linux. Intel doesn't really have much pressure to get it done since no serious gamers use intel graphics. I'm sure the nvidia closed-source drivers will be relatively quick to support it. But catalyst is getting closer and closer to being phased-out while mesa still has a lot of catching up to do. Then again, I'm not sure how much of the existing mesa code can be used for Vulkan.

I don't think it'll use mesa at all or very little. At first I thought they were going to write a SPIR-V to TGSI translation and re-use the mesa drivers, but now I really doubt that will happen. It seems like they will be developing a SPIR-V implementation right on top of DRI3. It's being developed in house and will be open sourced when they decide it's ready. To me it seems like it's possible to get people interested and educated by developing from the start in the open, but apparently it's easier to do in house.

[humbug]

The only thing that really concerns me is when AMD will get Vulkan support for linux. Intel doesn't really have much pressure to get it done since no serious gamers use intel graphics. I'm sure the nvidia closed-source drivers will be relatively quick to support it. But catalyst is getting closer and closer to being phased-out while mesa still has a lot of catching up to do. Then again, I'm not sure how much of the existing mesa code can be used for Vulkan.

I think Mesa will take a while. But I think catalyst will support it relatively fast and I think a lot of the Windows Catalyst Vulkan code can be reused. Also I think Valve wants to push Vulkan onto Dota2 as quickly as possible both for windows and Linux. That pressure should ensure that get it out quickly.

ps- accroding to Valve; Nvidia, Intel and AMD all have working Vulkan drivers already.

https://youtu.be/quNsdYfWXfM?t=1h41m40s

[anda_skoa]

Intel doesn't really have much pressure to get it done since no serious gamers use intel graphics.

If hardware accelerated graphics were only useful for games, then yes.
But as usual when it comes to hardware accelerated graphics, games are only use case that many people think of (because of "3D").

Accelerated graphics play a huge role in mobile interfaces on touch screens. Which translated to the embedded sector since they are now also using touch screens.
Embedded Linux is huge in the embedded sector, Intel would really like to be more present there since this is a market ARM is traditionally very strong in.

And Vulkan is not only about accelerating rendering, it is also about doing that rendering more energy efficiently than OpenGL.
Better energy efficiency does not only mean more battery life for mobile devices (whic arguably would not matter for built-in embedded devices), but it also means less heat, which is immensly more important for embedded devices.

So yes, games or the need of games might not put much pressure on Intel to get Vulkan drivers ready for Linux, but the big picture is way bigger than just games.

Cheers,
_

[Ardje]

Intel doesn't really have much pressure to get it done since no serious gamers use intel graphics.

I thought intel already had opensource vulcan.

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

Says that Valve paid for it. So unless something happened, linux on intel graphics has open-source vulkan support.

[smitty3268]

Intel doesn't really have much pressure to get it done since no serious gamers use intel graphics.

Actually, I think Intel will get it out fairly quickly but not because of gamers. Primarily because it's going to be big on Android, and all the ARM manufacturer's are backing it over GLES.

Their current work is clearly prioritizing GLES 3.1 support over the desktop GL features, and I think they'll continue to prioritize the mobile sector.

[dimko]

Because Mantle and DX12 won't run on Linux?

point is: why bother with anything but Vulkan? Game is not released now and wont be any time soon. Sounds like Vulkan will come out first.