Vulkan News Archives

Vulkan 1.3.224 was released earlier today and with this spec update comes VK_EXT_attachment_feedback_loop_layout as another extension started by Valve developers and will help their Steam Play (Proton) efforts.

Released today was Vulkan 1.3.222 as the newest Vulkan spec with various clarifications/corrections plus two new extensions coming out of Qualcomm.

Vulkan 1.3.221 was released this week as the newest spec update for this industry-standard graphics/compute API.

DXVK 1.10.2 has been released as the newest version of this Direct3D 9/10/11 implementation atop the Vulkan API that is most notably used with Proton for Steam Play to enjoy Windows games on Linux.

Vulkan 1.3.219 released this week and in addition to a number of documentation clarifications/corrections there are two new extensions.

Mesa's V3DV driver for the Broadcom VideoCore GPU, which is most notably enabling open-source Vulkan API support for the Raspberry Pi 4 and newer, is nearly ready with its Vulkan 1.2 support.

Vulkan 1.3.217 is out this morning as the newest version of the Khronos' high performance graphics/compute API specification. With Vulkan 1.3.217 comes two new extensions.

Lavapipe as Mesa's software/CPU-based Vulkan implementation akin to LLVMpipe for OpenGL is now officially Vulkan 1.2 conformant.

Vulkan 1.3.215 is out today with a handful of fixes/clarifications to the Vulkan specification plus one new extension.

Just one week after Vulkan 1.3.213 released with its four new extensions, which included an update to the ray-tracing support, Vulkan 1.3.214 is out today with various fixes while introducing just one new extension.

Vulkan 1.3.213 is out today that on top of the usual specification clarifications/corrections are also four new extensions, including VK_KHR_ray_tracing_maintenance1.

Vulkan 1.3.211 is out today and comes with another new extension for helping implementations like Mesa's Zink for implementing the OpenGL API atop Vulkan.

Vulkan 1.3.210 is out today with various specification corrections/clarifications but also two notable extensions.

AMD today released Vulkan Memory Allocator 3.0 under their GPUOpen umbrella as this library to better manage memory allocation and resources for this graphics API and make it more similar to APIs like OpenGL and Direct3D.

The recent work by Mike Blumenkrantz on getting Lavapipe to advertise Vulkan 1.3 has successfully landed within Mesa 22.1.

Vulkan 1.3.207 is out as the latest routine update to this high performance graphics / compute API.

Last week The Khronos Group introduced Vulkan SC 1.0 in providing safety-critical Vulkan support for allowing this modern graphics API to used in new areas requiring maximum safety requirements.

After many years of waiting and past faltered efforts, "Imagination Tech publishing a new open-source driver" probably wasn't on your bingo card for 2022... But they are doing such with a new open-source PowerVR Vulkan driver for Mesa.

VKD3D-Proton 2.6 is out as the latest update to this project used by Steam Play / Proton for mapping the Direct3D 12 API atop Vulkan for accelerating Windows games on Linux.

While NZXT is known for their computer cases, water cooling systems, and other peripherals for gamers, it appears they are ramping up their gaming software ambitions as well.

For the just-announced Vulkan 1.3, the open-source Intel "ANV" and Radeon "RADV" Vulkan drivers within Mesa are prepared to land support for this updated specification.

DXVK 1.9.4 is now available for this Direct3D 9/10/11 over Vulkan API implementation used by Valve's Steam Play (Proton) and other software.

Those wanting to enjoy some impressive Vulkan ray-traced visuals on Linux (and macOS or Windows) now have GravityMark to add to the list of Linux-native ray-traced software for testing.

Last year Google quietly open-sourced the Graphics Flight Recorder (GFR) for sorting out GPU hangs and crashes. GFR is implemented as an implicit Vulkan layer that works on both Windows and Linux.

Vulkan 1.2.203 is out with many fixes/updates to the specification documentation to end out the year as well as introducing three new extensions.

It's been a number of months since GRVK 0.4 as the open-source project re-implementing AMD's defunct Mantle API over the modern Vulkan API that was originally based on the former. With Sunday's release of GRVK 0.5, this Mantle-on-Vulkan translation layer is now capable of correctly rendering Battlefield 4.

Well known open-source Linux graphics expert David Airlie of Red Hat has recently been working on early Vulkan Video support for Mesa's Radeon "RADV" and Intel "ANV" drivers. As part of that effort and in part due to lack of software making use of Vulkan Video extensions right now, he has started exploring the feasibility of implementing the Video Acceleration API (VA-API) atop Vulkan Video.

Out today is Vulkan 1.2.200 as the newest spec revision to the Vulkan graphics/compute API.

Vulkan 1.2.199 is out with another new extension driven as part of Valve's work around Steam Play (Proton) and the Direct3D over Vulkan efforts.

Besides the efforts out there for implementing the likes of Direct3D, OpenCL, and OpenGL on top of Vulkan, there does still exist the hobbyist project for implementing AMD's Mantle API atop Vulkan for which the Khronos API was originally based. A new Vulkan extension is now being proposed to help in that Mantle-on-Vulkan effort.

The open-source Vulkan driver support for the video decode (and presumably after that, encode) extensions continues moving along for the Radeon "RADV" and Intel "ANV" Mesa drivers.

Vulkan 1.2.197 is out with a variety of documentation updates, clarifications to the specification, and other work. Plus there is one new extension this time around.

Last week I mentioned how Mesa landed Vulkan 1.1 support for the V3DV driver most notably used by the Raspberry Pi 4 and newer. With those changes in Mesa Git, The Khronos Group has now officially granted this driver Vulkan 1.1 conformance for the Raspberry Pi 4.

Last week was the virtual Vulkanised Fall 2021 event hosted by The Khronos Group. The two-day event was focused on all things Vulkan and for those that missed it all of the slide decks and other material are now available.

Arriving back in April were the initial Vulkan Video extensions that included support for video decode of H.264 and H.265 while the initial video encode support was limited to H.264. Out today with Vulkan 1.2.196 is the new extension allowing for H.265 encoding with this new industry-standard video API.

Vulkan 1.2.195 is out today as the latest weekly update to this high performance, industry standard API for graphics and compute.

Vulkan 1.2.194 is out as the latest spec revision to this high performance graphics and compute API.

Going public back in April was the provisional specification around the Vulkan Video extensions as a new industry-standard video encode/decode interface. While several months have passed, there hasn't been much activity yet in the open-source space around Vulkan Video.

Iago Toral of Igalia kicked off the first day of the virtual XDC2021 developer conference today by sharing a status update on V3DV as the open-source Mesa Vulkan driver most notably used for Raspberry Pi 4 and newer.

While The Khronos Group previously hosted in-person Vulkan events, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic their "Vulkanised 2021" event next month has morphed into a free virtual event.

Vulkan 1.2.191 is out this morning as the latest update to this graphics/compute API. As usual is a variety of bug fixes / clarifications to the specification while this time around is also one new extension.

Vulkan 1.2.190 resolves several issues with the specification, but most exciting with this routine Vulkan API update is the introduction of two new extensions.

It's been over two years since The Khronos Group acknowledged they were working on safety critical Vulkan and now finally the 1.0 release is approaching for this graphics/compute interface suitable for safety critical systems.

The open-source V3DV driver living within Mesa for providing Vulkan API support for modern Broadcom VideoCore graphics -- most notably found in the Raspberry Pi 4 and newer -- is nearing Vulkan 1.1 compliance.

X-Plane is not only the most realistic flight simulator that has long offered native Linux support but it's the only instance of a Vulkan-powered flight simulator I am aware of. While long tied to OpenGL, the company behind X-Plane is making it clear that the graphics rendering future is with Vulkan (and Metal when talking about Apple platforms).

Vulkan 1.2.185 was christened this morning with several new extensions being introduced.

Back in April was the release of Vulkan Video extensions for GPU-accelerated video encode/decode using this cross-platform API. NVIDIA was quick to publish a beta driver with Vulkan Video support while adoption beyond that by drivers or multimedia software has been rather limited so far. Fortunately, the popular GStreamer multimedia framework for Linux users is working in the direction of supporting Vulkan Video.

Last year I wrote about NVIDIA working on Vulkan support for RDMA memory. That work around RDMA (Remote Direct Memory Access) memory usage in the Vulkan context is now available with today's Vulkan 1.2.184 specification update.

Vulkan 1.2.182 is out and on top of various documentation fixes/clarifications, there are a few new extensions added with this revision.

Vulkan 1.2.180 is out as the latest revision to this graphics/compute interface. Vulkan 1.2.180 comes with a number of fixes/clarifications to the spec plus the addition of two more extensions.