Ubuntu 18.10's SDL2 Build Will Ship With Vulkan Support Enabled

Released almost exactly one year ago to the day was SDL 2.0.6 that brought with it some Vulkan helpers. Finally with the upcoming Ubuntu 18.10 "Cosmic Cuttlefish" release, those Vulkan bits will be enabled.

SDL 2.0.6 introduced cross-platform Vulkan helpers to assist in some of the boilerplate Vulkan code needed across operating systems, including on macOS via MoltenVK. This isn't some magical component to Vulkan-ize SDL2 apps/games but just helps in setting up the surface creation and related tasks. Jacob Lifshay, who was one of the developers working on this integration, wrote in today with excitement to Phoronix that Ubuntu 18.10 is finally enabling these helpers.

As of this SDL2 update slated for Ubuntu 18.10, it's now "[enabling] Vulkan everywhere" with its SDL v2.0.8 based build. The Mir support also continues to still be explicitly enabled rather than yet relying upon the Wayland support, for those interested.

Ubuntu 18.10 is slated to ship on 18 October.