The Vulkan Graphics API Is Here And Your NVIDIA GPU Is Ready

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What Is Vulkan? Vulkan is a low level API that gives direct access of the GPU to developers who want the ultimate in control. With a simpler, thinner driver, Vulkan has less latency and overhead than traditional OpenGL or Direct3D. Vulkan also has efficient multi-threading capabilities so that multi-core CPUs can keep the graphics pipeline loaded, enabling a new level of performance on existing hardware.

Vulkan is the first new generation, low-level API that is cross platform. This allows developers to create applications for a variety of PC, mobile and embedded devices using diverse operating systems. Like OpenGL, Vulkan is an open, royalty-free standard available for any platform to adopt. For developers who prefer to remain on OpenGL or OpenGL ES, NVIDIA will continue to drive innovations on those traditional APIs too.
 
Expect great things.
Vulkan stands to become the dominate high performance graphics API because it is open source. Its the same API for Windows, linux, Android.
 
I'm glad nVidia is willing to innovate like this and share it with less capable companies.
 
Creig said:
Mantle's successor on an Nvidia GPU. This should be interesting...
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Very true,
And hats off to AMD for pushing this forward. They did all the ground work to make this happen and to prove it wasn't a pipe dream. Then they hand the project off to Khronos to develop the open source Vulkan API.
AMD has been vocal for years about the problem with the heavy DX and OpenGL API overhead and it's piss poor memory management causing the biggest bottleneck in graphic performance. Modern PCs are amazingly powerful but much of the software is all based on legacy coding from 20 years ago.
 
Would be nice if the industry decides to adopt Vulcan an API that works everywhere, but I'm not holding my breath.
 
Dr. Righteous said:
Expect great things.
Vulkan stands to become the dominate high performance graphics API because it is open source. Its the same API for Windows, linux, Android.
Click to expand...
Speaking of open source, NVIDIA finally posted the signed firmware images for their Maxwell GPUs. Took them long enough. Maybe Nvidia will turn a new leaf and become open source friendly? Hopefully we won't have to wait 2 years for Pascals blobs. Maybe even help out the Nouveau guys?

The temperature in hell hasn't dropped yet.
 
ManofGod said:
Just like opengl, right? Lol.
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OpenGL is is more ancient than Directx and they suffer from the same shortcomings.
Developers are more likely to adapt a API that works on the most platforms, with the most hardware support. Don't look for DX12 on Android.
But you will find Vulkan on all of them.
 
Sighs, ManOfGod we know that you worship MS but the history about what happened to OpenGL is widely known by now, so yeah trying to imply that it is the same right now is disingenuous at best.

For those that don't know the story, here it is:
Why do game developers prefer Windows?

Scroll down a bit and you will see how the commitee royally effed it all up in the Dx9 era.
 
Vulkan now official, with 1.0 API release and AMD driver (Updated)
"Notably, unlike both DirectX 12 and Metal, Vulkan is platform agnostic, supporting Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, Linux, and Android. Valve has been a firm supporter of the API since its inception, even going as far as to recommend developers choose Vulkan over DirectX 12 thanks to its cross-platform capabilities. Google also announced support for the API in Android at the tail end of last year, while Nintendo joined the Khronos group as a contributing member."

I would say that Vulkan has some legs to stand on. Valve should take the initiative and patch their games to support Vulkan, then do half life 3 Vulkan only... i mean, if they are serious. :D
 
Creig said:
Mantle's successor on an Nvidia GPU. This should be interesting...
Click to expand...

Vulkan is basically Mantle with more refinements and not pushed directly by AMD allowing Nvidia to get onboard without saying that AMD's API is better.
 
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Revdarian said:
Sighs, ManOfGod we know that you worship MS but the history about what happened to OpenGL is widely known by now, so yeah trying to imply that it is the same right now is disingenuous at best.

For those that don't know the story, here it is:
Why do game developers prefer Windows?

Scroll down a bit and you will see how the commitee royally effed it all up in the Dx9 era.
Click to expand...

That was a good read. Thanks
 
ManofGod said:
Just like opengl, right? Lol.
Click to expand...
Yeah we all know OpenGL isn't that popular, but...
Dr. Righteous said:
OpenGL is is more ancient than Directx and they suffer from the same shortcomings.
Developers are more likely to adapt a API that works on the most platforms, with the most hardware support. Don't look for DX12 on Android.
But you will find Vulkan on all of them.
Click to expand...

I think Vulkan has a much better chance to take off. See, the thing is that everyone is changing API's right now, they are either moving to DX12, or Vulkan. It's not like Vulkan is going up against an already entrenched opponent. So, we will see, but I think there is a possibility it could become pretty popular, especially if nVidia decides to really push it as well (instead of DX12)
 
What irritates med the most is that apparently er need a driver from NVidia to provide access to the hardware for Vulcan to "execute" on. The problem is that Nvidia now controls what hardware is "too old" for Vulcan support.. Eg. My 2 GTX580's that are Fermi based, and not Keppler og Maxwell based, as their driver supports for Vulcan :(:(:(
 
Dr. Righteous said:
Expect great things.
Vulkan stands to become the dominate high performance graphics API because it is open source. Its the same API for Windows, linux, Android.
Click to expand...

That didn't work out so well for OpenGL but I hope what you say does happen. EA should port BF4 to Vulcan because it already has Mantle support. Would make a great showcase product and increase sales.
 
rezerekted said:
That didn't work out so well for OpenGL but I hope what you say does happen. EA should port BF4 to Vulcan because it already has Mantle support. Would make a great showcase product and increase sales.
Click to expand...
Vulkan is not OpenGL 5.0 but likely it will be it's successor as time goes on. Remember OpenGL was the graphic language from Silicon Graphics. They have been gone for many moons now. Vulkan is a from scratch all new coding Graphic API that is designed to take advantage of modern hardware. Since AMD intended the successor of Mantle to be open source; Mantle was given to The Khronos group.
 
“Yes, it’s true. The Talos Principle will be our first game to support the Vulkan API. The game is already available on PC, PS4, OS X, Linux and even Android, so I thought – why not add Vulkan to Serious Engine? I mean, it was the easiest feature ever, it only took me five minutes or so to implement it. Here, take a look.”
 
Everyone keeps saying open source, but according to khronos, "royalty-free, open standard API specification"
What is the difference?
 
Twisted Kidney said:
I'm glad nVidia is willing to innovate like this and share it with less capable companies.
Click to expand...

giphy.gif
 
Revdarian said:
Sighs, ManOfGod we know that you worship MS but the history about what happened to OpenGL is widely known by now, so yeah trying to imply that it is the same right now is disingenuous at best.

For those that don't know the story, here it is:
Why do game developers prefer Windows?

Scroll down a bit and you will see how the commitee royally effed it all up in the Dx9 era.
Click to expand...

Don't expect anything insightful, helpful or even correct from mog. He makes being wrong one of his stronger skill sets.
 
cptnjarhead said:
Everyone keeps saying open source, but according to khronos, "royalty-free, open standard API specification"
What is the difference?
Click to expand...
Royalty free is the only part that's important. Open source and Open Standard mean very little outside of it not being totally obfuscated as they get lawyer-ed quite a bit.
Dr. Righteous said:
Expect great things.
Vulkan stands to become the dominate high performance graphics API because it is open source. Its the same API for Windows, linux, Android.
Click to expand...
Except it to be used for professional software and mobile games the role OpenGL ES takes!
 
rezerekted said:
That didn't work out so well for OpenGL but I hope what you say does happen. EA should port BF4 to Vulcan because it already has Mantle support. Would make a great showcase product and increase sales.
Click to expand...

BF5 this winter will be the first EA Vulkan title.
 
Revdarian said:
Sighs, ManOfGod we know that you worship MS but the history about what happened to OpenGL is widely known by now, so yeah trying to imply that it is the same right now is disingenuous at best.

For those that don't know the story, here it is:
Why do game developers prefer Windows?

Scroll down a bit and you will see how the commitee royally effed it all up in the Dx9 era.
Click to expand...
thank you very good page you referred, i still remember playing doom on a TNT (diamond viper 550 i still have it too ) card and being amazed what a difference an open gl driver made it look like..i didn't need a 3dfx voodoo board anymore
 
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Dr. Righteous said:
Expect great things.
Vulkan stands to become the dominate high performance graphics API because it is open source. Its the same API for Windows, linux, Android.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I highly doubt that.

There isnt a single open source software on this planet that is better than its non-open source alternative. A bunch a basement dwellers cant possibly compete with people who are actually good enough to get paid for their work.
 
Isn't DX12 already faster? Maybe I am thinking of Mantle (vs Dx)...

cptnjarhead said:
..."Notably, unlike both DirectX 12 and Metal, Vulkan is platform agnostic, supporting Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, Linux, and Android. Valve has been a firm supporter of the API since its inception, even going as far as to recommend developers choose Vulkan over DirectX 12 thanks to its cross-platform capabilities. Google also announced support for the API in Android at the tail end of last year, while Nintendo joined the Khronos group as a contributing member."

I would say that Vulkan has some legs to stand on...
Click to expand...

This is a good reason to support it, especially for Win 7 users who will not get Dx12. The android thing, not sure what good that would do but can't hurt.
 
leeleatherwood said:
Yeah, I highly doubt that.

There isnt a single open source software on this planet that is better than its non-open source alternative. A bunch a basement dwellers cant possibly compete with people who are actually good enough to get paid for their work.
Click to expand...
 
leeleatherwood said:
Yeah, I highly doubt that.

There isnt a single open source software on this planet that is better than its non-open source alternative. A bunch a basement dwellers cant possibly compete with people who are actually good enough to get paid for their work.
Click to expand...

LOL. Yeah, Khronos Group is totally a bunch of basement dwellers..
 
Some of these new APIs are really freaking short on demos. We are months into DX12 and there is almost nothing for free utilities to show it off and get people interested. Now Vulkan launches and oh boy it works in one game that isn't GPU demanding and very few people care about.
 
leeleatherwood said:
Yeah, I highly doubt that.

There isnt a single open source software on this planet that is better than its non-open source alternative. A bunch a basement dwellers cant possibly compete with people who are actually good enough to get paid for their work.
Click to expand...

Well, let me dumb it down for you. I'm talking about open source software in particular.

Does it make sense that a auto mechanic might have a old Muscle Car he like to tinker with on the weekends? Plausible idea right?

Well, does it also make sense that programmers might have some pet software projects or something they contributing their coding expertise to in their spare time?
You got it. Open source. And there are professional software people world wide contributing to open source software. Not for money. They make plenty of that.
It is because they love what they do and their work can mean more than just putting some extra dollars in their pocket.

So I say Cheers to those guys. I for one appreciate them greatly.
 
Dr. Righteous said:
Well, let me dumb it down for you. I'm talking about open source software in particular.

Does it make sense that a auto mechanic might have a old Muscle Car he like to tinker with on the weekends? Plausible idea right?

Well, does it also make sense that programmers might have some pet software projects or something they contributing their coding expertise to in their spare time?
You got it. Open source. And there are professional software people world wide contributing to open source software. Not for money. They make plenty of that.
It is because they love what they do and their work can mean more than just putting some extra dollars in their pocket.

So I say Cheers to those guys. I for one appreciate them greatly.
Click to expand...

Good on those people who want to tinker with Vulkan, however Vulkan is going to be limited by terrible open source drivers for people that really care about open source. Full commitment to open source software is masochism if people care even a tiny bit about performance (which the muscle car folks definitely do!)
 
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Being that the core of these new APIs is near metal, then wouldn't it stand to reason that both DX12 and Vulkan could be quite similar in performance?
 
JustReason said:
Being that the core of these new APIs is near metal, then wouldn't it stand to reason that both DX12 and Vulkan could be quite similar in performance?
Click to expand...

Could (and should) yes.

But one is made by a bunch of neckbeards, and one is made by professionals.
 
leeleatherwood said:
Khronos Group is also responsible for OpenGL, which is a pile is crap compared to DirectX.

You just further proved my point, thanks!
Click to expand...

The Khronos that produced Vulkan =/= the Khronos that produced OpenGL, brains. And there's zero OGL code in Vulkan.
 
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