Star Citizen to Exclusively Use the Vulkan API

cageymaru

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According to staff at Cloud Imperium Games, the space combat and adventure game Star Citizen is going to exclusively use the Vulkan API in the future. They go on to state that DX12 and Vulkan have the same feature set and similar performance gains, but Vulkan can be ported to more OS's whereas using DX12 would limit them to only Windows 10. So it is their intention to drop DX12 in favor of strictly Vulkan support. DX11 isn't even a consideration for the final product.

I found it interesting that the developers find that, "95% of the work for these APIs is to change the paradigm of the rendering pipeline, which is the same for both APIs." So effectively there really isn't much difference between the competing APIs. He does leave the DX12 door slightly ajar by stating that, "DX12 would only be considered if we found it gave us a specific and substantial advantage over Vulkan." Even if you're not interested in space combat and exploration, it's always fascinating to read how developers think and why certain choices are made. I would think that strictly using the Vulkan API should save on platform port costs also.

I know that it was stated that Star Citizen wouldn't come to consoles, but you never say never in the games industry; especially when millions of dollars are thrown at projects to become exclusives. Of course all of this hinges on the game actually conquering it's feature creep and launching in a reasonable time.

Years ago we stated our intention to support DX12, but since the introduction of Vulkan which has the same feature set and performance advantages this seemed a much more logical rendering API to use as it doesn't force our users to upgrade to Windows 10 and opens the door for a single graphics API that could be used on all Windows 7, 8, 10 & Linux.
 
LOL now there going to change APIs... to an API that needs MASSIVE support

Star Citizen is DOA at this point
 
LOL now there going to change APIs... to an API that needs MASSIVE support

Star Citizen is DOA at this point

Not quite.

The game engine right now is DX11 as that's what cryengine 3 was by default. They always planned to support Mantle and/or DX12. They've decided that the work they've done towards that effort is better spent focusing on Vulkan for a multitude of reasons.

Not really seeing the issue. There are plenty of things about Star Citizen that are problematic but this doesn't seem to be one of them. I seem to recall Doom adding Vulkan support pretty easily.
 
Only just read info about this game - not really a fan or anything. but starting to sound more and more like what became Duke Nukem Forever (of which I was eagerly waiting for back in the... late 90ies :p). There's a point where they will just need to release the game or it'll start to slowly get behind the times? Cool that they're trying Vulkan - but even cooler if it becomes an actual product that can showcase it.
 
So with this announcement, in addition to the Vulkan announcement of multiGPU support (Crossfire/SLI) is exclusive to Windows 10. Shooting themselves in the foot with this?
 
So with this announcement, in addition to the Vulkan announcement of multiGPU support (Crossfire/SLI) is exclusive to Windows 10. Shooting themselves in the foot with this?

Actually mGPU isn't limited to Windows 10 under Vulkan. It just isn't as easy as doing it under Windows 10. I'm going to be posting an analysis of this by PCPer in about 30 minutes. ;)
 
Yet another change in this never ending money grab. Nothing to see here, much like the game itself.
 
Disclaimer: I've backed the game - and *trying* to be patient.. not downloading any updates until the 3.0 update - Followung the Production Schedule.
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/schedule-report

HOWEVER...
I like reading the comments on here about Star Citizen.. I fully understand why everyone says this stuff!!

When CIG switched over to Amazon lumberyard - Everyone said the same thing.
even thou it was announced AFTER it was done :pompous:

Axe
 
I don't know why people are upset of the delays and amount of money Robert's has blowing through. Star Citizen keeps expanding to be a huge game(s). GTA 5 was $265M to make and Destiny is rumored to be $500M.

Plus Robert's is well known to take forever to dev a game. So long that several of his games in the past were completely scrapped and remade when new tech came along. Strike Commander is a prime example of a game that went through multiple engines and such a long development it was labeled vaporware. It was an amazing game when it launched though and completely worth the wait IMO.

Star Citizen will be the same knowing Robert's history. They are attempting to make something revolutionary which will take a shit ton of time and money. The only critique I have is CI selling ships for hundreds of dollars that don't exist and will need to be developed rather than spending all resources on the core games; however, who is more at fault, CI for selling not yet existing ships or the people buying them for hundreds of dollars? CI and Robert's are definitely pushing Star Citizen into a new realm of micro transactions.

Going to Vulkan only makes sense for CI and Robert's. Just surprised it took this long to announce.

A big plus is it opens their game to non-Win 10 users.
 
Disclaimer: I've backed the game - and *trying* to be patient.. not downloading any updates until the 3.0 update - Followung the Production Schedule.
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/schedule-report

HOWEVER...
I like reading the comments on here about Star Citizen.. I fully understand why everyone says this stuff!!

When CIG switched over to Amazon lumberyard - Everyone said the same thing.
even thou it was announced AFTER it was done :pompous:

Axe
What difference does it make that they announce it after or before? It still takes time away from development, time that they ran out of 3 years ago.

This is the never ending story of gaming, Star Citizen Forever, in the end they go bankrupt, and some other company buy them out, pick up the pieces and might release a mediocre game built from their breadcrumbs. Because don't be mistaken they didn't produce anything more than breadcrumbs until now.
 
Yet another change in this never ending money grab. Nothing to see here, much like the game itself.

While I agree the development of this game is glacially slow, it is still very much playable right now and shouldn't be considered vaporware. Though at this point I expect elite dangerous to have the same features and more by the time it's finally released.
 
So with this announcement, in addition to the Vulkan announcement of multiGPU support (Crossfire/SLI) is exclusive to Windows 10. Shooting themselves in the foot with this?

Seeing as how mGPU users number in the 1% of 1%, the answer would be no. The industry has moved away from mGPU if you haven't noticed.

Shooting themselves in the foot would be using DX12, since then the other 99.99% that are single GPU would need Windows 10. However with Windows 7 still hanging onto around 50% of marketshare due To MS's user hostile policies in 10, Vulkan makes the most sense since it doesn't discriminate and benefits 7, 8.1, 10 as well as Linux and Android 7+.
 
Awe, shucks everyone. We should've used Unreal Engine all along.
 
Seeing as how mGPU users number in the 1% of 1%, the answer would be no. The industry has moved away from mGPU if you haven't noticed.

Shooting themselves in the foot would be using DX12, since then the other 99.99% that are single GPU would need Windows 10. However with Windows 7 still hanging onto around 50% of marketshare due To MS's user hostile policies in 10, Vulkan makes the most sense since it doesn't discriminate and benefits 7, 8.1, 10 as well as Linux and Android 7+.

Multiple GPUs have always been a top end thing. Support for it isn't nearly as bad as some make it out to be, there are plenty of games that can leverage it still. I'm guessing multiple GPUs are no more exotic than PC VR at this point, with a lot of VR folks on multiple GPUs. Be it Vulkan or DX 12, the linked adapter mode should make using multiple GPUs effectively a lot easier than before.
 
I seem to recall Doom adding Vulkan support pretty easily.

You recall incorrectly. Adding Vulkan support took so long that they deprioritized it and didn't ship it. They patched it in later. You interpret the later patch as a sign that it was easily added. It wasn't.
 
It took 8 months for epic games to add vulkan support to unreal 4.

Expect even more delays or do they even have estimated release dates anymore?
 
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I know that it was stated that Star Citizen wouldn't come to consoles, but you never say never in the games industry; especially when millions of dollars are thrown at projects to become exclusives. Of course all of this hinges on the game actually conquering it's feature creep and launching in a reasonable time.

I mean who knows, in 5-10 years maybe a new generation of consoles with performance comparable to today's high-end PCs will be out and could handle the workload this game's putting out. When that happens, why not?
 
This game is never going to be released, is it? Haven't we been talking about it for 5+ years now? Just a huge tech demo at this point that has somehow raised like a billion bucks.

I enjoy the ship commercials, but it does seem a little... backwards to me to be spending time/resources on the videos when the game isn't done yet. No?
 
I take anything even remotely associated with Star Citizen with a huge grain of salt.

To quote another game that took FOREVER to see a release.... and, by Duke, the reviews Nuked that game..... Star Citizen: Whenever.
 
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This is what happens when you give people too much money and don't hold them to a schedule. They are just chasing flavor of the month tech advances in an attempt to stay relevant.
 
No, it will not because it is never coming out.

I get what you are saying but in reality marketing any product starts from day one. They have already been burning through marketing money to run the websites, social media, trade show appearances, and create videos.

That all costs money and all comes form the marketing budget.
 
I bet microsoft has their people blowing up the phone lines begging them to come back to dx12.

If you think this game has taken money and is burning it, at least they are creating content.

Dayz went on steam in 2014 and hasn't had any noticeable improvements in years, the game is still a clunky, wonky, garbage fire of a production. It's almost comical how fucked the development of that game is considering it's ALREADY sold millions of copies. Everyone is saying Bohemia Interactive took all the money and dumped it into other projects, leaving Dayz in limbo. Based on the developer blogs, I still don't see it going anywhere remotely close to a beta launch for at least another solid year.
 
First, SC was going to fully support Mantle. Then they were going to fully support DX12. Now, it isn't Mantle or DX12, it's Vulkan. CEG needs to just finish the game, then patch for all the "cool" stuff they want to add.
 
First, SC was going to fully support Mantle. Then they were going to fully support DX12. Now, it isn't Mantle or DX12, it's Vulkan. CEG needs to just finish the game, then patch for all the "cool" stuff they want to add.

You do realize Mantle was basically Vulkan 0.9. - it was spawned by Mantle. And a proper implementation of it - much like with DX12 - isn't merely something you patch in later if you want to achieve the full featureset. You have to design for it.

CiG has done a lot of questionable things but this time they're spot on - focusing on Vulkan now means future proofing and not being dependent on a single OS, or single version of a single OS for that matter.
 
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