Valve: 'Vulkan is the Future, Not Much Reason to Create DX12 Backend'

[HKZeroFive]

In the video (1:41:01 into the video), Ginsberg says that Valve has been working with Vulkan since its inception, and that there's no big reasons for developers to use a DX12 backend in their games. Ginsberg adds that Vulkan is far superior than DX12 in various areas. He said: "Unless you are aggressive enough to be shipping a DX12 game this year, I would argue that there is really not much reason to ever create a DX12 back end for your game".

He added: "And the reason for that is that Vulkan will cover you on Windows 10 on the same class of hardware and so much more from all these other platforms and IHVs that we've heard from. Metal is single platform, single vendor, and Vulkan... we are gonna have support for not only Windows 10 but Windows 7, Windows 8 and Linux".

The video in question (please watch from 1:41:01):

 

 

Here's a full transcript, courtesy of everyone's favourite website, WCCFtech:

 

Since hosting the first Vulkan face-to-face meeting last year, we’ve been really pleased with the progress of the API and we think it’s the right way forward for powering the next generation of high performance games.

Here’s why we think Vulkan is the future. Unless you are aggressive enough to be shipping a DX12 game this year, I would argue that there is really not much reason to ever create a DX12 back end for your game. And the reason for that is that Vulkan will cover you on Windows 10 on the same class of hardware and so much more from all these other platforms and IHVs that we’ve heard from. Metal is single platform, single vendor, and Vulkan; we are gonna have support for not only Windows 10 but Windows 7, Windows 8, we’re gonna have it on Android and all of the IHVs are making great progress on drivers, I think we’re going to see super rapid adoption. If you’re developing a game for next generation APIs, I think it’s clear that Vulkan is the best choice and we’re very pleased with the progress and the state of the API. We think it’s gonna power the next generation of games for years to come.

As for my thoughts, I think it's great for Valve to push for competition, pitting themselves against Microsoft and DX12. We just need to get some good performance numbers, get developers on board and I think we're all set. Here's hoping that Vulkan will be successful, if not more than DX12. It's pretty much a win-win scenario for us.

Source: http://www.tweaktown.com/news/47646/valve-excited-over-dx12-talks-up-vulkan-api/index.html

[Trik'Stari]

I really REALLY hope that the Devs take this advice to heart, and support Vulkan in a big way. Mainly because I REALLY do not want to switch to windows 10.

[PlayStation 2]

Considering that Valve made their way into what was originally an unheard-of thing on PC, Mac, AND Linux, I'd see them being the leaders of Vulkan.

[Legion]

"Ginsberg adds that Vulkan is far superior than DX12 in various areas"

 

Did he elaborate further or did he just throw around some claims?

[Tedol]

Money will win... if people don't learn to say to Microsoft "No" 

[Albatross]

This could really help the Linux community. I can't wait.  :wub:

 

I really REALLY hope that the Devs take this advice to heart, and support Vulkan in a big way. Mainly because I REALLY do not want to switch to windows 10.

 

I hope so too.

[qwertywarrior]

but how good will the drivers be ?

every issue i heard about OpenGL stems from how hard it is to make drivers for it

since Vulkan is made from scratch i hope it will be easy to make them work with hardware

[Trik'Stari]

This could really help the Linux community. I can't wait.  :wub:

 

 

I hope so too.

That's exactly why I want this to happen. I want to switch to Linux, and I'm not prepared to set up a Windows VM within Linux.

[HKZeroFive]

but how good will the drivers be ?

every issue i heard about OpenGL stems from how hard it is to make drivers for it

since Vulkan is made from scratch i hope it will be easy to make them work with hardware

AMD has already developed a prototype driver for Linux, although it will be closed-sourced initially (but they promised to make it open-source later).

You can read about it here: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/451982-amds-vulkan-linux-driver-closed-source-at-first/

[SteveGrabowski0]

I really REALLY hope that the Devs take this advice to heart, and support Vulkan in a big way. Mainly because I REALLY do not want to switch to windows 10.

 

I also really hope so, mainly because I really do want to switch to Linux.

[Albatross]

That's exactly why I want this to happen. I want to switch to Linux, and I'm not prepared to set up a Windows VM within Linux.

 

Oh, yea, VMing Windows on Linux is annoying, and kills a lot of the performance. Here's hoping the devs like Vulkan or that Vulkan > DX12 so much that they feel forced to use it. haha

 

I just use WINE and PlayOnLinux. I haven't really encountered a game I want to play that I can't get to work on Linux, except online games like Battlefield with that stupid PunkBuster garbage.

[Trik'Stari]

I also really hope so, mainly because I really do want to switch to Linux.

Biggest reason for wanting to switch that isn't related to Windows?

[Shakaza]

Hey, if Vulkan becomes mainstream, we can all shave off $100 on our gaming builds since we can use free Linux instead of Windows! That just got me really excited!! (Though, for people like me, I might still have to use Windows since I want certain programs that Linux doesn't have. Then again, WINE would hopefully work for at least some of them. Exciting possibilities ahead either way!)

[Trik'Stari]

Hey, if Vulkan becomes mainstream, we can all shave off $100 on our gaming builds since we can use free Linux instead of Windows! That just got me really excited!!

^^^^^^^^^^SO MUCH THIS

[SteveGrabowski0]

That's exactly why I want this to happen. I want to switch to Linux, and I'm not prepared to set up a Windows VM within Linux.

 

Don't do it cold turkey. I have been using Linux for 15 years so I'd do the switch overnight. But it's different and not everything will be familiar to Windows users, so I'd advise installing it on another partition and getting familiar with it for a few months at least.

[Notional]

Coming from Valve it's pretty much as biased as can be, since they not only waged war on Microsoft because of Windows 8 app store, but also is launching their wannabe console OS in SteamOS, which is Linux based.

 

Right now we have a plethora of DX12 games launching the next 6 months. I have no idea about any Vulkan games coming. Either way OpenGL is a useless poc, so Vulkan is definitely welcome either way.

[razor767]

Well I really hope Vulkan is the future. 

[SteveGrabowski0]

Biggest reason for wanting to switch that isn't related to Windows?

 

I like the BASH shell, if you know even a little bit about programming it makes automating things easy. If you're comfortable on a command line Linux makes it so easy to do things. Stuff like download every image from a site, make a copy of a streaming video, rename all the files in a directory, etc. Another big plus is there is so much amazing free software out there for Linux. Half the time when you install free software for Windows they try to sneak in a browser toolbar.

[Bogica]

^^^^^^^^^^SO MUCH THIS

Yup, that.

I've been dual booting because of games and a few windows bound software kits that I had to use for college. I could probably emulate those and if Vulkan is adopted, I'm out, thanks for the memories MS. I like Windows 10, don't get me wrong, but I like Linux more and it would be a welcome change.

[Eroda]

i think S2 was delayed partly because valve descided that they would only support opengl(vulkan) so they had ot go back and redo whatever they needed tooo

[SteveGrabowski0]

So Vulkan is going to be usable on PS4, right? If so I mean why would you prioritize DX12 over Vulkan as a developer, assuming them to be similarly powerful? It's not like XBox One is a huge market compared to PS4 + PC together.

[Manny Calavera]

Inb4 @ butthurt Micro$oft

 

" We are gamers "

" We will support games "
" Games for Windows Live "

                    ...

[captain cactus]

The fact it comes to Windows 7 and Linux/OS X makes it a billion times better than DX12, which forces you to downgrade to Windows 10.

[HKZeroFive]

So Vulkan is going to be usable on PS4, right? If so I mean why would you prioritize DX12 over Vulkan as a developer, assuming them to be similarly powerful? It's not like XBox One is a huge market compared to PS4 + PC together.

Theoretically, I think it's a good idea for Sony to support Vulkan AND their own API on the PS4. But will it actually happen? That's the big question.

[Trik'Stari]

Don't do it cold turkey. I have been using Linux for 15 years so I'd do the switch overnight. But it's different and not everything will be familiar to Windows users, so I'd advise installing it on another partition and getting familiar with it for a few months at least.

I'm taking a Network Admin degree program which has involved Linux classes, although not as in depth as I would prefer them to be. Creating and moving files and directories, and creating partitions, file systems, and mounting said files systems are what we have done so far, all of which I could have figured out with a quick google search (or done more easily and quickly with a GUI).

 

I'm fairly comfortable with Linux. I've just never actually really done anything with it. Which pisses me off. I'm sick of writing papers, ask me to actually do something >.<

 

I like the BASH shell, if you know even a little bit about programming it makes automating things easy. If you're comfortable on a command line Linux makes it so easy to do things. Stuff like download every image from a site, make a copy of a streaming video, rename all the files in a directory, etc. Another big plus is there is so much amazing free software out there for Linux. Half the time when you install free software for Windows they try to sneak in a browser toolbar.

Wait.....ANY streaming video?

 

.........I'm gonna need a bigger harddrive lol