GLNext (Vulkan) API specs are complete, undergoing final review and polishing

[zMeul]

source: https://www.khronos.org/vulkan

 

We have some good news and some bad news. The year-end target release date for Vulkan will not be met. However, we are in the home stretch and the release of Vulkan 1.0 is imminent!

Here is a more detailed update...

The Vulkan specification is complete and undergoing legal review and final polishing. The Vulkan conformance tests are being finalized and multiple member companies are preparing drivers for release. Implementation feedback is the vital final stage of making any Khronos specification ready for primetime, and the Vulkan 1.0 specification will be published when the first conformant implementations are confirmed.

Work is also progressing to complete Vulkan SDKs for Windows, Android and Linux. Google has upgraded to Promoter membership and is now on the Khronos Board to help steer Vulkan strategy for Android and the wider industry.

There is considerable energy driving the work to bring you Vulkan. We are planning Vulkan sessions and demos at key industry events throughout the year. We are excited about the emerging Vulkan ecosystem that will create new business opportunities for the graphics and compute industry.

Vulkan will set the foundation for graphics and compute APIs for years to come and so Khronos is taking the time needed to do this right – and the Vulkan 1.0 release is near!

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Yippee ki-yay, motherfucker!

I'm so happy we get to see Vulkan in action very very soon - hopefully before the new lines of GPUs from AMD and nVidia launch

can't stress this enough, but I truly hope Vulkan will get the Linux API performance on par to that of Windows one and finally, comparable to DX12

[Valentyn]

Hell, it's about time.

 

Been waiting a loooong time for this. I hope it get some decent adoption early, and then expands.

[daniellearmouth]

Maybe Source 2 can finally hurry up and be a thing now.

[patrickjp93]

Hell, it's about time.

 

Been waiting a loooong time for this. I hope it get some decent adoption early, and then expands.

 

It's Khronos. You have Intel, AMD, and Nvidia fighting over a standard API for all 3 of them. Now on top of that add Samsung, Apple, Imagination Technologies... Well, this list... 

 

 

Basically put this many egos together arguing over a unified graphics API. It was never going to happen quickly. Why do you think OpenGL was such a cobbled mess?

[Bouzoo]

Now if only devs would use it more than DX12. That's my christmas wish. 

[patrickjp93]

Now if only devs would use it more than DX12. That's my christmas wish. 

 

It will all depend on which way Nvidia leans. With so much market share, it can decide that battle before it's even truly begun.

[AlwaysFSX]

It will all depend on which way Nvidia leans. With so much market share, it can decide that battle before it's even truly begun.

$5 they lean towards DX12.

[Prysin]

$5 they lean towards DX12.

$5 says they will lean towards Vulcan if they cannot beat AMD at DX12

[AlwaysFSX]

$5 says they will lean towards Vulcan if they cannot beat AMD at DX12

Nah, not happening.

[Albatross]

Hot damn!

 

Can't wait for Vulkan!

[sof006]

They'll lean to the market dominant API... Which we all know to be DirectX. You know, it being bundled with Windows n all that jazz and Windows being the most popular OS out there.

 

Microsoft will always have the monopoly when it comes to PC's

[Lethal Seraph]

Awwwww yisssss

[ivan134]

They'll lean to the market dominant API... Which we all know to be DirectX. You know, it being bundled with Windows n all that jazz and Windows being the most popular OS out there.

 

Microsoft will always have the monopoly when it comes to PC's

This makes no sense. Vulkan works on Windows 7 and 8. Dx 12 is Windows 10 only. Did you actually think Vulkan was only for Linux?

[SeriousDad69]

This makes no sense. Vulkan works on Windows 7 and 8. Dx 12 is Windows 10 only. Did you actually think Vulkan was only for Linux?

Windows 10 market share is already really huge. The only thing that needs to happen is for some big ticket DX12 games to come out before Microsoft stops offering the free upgrade and Windows 10 and DX12 will dominate. For those of you with the tin foil fedoras on about Windows 10 spying just download SpyBot antibeacon, it takes less than 3 minutes.

[Magnificient Potato]

What are the chances of next generation of consoles using Vulkan or something very similar?

[patrickjp93]

What are the chances of next generation of consoles using Vulkan or something very similar?

 

Pretty high since 2 of the three won't be Windows-OS-based.

[SurvivorNVL]

Pretty high since 2 of the three won't be Windows-OS-based.

So unrelated, but it feels so good to see your posts Patrick.  

[The_Stig]

$5 says they will lean towards Vulcan if they cannot beat AMD at DX12

$5 says that although AMD will beat them, the vast majority will still choose nvidia for unknown reasons.

[spartaman64]

$5 says they will lean towards Vulcan if they cannot beat AMD at DX12

isnt part of vulkan code from amd mantle so very unlikely

[SurvivorNVL]

I must see Pascal and Arctic Islands.  I'm dying for them.  I want to see who wins over who in raw performance and API's.  Ugh, this is exciting.  Soon.

[patrickjp93]

I must see Pascal and Arctic Islands.  I'm dying for them.  I want to see who wins over who in raw performance and API's.  Ugh, this is exciting.  Soon.

 

For 64-bit compute, Arctic Islands wins. In single precision, Pascal wins. It is 1/3 ratio just like Kepler. And before you ask me to confirm this, be aware sampling for Pascal for enterprise clients began more than a month ago. Miami had engineering samples of both vendors' flagships to test for candidacy in the next Redhawk Cluster. We also have a dedicated Knight's Landing node on its way.

 

As for gaming, it's up in the air. For mixed precision I don't know who wins, but I do know AMD wins by nearly 20% in double precision compute, and Pascal wins by about the same in single precision. Pascal's double precision has already been rated as 4 TFlops in previous leaks. I leave it to you to extrapolate the rest.

[SurvivorNVL]

For 64-bit compute, Arctic Islands wins. In single precision, Pascal wins. It is 1/3 ratio just like Kepler. And before you ask me to confirm this, be aware sampling for Pascal for enterprise clients began more than a month ago. Miami had engineering samples of both vendors' flagships to test for candidacy in the next Redhawk Cluster. We also have a dedicated Knight's Landing node on its way.

 

As for gaming, it's up in the air. For mixed precision I don't know who wins, but I do know AMD wins by nearly 20% in double precision compute, and Pascal wins by about the same in single precision. Pascal's double precision has already been rated as 4 TFlops in previous leaks. I leave it to you to extrapolate the rest.

This definitely helps.  Thank you, Patrick. 

[Alurit]

$5 they lean towards DX12.

they spent some pretty penny on their shield lineup though, porting half life and stuff

[zMeul]

$5 they lean towards DX12.

one very big player joined the "board of promoters", Google - and google is the biggest deal in Linux because of it's Android market share

MS is quite alone in the Windows department

Intel, Google (Android, Chrome OS), nVidia (SHIELD), Apple (iOS, MacOS), Sony (FreeBSD), plus the rest - have some big ties to nix development platform

if MS wants cross apps with Android, they would have to support Vulkan on their Windows 10 Mobile

[Rune]

DX12 is still going to crush Vulkan harder than Abrams did. ©