Khronos has given an official update on Vulkan, there's good news, and there's bad news. The year-end target release date for Vulkan will not be met. However, they are in the home stretch and the release of Vulkan 1.0 is imminent!
QuoteVulkan Working Group Update - December 18th 2015
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!
The Khronos Vulkan Working Group
I am really excited about Vulkan, I just hope all the work put into it will truly be worth it for us. We need Vulkan, as OpenGL just isn't competing for various reasons.
I am glad they are taking their time and not rushing it, as it's my honest belief that our future for gaming is in their hands as much as it is with Valve for SteamOS. Without SteamOS and Vulkan together, I wouldn't see Linux gaming going much further than it has now.
I still think Dota 2 will be the first game on Linux to use Vulkan, considering Valve already had a demo of it months ago too. We know Nvidia was working on Vulkan in their driver already, so we could see driver releases in January along side it. AMD could certainly do this too, since Vulkan is heavily based on their own Mantle and they should be ready. If they somehow aren't, I will be laughing, a lot.
I wish AMD, Intel and Nvidia all the best on this though. It's a fresh chance for them all (mainly AMD vs Nvidia) to compete on a much more level playing field, and might make me think again on my next upgrade.
Sounds like Vulkan is genuinely close now, so I expect to see it in January. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Finally some official word. Ok, so spec is done and it goes trough lawyers and tests being created. This sounds encouraging.
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Great news! And like others would rather wait for a finished product.
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I hope Valve releases CS:GO and TF2 with Source 2 and Vulkan next year, too. I want to enjoy some Vulkan rendered graphics, but Dota 2 just isn't for me.
Last edited by blackout24 on 19 December 2015 at 1:12 am UTC
Last edited by blackout24 on 19 December 2015 at 1:12 am UTC
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Yet another delay. Shouldn't be too hard, since graphics engine engineers (if they want) certainly already have access to Vulkan and beta drivers, and have had for quite some time.
I'm looking forward, and wonder how fast graphics drivers will support it. I think the engines will be pretty fast adopting it, since it's what they've been waiting for pretty some time now. With being Windows, Android and Linux I hope there will be some interest in it, even though, the killer feature would be Sony supporting it too, and Apple jumping their shadows allowing it. Just that I need a company to allow an API is somehow .. strange :D.
Anyway, I don't see the delay as a deal breaker. Though, I hoped for a big-bang release before christmas. But companies are only (if even) 50 % operative anyway over the christmas season, so december, january ... who cares :D.
I'm looking forward, and wonder how fast graphics drivers will support it. I think the engines will be pretty fast adopting it, since it's what they've been waiting for pretty some time now. With being Windows, Android and Linux I hope there will be some interest in it, even though, the killer feature would be Sony supporting it too, and Apple jumping their shadows allowing it. Just that I need a company to allow an API is somehow .. strange :D.
Anyway, I don't see the delay as a deal breaker. Though, I hoped for a big-bang release before christmas. But companies are only (if even) 50 % operative anyway over the christmas season, so december, january ... who cares :D.
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I think, even if AMD is on par or even ahead with Vulkan drivers, my next upgrade will still be with NVIDIA. I have a huge backlog of Linux games now, and unless Vulkan can magically convert OpenGL on the fly and run all of those games at acceptable rates on AMD hardware, AMD will still not be an option for me. I am not going to throw away 800+ games and thousands of dollars.
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@adolon I'm running my games just fine on the RadeonSI driver, I have not had to throw away any games apart from the Windows only ones. I think you should refrain from making judgements on the AMD drivers unless you are using them. Seeing some benchmarks and using the drivers day to day are very different. I have had very few problems with the RadeonSI driver...unlike a friend of mine who bricked his Nvidia based system because of a kernel upgrade.
General rant
Also, I don't really understand the massive hostility towards AMD. It's like watching someone trying to do the right thing and getting kicked by a mob constantly. I understand their drivers where pretty bad in the past but they have open source drivers that are officially supported and improving constantly. Can anyone point me to Nvidia's official Open Source drivers? Is there out of the box support for the latest Nvidia cards in an open source driver? No. Is Nvidia open sourcing Gameworks? No. People should really think hard about what their money is supporting.
If open source does not matter to the Linux gaming community anymore, what's the point of Linux? Windows currently provides better gaming performance and has all the proprietary code you could ask for.
End rant
General rant
Also, I don't really understand the massive hostility towards AMD. It's like watching someone trying to do the right thing and getting kicked by a mob constantly. I understand their drivers where pretty bad in the past but they have open source drivers that are officially supported and improving constantly. Can anyone point me to Nvidia's official Open Source drivers? Is there out of the box support for the latest Nvidia cards in an open source driver? No. Is Nvidia open sourcing Gameworks? No. People should really think hard about what their money is supporting.
If open source does not matter to the Linux gaming community anymore, what's the point of Linux? Windows currently provides better gaming performance and has all the proprietary code you could ask for.
End rant
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The "good" thing is that we aren't seeing DX12 games yet.
However, confirmation(and playability if EA(early access) was purchased) of DX12 games that are coming have happened. Have we seen/heard of ANYTHING about in development titles that utilizes Vulkan?
Don't mean that in any negative sense.. just curious. Has any dev confirmed a Vulkan release/version of an in development title? You can get a DX12 playable version of "Ashes of the Singularity" if you have bought into early access right now apparently.
Last edited by EKRboi on 19 December 2015 at 4:41 am UTC
However, confirmation(and playability if EA(early access) was purchased) of DX12 games that are coming have happened. Have we seen/heard of ANYTHING about in development titles that utilizes Vulkan?
Don't mean that in any negative sense.. just curious. Has any dev confirmed a Vulkan release/version of an in development title? You can get a DX12 playable version of "Ashes of the Singularity" if you have bought into early access right now apparently.
Last edited by EKRboi on 19 December 2015 at 4:41 am UTC
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@gabsd84
I have used Catalyst and the open-source drivers. Most of my games were unplayable. I won't debate this any further with you. If you choose to be blind to the reality that AMD far, far underperforms on Linux, then that's your prerogative. The truth is out there for all to see, it's just really hard if you've got your red blinders on.
And your comments against proprietary code seem largely out of place, given the nature of gaming in general. If you're saying that people can only use Linux if they stick to free and open software, then you throw out hundreds and hundreds of games - the majority of games, in fact - not to mention Steam itself, which many gamers use. If you're going to mandate open drivers, your hypocrisy begins when you run ANY non-FOSS software on your system.
And I've run Linux since 2002, exclusively, and I have MANY reasons to never touch Windows again. Open-source this or that is not high on my list of reasons. And I'll run whatever the fuck I want to run. Take your rant and shove it.
Last edited by adolson on 19 December 2015 at 5:51 am UTC
I have used Catalyst and the open-source drivers. Most of my games were unplayable. I won't debate this any further with you. If you choose to be blind to the reality that AMD far, far underperforms on Linux, then that's your prerogative. The truth is out there for all to see, it's just really hard if you've got your red blinders on.
And your comments against proprietary code seem largely out of place, given the nature of gaming in general. If you're saying that people can only use Linux if they stick to free and open software, then you throw out hundreds and hundreds of games - the majority of games, in fact - not to mention Steam itself, which many gamers use. If you're going to mandate open drivers, your hypocrisy begins when you run ANY non-FOSS software on your system.
And I've run Linux since 2002, exclusively, and I have MANY reasons to never touch Windows again. Open-source this or that is not high on my list of reasons. And I'll run whatever the fuck I want to run. Take your rant and shove it.
Last edited by adolson on 19 December 2015 at 5:51 am UTC
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Quoting: LiamSounds like Vulkan is genuinely close now, so I expect to see it in January.Poor deluded Liam. My bets are late February at the earliest.
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