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This year's GDC sounds like it might be quite interesting! AMD, NVIDIA, Khronos, Unity, Croteam and more have announced they will be doing a bunch of talks and some of them will be about Vulkan.
All companies will likely have other talks, but I've scraped the list to see what's interesting. Each talk has multiple people involved, from different companies.
Khronos have listed some here and AMD are listing some additional ones they plan here.
First up, Khronos are listing:
- Vulkan Advisory Panel Meeting
- Vulkan on Desktop Deep Dive
- When Vulkan was One: Looking Back, Looking Ahead
AMD will have these talks about Vulkan
- D3D12 and Vulkan Done Right
- Wave Programming in D3D12 and Vulkan
- D3D12 & Vulkan: Lessons Learned
Then we have Mikko Strandborg from Unity taking part in a talk named "Get the Most from Vulkan in Unity with Practical Examples from Infinite Dreams" with others from ARM and Infinite Dreams.
NVIDIA will also be doing one named "NVIDIA Vulkan Update".
It's possible I've missed some and probable more will be announced as it comes closer to GDC time. GDC this year will run from February 27 — March 3, 2017.
Thanks to mphuZ on Twitter for reminding me to write about it. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
All companies will likely have other talks, but I've scraped the list to see what's interesting. Each talk has multiple people involved, from different companies.
Khronos have listed some here and AMD are listing some additional ones they plan here.
First up, Khronos are listing:
- Vulkan Advisory Panel Meeting
- Vulkan on Desktop Deep Dive
- When Vulkan was One: Looking Back, Looking Ahead
AMD will have these talks about Vulkan
- D3D12 and Vulkan Done Right
- Wave Programming in D3D12 and Vulkan
- D3D12 & Vulkan: Lessons Learned
Then we have Mikko Strandborg from Unity taking part in a talk named "Get the Most from Vulkan in Unity with Practical Examples from Infinite Dreams" with others from ARM and Infinite Dreams.
NVIDIA will also be doing one named "NVIDIA Vulkan Update".
It's possible I've missed some and probable more will be announced as it comes closer to GDC time. GDC this year will run from February 27 — March 3, 2017.
Thanks to mphuZ on Twitter for reminding me to write about it. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Might be a silly question, but can any of You advice what is the reason for dev now to study and learn directx12 instead of focusing on Vulkan? What benefit could there be to choose dx12 over Vulkan nowadays? Any super support from ms? Incentive? Is it that vulkan is available on windows, but not x1? I would think having limited manpower resources its always better to go 100% into Vulkan to reach easily more devices/ bigger market. Am I wrong here?
2 Likes, Who?
Some possible reasons:
- You are working in an Microsoft Studio (-> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Studios )
- The game studio you are working in is sponsored by MS.
- You know DirectX since the 1st version and have no interest to re-adjust your developmnet technics.
- You think (what is wrong) that Vulkan is too complex.
- Your studio focuses only on the Windows market and considers a new, alternative technology to be over-the-top.
- You work in a small studio and experiments are too risky for you.
- You are working in an Microsoft Studio (-> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Studios )
- The game studio you are working in is sponsored by MS.
- You know DirectX since the 1st version and have no interest to re-adjust your developmnet technics.
- You think (what is wrong) that Vulkan is too complex.
- Your studio focuses only on the Windows market and considers a new, alternative technology to be over-the-top.
- You work in a small studio and experiments are too risky for you.
3 Likes, Who?
Might be a silly question, but can any of You advice what is the reason for dev now to study and learn directx12 instead of focusing on Vulkan? What benefit could there be to choose dx12 over Vulkan nowadays? Any super support from ms? Incentive? Is it that vulkan is available on windows, but not x1? I would think having limited manpower resources its always better to go 100% into Vulkan to reach easily more devices/ bigger market. Am I wrong here?W10 market share is rising, dx12 also works on xbox one and thats a lot of users, better tools than on vulkan, it has support from MS so aaa devs can ask them for help, supports sharing stuff across multigpu, etc.
1 Likes, Who?
Might be a silly question, but can any of You advice what is the reason for dev now to study and learn directx12 instead of focusing on Vulkan? What benefit could there be to choose dx12 over Vulkan nowadays? Any super support from ms? Incentive? Is it that vulkan is available on windows, but not x1? I would think having limited manpower resources its always better to go 100% into Vulkan to reach easily more devices/ bigger market. Am I wrong here?
I have no experience in developing games, or using vulkan and DX*. This is PURE spekulation from my side.
But I think it all comes downs to, dx* has been used for a while and its somewhat of an industri standard. Applying a new API takes time, users have to learn it and know they way around.
DX* is something that has been used for a while and meny devs use and know there way around it.
I think, back in the days OpenGL was harder to use, it did also lack featuers that dx* hade, this made dx* the standard. Also Microsoft was probably putting alot of money behinde it.
And now its more of a market standard, and it takes time and money to switch. I think or believe vulkan is the better option just because its crossplatform. This would hopefully give more games to linux aswell.
And if you think Im wrong or know Im wrong please correct me.
EDIT: Think I didnt got the question right, but I cant remove the commetn xd.
Last edited by Zelox on 8 Feb 2017 at 5:38 pm UTC
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Some possible reasons:
- You are working in an Microsoft Studio (-> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Studios )
- The game studio you are working in is sponsored by MS.
- You know DirectX since the 1st version and have no interest to re-adjust your developmnet technics.
- You think (what is wrong) that Vulkan is too complex.
- Your studio focuses only on the Windows market and considers a new, alternative technology to be over-the-top.
- You work in a small studio and experiments are too risky for you.
I would add:
- Xbox One compatibility, which is a really big plus
- Access to a larger pool of experienced graphics programmers
- Better tools
0 Likes
Might be a silly question, but can any of You advice what is the reason for dev now to study and learn directx12 instead of focusing on Vulkan? What benefit could there be to choose dx12 over Vulkan nowadays? Any super support from ms? Incentive? Is it that vulkan is available on windows, but not x1? I would think having limited manpower resources its always better to go 100% into Vulkan to reach easily more devices/ bigger market. Am I wrong here?
I have no experience in developing games, or using vulkan and DX*. This is PURE spekulation from my side.
But I think it all comes downs to, dx* has been used for a while and its somewhat of an industri standard. Applying a new API takes time, users have to learn it and know they way around.
DX* is something that has been used for a while and meny devs use and know there way around it.
I think, back in the days OpenGL was harder to use, it did also lack featuers that dx* hade, dx* was also easyer to use then OpenGL.
And now its more of a market standard, and it takes time and money to switch. I think or believe vulkan is the better option just because its crossplatform. This would hopefully give more games to linux aswell.
And if you think Im wrong or know Im wrong please correct me.
OpenGL is an industry standard, DirectX is a proprietary Microsoft API. I think the only console that has ever used DirectX is XBOX. Vulkan was set to be really awesome and Apple had to screw the pooch and segment everything again. But at least with Vulkan you will still be able to hit Android, Linux, Windows 10, Playstation and Nintendo.
1 Likes, Who?
OpenGL is an industry standard, DirectX is a proprietary Microsoft API. I think the only console that has ever used DirectX is XBOX. Vulkan was set to be really awesome and Apple had to screw the pooch and segment everything again. But at least with Vulkan you will still be able to hit Android, Linux, Windows 10, Playstation and Nintendo.
Not Playstation as far as I know. It's one of the major blockers for wider Vulkan adoption now.
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OpenGL is an industry standard, DirectX is a proprietary Microsoft API. I think the only console that has ever used DirectX is XBOX. Vulkan was set to be really awesome and Apple had to screw the pooch and segment everything again. But at least with Vulkan you will still be able to hit Android, Linux, Windows 10, Playstation and Nintendo.
Not Playstation as far as I know. It's one of the major blockers for wider Vulkan adoption now.
I was wrong there, looks like there is some speculation it may be supported in the future but nothing definite.
Last edited by m2mg2 on 8 Feb 2017 at 6:32 pm UTC
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One major blocker that I've not seen mentioned is shading language.
Studios have thousands of existing shaders written in HLSL (DirectX shading language) that won't work with Vulkan (which uses SPIR-V).
There is an open source project (sponsored by Valve or Google, can't remember) that aims to provide a HLSL to SPIR-V compiler but it was still not feature complete last I checked.
Studios have thousands of existing shaders written in HLSL (DirectX shading language) that won't work with Vulkan (which uses SPIR-V).
There is an open source project (sponsored by Valve or Google, can't remember) that aims to provide a HLSL to SPIR-V compiler but it was still not feature complete last I checked.
1 Likes, Who?
Thanks guys for all the answers. As much as I agree on many points my doubt is in the fact of similarity of DX12 with Vulkan. When a dev wants to target new tech, they have to learn anyway and so experience with previous dx version should not matter that much for the choice between dx or vulkan. What really convinces me is Xone and HLSL issues... but even then being a dev who thinks about the prospective future choosing not to focus on Vulkan looks like a simply wrong decision (in case You are not MS studio ofc).
[edit] Oh and one more thing. As MS seems to care for unified gaming enviroment between win10 and xone - don't they plan to implement vulkan also for their console?
Last edited by liju on 8 Feb 2017 at 8:54 pm UTC
[edit] Oh and one more thing. As MS seems to care for unified gaming enviroment between win10 and xone - don't they plan to implement vulkan also for their console?
Last edited by liju on 8 Feb 2017 at 8:54 pm UTC
0 Likes
TheRiddick 9 Feb 2017
Might be a silly question, but can any of You advice what is the reason for dev now to study and learn directx12 instead of focusing on Vulkan? What benefit could there be to choose dx12 over Vulkan nowadays? Any super support from ms? Incentive? Is it that vulkan is available on windows, but not x1? I would think having limited manpower resources its always better to go 100% into Vulkan to reach easily more devices/ bigger market. Am I wrong here?W10 market share is rising, dx12 also works on xbox one and thats a lot of users, better tools than on vulkan, it has support from MS so aaa devs can ask them for help, supports sharing stuff across multigpu, etc.
Vulkan features and toolsets are growing and have the benefit of multi co help (open source), and I wouldn't call XB1 and W10 MULTI platform, lets look at what Vulkan Supports = Win7 Vista Win8 Win8.1 Win10 Linux Android(mobile) ARM devices, even Arduino, oh and Nintendo Switch (and PS4 I believe allows it). So the only platforms not supporting Vulkan is iOS and XB1, and that is because their stuck so far up their own as**** to even see the horizon...
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But yes, it would help Vulkan adoption if something for direct HLSL -> SPIR-V was publicly available.
https://github.com/KhronosGroup/glslang/issues/362
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TheRiddick 9 Feb 2017
Most developers don't even bother looking I suspect, they expect EVERYTHING to be included with the Vulkan SDK and ignore community contributions like this.. Shrug...
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So the only platforms not supporting Vulkan is iOS and XB1, and that is because their stuck so far up their own as**** to even see the horizon...
Well it can work with Apple... using MoltenVK. But yeah it's very disappointing they didn't use Vulkan straight up.
0 Likes
cRaZy-bisCuiT 9 Feb 2017
In addition, converting GLSL code to Vulkan-compatible SPIR-V without optimising it may cause performance obstacles. Even if Vulkan and DirectX 12 are quite close in syntax, it's not all the same.
Have a Game "just running" won't help much, we'll see the same problem with overhead and badly optimised games that we have now while using OpenGL for ported DirectX 11 games.
Have a Game "just running" won't help much, we'll see the same problem with overhead and badly optimised games that we have now while using OpenGL for ported DirectX 11 games.
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