A developer of Star Citizen [Official Site] has commented on their forum to state that the game will go with Vulkan and eventually drop DirectX.
Here's what the developer said (source):
This is pretty great for both Vulkan adoption and future Linux support of the MMO. Considering right now it relies heavily on DX11, if they actually do drop that for Vulkan it really does mean they will only be using Vulkan.
Star Citizen itself has been the topic of a lot of controversy, since a great many people think it will never actually end up as a game. I have no real thoughts on that, since big games do take a long time and a lot of money to make, and these guys are doing it in the public eye.
Here's what the developer said (source):
QuoteYears 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. As a result our current intention is to only support Vulkan and eventually drop support for DX11 as this shouldn't effect any of our backers. DX12 would only be considered if we found it gave us a specific and substantial advantage over Vulkan. The API's really aren't that different though, 95% of the work for these APIs is to change the paradigm of the rendering pipeline, which is the same for both APIs.
This is pretty great for both Vulkan adoption and future Linux support of the MMO. Considering right now it relies heavily on DX11, if they actually do drop that for Vulkan it really does mean they will only be using Vulkan.
Star Citizen itself has been the topic of a lot of controversy, since a great many people think it will never actually end up as a game. I have no real thoughts on that, since big games do take a long time and a lot of money to make, and these guys are doing it in the public eye.
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This is good even if its just from a PR sense. Hopefully other developers have been taking notice of what ID was able to so with Doom, Bethesda's Vulkan announcement and now Star Citizen. These are big wins for Vulkan and us Linux gamers win by default.
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Great news, would be really good if the price of StarCitizen is going a litle bit lower...
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Not sure there's anything to celebrate: as far as i can tell they might switch to directx 13 or 14 in the future, judging by how fast (slow) they are progressing ;-)
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This is a major blow to MS lock-in domination. The more high profile developers will adopt Vulkan, the more normal it will be seen in the industry. Don't forget, Vulkan job market now is also not as big as DX one. It needs to grow.
Last edited by Shmerl on 19 March 2017 at 6:45 pm UTC
Last edited by Shmerl on 19 March 2017 at 6:45 pm UTC
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This is awesome. I had wondered what they were going to do for their Linux promise. But it really does make far more sense to use an API that is multi-platform. Honestly I think the main reason there has been so much stagnation is because OpenGL kind of sucked for various reasons.
It is a good point about DX12 adoption, I can't even think of any games or engines that utilize it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_games_with_DirectX_12_support
Apparently the list is really small.
6 that are DX12 exclusive...
Last edited by slaapliedje on 19 March 2017 at 7:00 pm UTC
It is a good point about DX12 adoption, I can't even think of any games or engines that utilize it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_games_with_DirectX_12_support
Apparently the list is really small.
6 that are DX12 exclusive...
Last edited by slaapliedje on 19 March 2017 at 7:00 pm UTC
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So glad to see more people are adopting Vulkan. Croteam (Serious Sam) have made great performance leaps on Linux and the new Doom has shown us that Vulkan is amazing even with Wine.
If a game such as Star Citizen were to pull off a 1:1 Windows-Linux performance release with Vulkan, I expect it will send a few nudges to other developers.
If a game such as Star Citizen were to pull off a 1:1 Windows-Linux performance release with Vulkan, I expect it will send a few nudges to other developers.
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Quoting: slaapliedje6 that are DX12 exclusive...
Using DX12 exclusively would be financial suicide for a publisher at this point, given that they'd lock themselves out of 75% of the Windows market NOT running Win 10.
Really nice of MS, pushing Vulkan for us like this. :D
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Ok so now I have regained hope for Star Citizen to also come to Linux. I have never given up hope about it becoming awesome, though. I think it will be stellar. But boy does it take it sweet time in getting done.
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Quoting: KimyrielleReally nice of MS, pushing Vulkan for us like this. :D
While MS aren't new to shooting themselves in the foot, this opportunity is really time limited. MS are aggressively pushing their new Windows junk on people.
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Quoting: Eric1212Great news, would be really good if the price of StarCitizen is going a litle bit lower...
Lower than $45? Really?
I mean, hell, it used to be just $35, but that was, like, three years ago.
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