Support us on Patreon to keep GamingOnLinux alive. This ensures all of our main content remains free for everyone. Just good, fresh content! Alternatively, you can donate through PayPal. You can also buy games using our partner links for GOG and Humble Store.
We do often include affiliate links to earn us some pennies. See more here.

Vulkan API specification 1.2 released, new NVIDIA Vulkan Beta driver up

By -
Last updated: 15 Jan 2020 at 4:15 pm UTC

Today, The Khronos Group has released the next big update the Vulkan graphics API specification with Vulkan 1.2 now available. This marks almost four years since 1.0 specification release.

Vulkan 1.2 pulls in 23 extensions into the core of the Vulkan API, bringing access to new hardware functionality, the possibility to improve performance and more. There's a lot of excitement around it, with multiple companies giving their support in the official press release here like Google for Stadia, Stardock Entertainment, NVIDIA, AMD, Arm, Intel and more.

"Vulkan 1.2 brings together nearly two dozen high-priority features developed over the past two years into one, unified core Vulkan standard, setting a cutting-edge bar for functionality in the industry’s only open GPU API for cross-platform 3D and compute acceleration," said Tom Olson, distinguished engineer at Arm, and Vulkan working group chair. "Khronos will continue delivering regular Vulkan ecosystem updates with this proven, developer-focused methodology to both meet the needs and expand the horizons of real-world applications."


Slides from their Launch Presentation.

The good news is that all existing GPUs that support Vulkan are capable of supporting Vulkan 1.2, ensuring no one gets left behind by it. The Khronos Group said that AMD, Arm, Imagination Technologies, Intel and NVIDIA all have Vulkan 1.2 implementations passing the Khronos conformance tests. You can follow their Vulkan 1.2 release tracker here.

NVIDIA, as expected, already have a brand new Vulkan Beta driver out for Linux at version 440.48.02 which pulls in Vulkan 1.2 support. This driver release also adds PRIME Synchronization support for Linux kernel 5.4 and newer.

AMD (RADV) and Intel (ANV) have their changes pulled into Mesa, ready for the next big open source driver release there for Mesa 20 which should be sometime in February/March.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
29 Likes
About the author -
author picture
I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly checked on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by . You can also follow my personal adventures on Bluesky.
See more from me
The comments on this article are closed.
All posts need to follow our rules. For users logged in: please hit the Report Flag icon on any post that breaks the rules or contains illegal / harmful content. Guest readers can email us for any issues.
13 comments Subscribe

somebody1121 15 Jan 2020
"Running DX Games on Linux Over Vulkan"
(page 15 of https://www.khronos.org/assets/uploads/apis/Vulkan-1-2-Launch_Jan20.pdf)
If anyone doubts the importance of GNU/Linux and gaming, that they're calling out the explicit ability to run DX titles on "Linux" in Vulkan standards updates shows that the industry most definitely has an interest.

That's great, I expect to grow with time. Also i find interesting to see on page 4 Metro exodus using Vulkan. I hope it's for a linux port (the other two have a native one), not only for stadia...
Liam Dawe 15 Jan 2020
Article updated with some slides, plus extra driver info.
Mohandevir 15 Jan 2020
Also i find interesting to see on page 4 Metro exodus using Vulkan. I hope it's for a linux port (the other two have a native one), not only for stadia...

We might have an answer to that on February 15.


Last edited by Mohandevir on 15 Jan 2020 at 4:31 pm UTC
Liam Dawe 15 Jan 2020
"Running DX Games on Linux Over Vulkan"
(page 15 of https://www.khronos.org/assets/uploads/apis/Vulkan-1-2-Launch_Jan20.pdf)
If anyone doubts the importance of GNU/Linux and gaming, that they're calling out the explicit ability to run DX titles on "Linux" in Vulkan standards updates shows that the industry most definitely has an interest.

That's great, I expect to grow with time. Also i find interesting to see on page 4 Metro exodus using Vulkan. I hope it's for a linux port (the other two have a native one), not only for stadia...
It means Stadia, same for Borderlands 3 and Destiny 2.

Even if they don't come to the Linux desktop (not right now anyway...), an industry shift to Vulkan is going to be a big help anyway. That should be celebrated, open APIs are where we want game development to go.


Last edited by Liam Dawe on 15 Jan 2020 at 4:36 pm UTC
Shmerl 15 Jan 2020
Nice! Is anyone going to work on multi-GPU support in radv?
mrdeathjr 15 Jan 2020
d9vk still works with this driver version

![](https://i.imgur.com/hhxRjTv.jpg)

^_^
And... there is a new Nvidia driver in the Ubuntu ppa

![](https://i.imgur.com/EWsnUss.jpg)
Shmerl 16 Jan 2020
d9vk still works with this driver version

Isn't Bombshell using DX11?


Last edited by Shmerl on 16 Jan 2020 at 6:41 am UTC
mrdeathjr 16 Jan 2020
d9vk still works with this driver version

Isn't Bombshell using DX11?

have both modes dx9 and dx11, also have too x86 and x86_64 binaries

^_^


Last edited by mrdeathjr on 16 Jan 2020 at 8:54 am UTC
Ehvis 16 Jan 2020
View PC info
  • Supporter Plus
And... there is a new Nvidia driver in the Ubuntu ppa

Wait, what? A Vulkan Beta driver in the PPA. First time that has ever happened and I'm wondering if this wasn't a mistake.
And... there is a new Nvidia driver in the Ubuntu ppa

Wait, what? A Vulkan Beta driver in the PPA. First time that has ever happened and I'm wondering if this wasn't a mistake.

Or maybe they are improving the work with Ubuntu.
Changelog

nvidia-graphics-drivers-440 (440.48.02-0ubuntu0~~18.04.1) bionic; urgency=medium

  * New upstream release

 -- Rico Tzschichholz <email address hidden>  Wed, 15 Jan 2020 20:45:48 +0100
Ehvis 16 Jan 2020
View PC info
  • Supporter Plus
Just did a quick test, but the new Vulkan beta does not fix the recently introduced VR issue.
Mohandevir 24 Jan 2020
The new stable driver is 440.44... Yesterday, I tried running Shadow of Mordor's Linux Vulkan beta... Nope! Won't start. I get the loading ring on the black background, but it freezes dead at some point. Reverted to 435.21... No problem if not for the fact that my GTX 1660 Super is not recognized by this driver version.

Anyone else with this issue?
While you're here, please consider supporting GamingOnLinux on:

Reward Tiers: Patreon. Plain Donations: PayPal.

This ensures all of our main content remains totally free for everyone! Patreon supporters can also remove all adverts and sponsors! Supporting us helps bring good, fresh content. Without your continued support, we simply could not continue!

You can find even more ways to support us on this dedicated page any time. If you already are, thank you!
The comments on this article are closed.