The Platforms Initially Supporting Vulkan

[phoronix]

Phoronix: The Platforms Initially Supporting Vulkan

The Vulkan / SPIR-V / OpenGL talks during the live-streamed Khronos SIGGRAPH '15 BoFs just started...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Vulkan-Platform-Support

[xeekei]

I hope a VOD will be released. I couldn't get the stream working.

[You-]

I notice Apple is missing from the list.

Previously there was a question whether their position was "no" or "not right now". It seems that it is the former.

[My8th]

Rumors of Nintendo going Linux for their next console, would they also use Vulkan?

[Michael]

Rumors of Nintendo going Linux for their next console, would they also use Vulkan?

I'm bound by NDA about reporting on any Nintendo matters.

[My8th]

I'm bound by NDA about reporting on any Nintendo matters.

More meant for thoughts from forum members? I think my next question should be safe though, what is the main graphics apis that Nintendo uses for the Wii U and ds, were they based on any other apis in use?

[duby229]

I'm bound by NDA about reporting on any Nintendo matters.

That seems like an answer to me.

[Ericg]

Rumors of Nintendo going Linux for their next console, would they also use Vulkan?

As Michael said, he's bound by an NDA, and I don't know any solid facts so i can't comment with any authority.

THAT BEING SAID: From a user and business perspective, it wouldn't surprise me. The information I can find says the the Nintendo 3DS is running a graphics chip that can only do OpenGL ES 1.1. If they could upgrade that to something Vulkan-capable and get bare-metal performance out of it then its very likely we could see more advanced handheld games as they wouldnt be limited as much by the CPU.

I wasn't even aware that Nintendo's next console -was- running Linux, but if they are... Linux + Wayland + Vulkan would make for a very pretty handheld and ease Nintendo's development costs a bit, presumably.

[geearf]

The information I can find says the the Nintendo 3DS is running a graphics chip that can only do OpenGL ES 1.1. If they could upgrade that to something Vulkan-capable and get bare-metal performance out of it then its very likely we could see more advanced handheld games as they wouldnt be limited as much by the CPU.

Aren't console games already using low level stuff?
I mean the point of OGL, DX and co is to abstract the different hardware, but you don't have that issues on consoles..

[Jonathan Silverblood]

That seems like an answer to me.

Exactly my thought.

The only reason I can think of that Nintendo would disclose information to the phoronix site manager would be if it were relevant to the phoronix site in the first place.