What Vulkan Looks Like For A Hobbyist 3D Developer

[phoronix]

Phoronix: What Vulkan Looks Like For A Hobbyist 3D Developer

Experienced OpenGL/WebGL developer Sascha Willems has shared his views on the next-generation, low-level Vulkan graphics API from the perspective of a hobbyist developer...

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

[gotwig]

Michael, it's "Gamescom" not "GamesCon"

[Michael]

Michael, it's "Gamescom" not "GamesCon"

Typo, fixed. Thanks.

[Marc Driftmeyer]

OpenGL (ES) to Vulkan... -> OpenGL/ES to Vulkan...

[peppercats]

Already could have told you this.

Vulkan is incredibly low level, it's more likely that an open source high quality GL implementation will be maintained ontop of it. Or better yet, a semi-standardized non-suck 3D rendering library.

[CrystalGamma]

Hmm, I tried to get into Graphics programming a few times but usually stopped after making a rotating cube or somesuch.
What I struggled with most was the convolution of the GL state machine.
I mean, let's spell that out: in GL, you have to mutate state (ActiveState) to specify what state your next call is going to mutate. This is crazy!
Besides implementation quality, statelessness is the ONLY novelty in Vulkan that I care about, and it's the reason why I will give GFX a go again once Vulkan is available for my system.
Lower overhead is nice to have, but secondary for me.

[johnc]

Based on one of the nvidia presentations this week it looks like Vulkan will be in the same main driver, and then an application can simultaneously use OpenGL and Vulkan. So if you want to do just a part of your application with Vulkan that's fine too.

[blackout23]

Based on one of the nvidia presentations this week it looks like Vulkan will be in the same main driver, and then an application can simultaneously use OpenGL and Vulkan. So if you want to do just a part of your application with Vulkan that's fine too.

I was also quite surprised and a bit confused by this when he said 2:25:30 "One of the great things about the Vulkan driver on our platform is that it is hosted by the OpenGL driver".
Not sure what that means.

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/70729406

[blackout23]

Based on one of the nvidia presentations this week it looks like Vulkan will be in the same main driver, and then an application can simultaneously use OpenGL and Vulkan. So if you want to do just a part of your application with Vulkan that's fine too.

I was a bit surprised and confused when the NVIDIA engineer said that the Vulkan driver on their platform is hosted by the OpenGL driver. @ 2:25:30 in the video.
Not really sure what that means.

[Remdul]

Of course, Khronos & co will also be developing an SDK and wrapper libraries, as previously announced. This may make Vulkan still useful for hobbyist devs. I would expect some wrapper libraries that take advantage of the performance it provides, yet still having a GL-like interface.

I also wouldn't rule out vendors dropping aging GL drivers at some point and emulate GL with Vulkan (like FFP is done with GLSL now). But probably not until after the next 5-10 years...