Vulkan (API)

Vulkan

Original author(s)	Khronos Group, AMD[1]
Developer(s)	Khronos Group
Initial release	2015 (2015)
Operating system	Cross-platform
Platform	Cross-platform
Type	API
Website	khronos.org/Vulkan

Vulkan is a low-level, cross-platform 2D and 3D graphics API first announced at GDC 2015 by the Khronos Group.^[2][3] The Vulkan API was initially referred to as the "next generation OpenGL initiative" or simply "glNext" by Khronos, but use of those names were discontinued once the Vulkan name was announced.^[4] Like OpenGL, Vulkan targets high-performance realtime 3D graphics applications such as games and interactive media across all platforms, and offers higher performance and lower CPU overhead like Direct3D 12 and Mantle. Vulkan is derived from and built upon components of AMD's Mantle.^{[5][6][7][8][9]}

Overview

Vulkan is intended to provide a variety of advantages over other APIs as well as its spiritual predecessor, OpenGL. Vulkan offers lower overhead, more direct control over the GPU, and lower CPU usage.^[3] Intended advantages include:

• OpenGL uses the high-level language GLSL for writing shaders which forces each OpenGL driver to implement its own compiler for GLSL that executes at application runtime to translate the program's shaders into executable code for the target platform. Vulkan will instead provide an intermediate binary format called SPIR-V (Standard Portable Intermediate Representation), analogous to the binary format that HLSL shaders are compiled into in DirectX. This reduces the onus on driver vendors, allows shader pre-compilation, and permits application developers to write shaders in languages other than GLSL.^[10]
• Cross-platform API supported on both mobile devices and high-end graphics cards.
• OS agnostic to improve the portability of applications created using the API.
• Better support for modern systems that use multithreading.
• Reduced the load on CPUs in situations where the CPU is the bottleneck, allowing higher throughput for GPU calculations and rendering.

History

According to the US Patent Office, the trademark for Vulkan was filed on February 19, 2015.^[11]

Vulkan was formally named and announced at Game Developers Conference 2015, although speculation and rumors centered around a new API existed beforehand and referred to it as 'glNext'.^[12]

On March 3, 2015, Valve announced the Source 2 engine, as the first game engine to support the Vulkan Graphics API.^[13][14]

Naming

The word "Vulkan" is the word for "Volcano" in German, Russian, and many nordic languages including Danish, Norwegian and Swedish. The name's relation to Mantle (the API Vulkan is based on) does not appear to be an accident.^[15] The name also continues Khronos' use of mythological figures with adapted spelling using the letter K: Vulcan is the god of metalworking and the forge, signifying industrial-grade strength and power (as well as Vulkan's "down to the metal" GPU programming approach).

See also

• Mantle – A low-level graphics and compute API from AMD, the foundation of Vulkan
• Direct3D – Windows-only graphics API. Version 12 will be a low-level API similar to Vulkan.
• Metal (iOS API) - A low-level graphics and compute API for iOS.
• Glide – An early low-level graphics API limited to rasterization.

References