NVIDIA released a fresh developer-focused Vulkan Beta Driver with support for more extensions and a little performance work included. The NVIDIA driver now supports:
The driver also improves the performance of vkCmdMultiDraw*IndirectCount on Pascal and earlier GPUs (Source: Gaming On Linux).
While powerful, the Vulkan API can be quite complex for mobile developers. At GDC 2019, Arm released a set of Vulkan samples that illustrated a comprehensive list of best practice recommendations. Since then, these have been donated to Khronos Group and have been improved with contributions from other GPU vendors, and the well-known samples from Sascha Willems. The repository contains samples that provide a reference for API features and new Vulkan extensions, as well as performance samples focusing on CPU and GPU optimizations. This blog covers a few of these performance samples, focusing on considerations around limited power and therefore bandwidth on mobile devices with tile-based rendering.
FFmpeg 4.3 open-source multimedia framework has been released with Vulkan Support. On Linux, the Vulkan-powered AMD AMF encoder is now supported. Complete release notes are available in the project changelog, with some addition details listed on Phoronix.
Raspberry Pi announced the Vulkan effort for Raspberry Pi 4 almost five months ago. A progress update in the blog shows some of the popular Vulkan demos by Sascha Willems running on Raspberry Pi 4. Starting today, development of the driver is moving to an open repository. You can find instructions on how to build and install the driver here.
LunarG has released new Windows, Linux, and macOS SDKs for Vulkan header 1.2.141.0. The DirectX Shader Compiler (DXC) executable and GFXReconstruct, a new Vulkan capture/replay tool, debut with this SDK. Read on for information about other new features in this SDK.
Google Summer of Code announced their projects last month and on June 1st the programming has begun. Projects this year include OpenCL, OpenGL, OpenXR, SPIR, Vulkan and WebGL. On September 8th, the results of GSoC will be announced.
Path of Exile has released their 3.10.2 Patch, which includes a beta version of our Vulkan renderer. To access the new Vulkan renderer, launch the game and go to the Graphics Options screen. Then change the Renderer option to “Vulkan (Beta)”. It should take effect without you having to relaunch Path of Exile. “Our philosophy with the Vulkan renderer is frame rate consistency, so that players can enjoy Path of Exile without stuttering/spikes at arbitrary times.”
In the latest Steam Beta from May 25, a new option in the Shader Pre-Caching settings, allows you to enable “Allow background processing of Vulkan shaders”. This is a step towards making Steam games on Linux run smoother. For those interested in a little background, it’s using the Fossilize library and Vulkan layer which you can find on Valve’s GitHub.
Nsight Graphics 2020.3 is now available for download. Applications that use the provisional VK_KHR_ray_tracing extension can be captured, profiled and exported to a C++ Capture. While the extension is still evolving, the NVIDIA Vulkan Beta Driver will allow for experimentation before it is fully ratified (and is required).
Connect directly with NVIDIA Developer Technology Engineers on OpenGL and Vulkan-related topics to get answers to all of your questions. Whether you have questions about regular graphics use, compute shaders, ray tracing, or interop between the apis, we’re here to help you with questions around the Khronos graphics apis. Space is limited to 150 people, so don’t wait to sign-up.
The Half Life: Alyx Workshop update adds a native Linux version of the game using the Vulkan rendering API, as well as optional support for using Vulkan on Windows. Depending on your system, you may experience better performance using Vulkan, especially if your system is closer to minimum spec.
The Khronos Group is evaluating possible new helper libraries for the Vulkan API and would appreciate your input through the survey link below. By participating in this survey you will help us to understand the level of demand and priorities for any future helper libraries we may develop. If you have any questions, please contact Kris Rose on Slack.
Diligent Engine was just tagged 2.4.e on Github. With this release comes support for Vulkan on Android. Last October Diligent Engine 2.4.c saw support for macOS via MoltenVK.
Godot Engine has started up their Vulkan Progress Reports after 3 month hiatus. GamingOnLinux touts Godot Engine as making more impressive progress towards Vulkan API support. Godot 4.0 will see many improvements including: using a special screen-space filter to correctly simulate roughness; GLSL shaders (not Godot shaders, real GLSL 4.50+Vulkan extensions) can now be imported and will be automatically imported and converted to SPIR-V when found; allowing you to have low level access to the rendering APIs. Check out the report to learn more.
Ubisoft announced Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint on PC now supports Vulkan. You may now choose between DirectX 11 or Vulkan from your launcher upon launching the game. WCCFTech has done up a performance review. The Anvil Next 2.0 engine was officially ported to the Vulkan API for this title.