GRVK is the open-source project implementing AMD’s Mantle API on Vulkan. Mantle was the precursor to the Vulkan industry standard and while it’s no longer in use by AMD, there still are some games out there that allow making use of it.
GRVK allows for such Mantle games to run atop Vulkan not only for AMD drivers/GPUs but also with NVIDIA and Intel graphics too. The original Vulkan API is derived from and built off Mantle so GRVK is able to map rather nicely and has been making progress in recent months.
This blog from Igalia follows the team’s effort in improving performance of the V3DV Vulkan driver for the Raspberry Pi 4. The blog explores the optimizations the team recently did to their backend compiler, the results, and future work.
The Vulkan Adreno layer detects optimizations that can be made on Adreno GPUs, offering suggestions on how to improve the usage of Vulkan APIs via logcat messages. Users can configure to disable/enable rules using vkal_config.txt. See readme.txt for more details.
In a previous blog, Naivi discussed porting the NAP framework from OpenGL to Vulkan using the MoltenVK layered implementations and released it as NAP 0.4. In this blog, Naivi discusses how they ported Habitat, a data-driven installation that documents and visualizes natural growth based on 3d scans, to NAP 0.4, and the performance improvements resulting in the move.
LunarG released new Windows, Linux, and macOS SDKs for Vulkan header 1.2.170.0. These SDKs include support for Vulkan Synchronization2 and several other new extensions. The prior SDK supported Vulkan API revision 1.2.162. Read on for information about the new extensions.
Valheim’s announcement of Vulkan API support is a really significant step in further optimizing the game for a variety of PCs. The biggest advantage most PC games have over console games is just how customizable they are in terms of performance. While Valheim isn’t a super demanding game, this update will allow players with Vulkan to have an even smoother experience if they so choose.
Android is enabling a host of useful new Vulkan extensions for mobile.These new extensions are set to improve the state of graphics APIs for modern applications, enabling new use cases and changing how developers can design graphics renderers going forward. VK_KHR_buffer_device_address is a monumental extension that adds a unique feature to Vulkan that none of the competing graphics API support. This blog describes the extension in detail and how it is used in mobile.
Android is enabling a host of useful new Vulkan extensions for mobile. These new extensions are set to improve the state of graphics APIs for modern applications, enabling new use cases and changing how developers can design graphics renderers going forward. VK_EXT_descriptor_indexing landed in Vulkan 1.2 as a core feature. This blog describes the extension in detail and how it is used in mobile.
In blog #2 of Arm‘s Vulkan Extensions for Mobile series, Hans-Kristian Arntzen describes legacy support extensions that Android has enabled for mobile, including:
- VK_EXT_transform_feedback
- VK_EXT_line_rasterization
- VK_EXT_index_type_uint8
Over the next couple of weeks, Arm will be releasing a series of blogs on Vulkan extensions for mobile and Android R. The new extensions improve the state of graphics APIs for modern applications. The first of the series highlights Maintenance Extensions.
The new Vulkan extensions include:
- VK_KHR_uniform_buffer_standard_layout
- VK_KHR_separate_depth_stencil_layouts
- VK_KHR_spirv_1_4
- VK_KHR_shader_subgroup_extended_types
- VK_KHR_imageless_framebuffer
In the blog, Hans-Kristian Arntzen describes each extension and discusses their highlights.
Zink has announced that it now supports OpenGL 4.5 over Vulkan with Mesa 21.1.
For developers using Vulkan layered over the Metal graphics API, this tool enumerates all the hardware capabilities and limitations of the device it is run on. A report of the current device is uploaded to a central Vulkan Capabilities database at gpuinfo.org where other developers can use this information to ensure their games and 3D apps are ready for as wide a variety of iOS device generations as possible.
Mesa 21.1 has merged a common dispatch framework for use by Vulkan drivers to allow for better code sharing and the possibility of some Vulkan extensions to be more easily supported across all drivers.
Already at this stage the unifying to a common dispatch framework for Vulkan drivers has lightened the codebase by more than two thousand lines of code (+3.3k, -5.9k). Great seeing the unification take place now and hopefully allow for more code sharing moving forward. This should also help out in the bring-up of new Vulkan drivers in the future like if finally seeing a Nouveau Vulkan driver or for other embedded graphics processors.
The goal of the Vulkan-Hpp is to provide header only C++ bindings for the Vulkan C API to improve the developers Vulkan experience without introducing CPU runtime cost. It adds features like type safety for enums and bitfields, STL container support, exceptions and simple enumerations.
The maintainers of the Vulkan HPP library and The Khronos Group would like to understand more about Vulkan HPP usage amongst developers. Even if you do not currently use Vulkan HPP we would like to know why that is case.
- This information will be used to inform potential improvements or features for the future.
- This survey can take up to 15 mins depending on your responses and amount of input on open questions.
- Thank you for taking the time and providing your insight on this subject.
Naivi have used the MoltenVK layered implementations of Vulkan functionality over Metal, a part of the Khronos Vulkan Portability Initiative, to port their NAP real-time performance engine from OpenGL to Vulkan to ship on Windows, Linux AND macOS. Naivi discovered that Vulkan apps run just as well on macOS as they do on Linux and Windows, avoiding the need for a dedicated Metal backend. Switching to Vulkan dramatically improved render-times for NAP’s Mac users, as well as providing a significant performance boost on Windows and Linux. The article concludes “Vulkan does feel like the future of graphics.”