Raspberry Pi, Stadia, Fuchsia, Tizen, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10 ( MoltenVK provides freely-licensed third-party support for iOS and macOS based on Metal ) Lower CPU usage As of release, Vulkan runs on Android, Linux, BSD Unix, QNX, Nintendo Switch, Intended advantages of Vulkan over previous-generation APIs include the following.Ī single API for both desktop and mobile graphics devices, whereas previously these were split between OpenGL and OpenGL ES respectively.Īvailability on multiple modern operating systems in contrast to Direct3D 12 like OpenGL, the Vulkan API is not locked to a single OS or device form factor. The overall concept and feature set of Vulkan is similar to Mantle later adopted by Microsoft with Direct3D 12 and Apple with Metal. Vulkan offers lower overhead, more direct control over the GPU, and lower CPU usage.
Vulkan is intended to provide a variety of advantages over other APIs as well as its predecessor, OpenGL. In both cases, the GPU executes shaders, while the CPU executes everything else. OpenGL and Vulkan are both rendering APIs. Vulkan is not backwards compatible with OpenGL. Vulkan is derived from and built upon components of AMD's Mantle API, which was donated by AMD to Khronos with the intent of giving Khronos a foundation on which to begin developing a low-level API that they could standardize across the industry. The Vulkan API was initially referred to as the "next generation OpenGL initiative", or "OpenGL next" by Khronos, but use of those names was discontinued when Vulkan was announced. Vulkan was first announced by the non-profit Khronos Group at GDC 2015. In addition to its lower CPU usage, Vulkan is designed to allow developers to better distribute work among multiple CPU cores. Compared to OpenGL, Direct3D 11 and Metal, Vulkan is intended to offer higher performance and more balanced CPU and GPU usage and provides a considerably lower-level API and parallel tasking for the application. Vulkan targets high-performance real-time 3D graphics applications, such as video games and interactive media. Vulkan is a low- overhead, cross-platform API, open standard for 3D graphics and computing. com /KhronosGroup /Vulkan-HeadersĪndroid, Linux, Fuchsia, BSD Unix, QNX, Windows, Nintendo Switch, Stadia, Tizen, macOS, IOS, Raspberry Pi