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by pjmlp 3792 days ago
More Vulkan slides how everything is going to be great without real content[0], whereas Metal and DX 12 are already here.

Not only as drivers, but also documents, books, tools and graphical debuggers.

I hope this doesn't turn out into another Longs Peak.

[0] Yes, I know it is Mantle inspired and I have those PDFs.

2 comments

Proprietary APIs can't be a replacement to an open industry standard.
In practice, the word "open" in "Open Standards", such as OpenGL or Vulkan, doesn't mean very much. For example, being able to vote, participate in the specs' working group, or access the conformance tests costs a considerable amount of money[1].

APIs such as DirectX or Metal receive just as much or more input from developers, albeit mostly through back channels or explicit reach out by Microsoft, Apple, etc.

[1] https://www.khronos.org/members/join/

The conformance tests are open source and will be available from day 1 ;)

As far as participating in the design of the standard, are you really saying you'd want everyone and their mother to have their word? I think it's best to leave this to GPU vendors and engine implementers, as they're the ones who know how it can work.

Well OpenGL regardless of urban myths has been mostly ignored by the games industry, except on iOS, Android and indies before the rise of middleware due to lack of proper tooling.

So lets see how Vulkan will improve it.

I'm pretty sure that DirectX is a living, breathing counterexample to that claim.
I'm pretty sure you missed the point...
And how exactly can you use it on Linux or any other non MS system? It's an example of the disgusting practice of using development tools for lock-in.
Or it can be a very nice object based API instead of a state based API that made sense in 1992 as the slide deck said and certainly didn't make any sense in 2008 when the industry group Khronos sided with the commercial CAD industry to screw over Linux consumer gaming because there was no money in it. How was that DirectX's fault again?

I am guess you're not a game developer and your post is yet another case of [1].

I am a game dev and here are some links that show to non game devs why DirectX is more popular:

http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/60544/why-do-...

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2711231

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/opengl-directx,2019.html

[1] http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2009/07/linus-...

> Or it can be a very nice object based API instead of a state based API

That's exactly what Vulkan is. So where is MS voicing their support?

> I am a game dev

So did you ask MS why they didn't join Vulkan working group?

And I'm not sure what was your point in those links about OpenGL. We are talking about Vulkan.

Perhaps because design by a committee of peers usually results in a fragmentation and compatibility nightmare like this:

Edit: The below blog redirects HN referrers to a funny image macro, copy paste the link instead.

https://www.jwz.org/blog/2012/06/i-have-ported-xscreensaver-...

The delayed spec hasn't even been released yet and Nvidia is already making Vulkan extensions on its own.

https://developer.nvidia.com/engaging-voyage-vulkan

> whereas Metal and DX 12 are already here.

They can't be compared, because they are limited to MS and Apple.

Just like LibGCM is limited to Sony and GX is limited to Nintendo.
Yes, so what does it mean? As I said above, Vulkan is the only non lock-in option.
You keep on attacking MS alone as if they weren't actually following what are game industry practices.
Not MS alone, but anyone who uses lock-in. And why should such despicable behavior be respected, because it's an "industry practice"? It is not. It's just common because various major companies in the industry are indeed jerks.