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by andreyf 3422 days ago
Why so combative? How is a JavaScript API standard going to benefit from Vulkan support on Apple platforms? More specifically, how will a JS API benefit from being built exclusively for Vulkan, instead of multiple "APIs that have nuanced architectural differences", to borrow Dean's phrase?
2 comments
modeless 3422 days ago
To the extent that Vulkan has capabilities or features that don't map perfectly to Metal capabilities and features, native Apple Vulkan support would increase the performance and capabilities, and reduce the complexity and bugginess, of a hypothetical WebVulkan implementation on Apple platforms. And by reducing the compromises that have to be made for platform compatibility it would benefit the API design on all platforms.
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shmerl 3422 days ago
You can simplify the design and reduce bloat if you don't need to address multiple APIs as backend.
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corysama 3422 days ago
To play devil's advocate: Isn't a big focus of web tech the goal of supporting multiple backends for everything? If a new platform wants to support WebGPU but not Vulkan (ex: XBone or PS4) it should be not just theoretically possible, but actively supported by the design of the Web spec.
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ioquatix 3422 days ago
Good point.

But, that's assuming that it's not possible to write a wrapper on top of DX (for Xbone) that proves a Vulkan API. It's already been shown to be possible to do something similar, with MoltenVK.

The ball would be in Microsoft's court for this one.

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corysama 3422 days ago
"it should be not just theoretically possible, but actively supported by the design of the Web spec."
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douche 3422 days ago
> But, that's assuming that it's not possible to write a wrapper on top of DX (for Xbone) that proves a Vulkan API.

Is this not how Vulkan on Windows works? Given how many OpenGL drivers were just shims over DirectX in the past, I wouldnt be surprised if the same course was charted there.

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shmerl 3422 days ago
No, it's pointless to do that. Why all the extra overhead? Vulkan talks directly to the hardware driver.
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shmerl 3422 days ago
Could be, but PS and Xbox don't support Vulkan for the same bad reasons (lock-in), so messing up the spec because of that doesn't sound convincing.
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