[revelation]

This is a bit of a rambling mess, but to just make one point: the winner has been chosen. Android is implementing Vulkan, and so Vulkan it will be.

[dleslie]

It will be Vulcan and Dx12. Microsoft is nothing if not a stubborn 800 lbs gorilla.

[pjmlp]

Just like Apple, Sony and Nintendo.

[revelation]

Eh, not for WebGL it won't. Nobody even implements DX other than high-powered desktop GPUs.

Will it live on? Sure, we will still have games and Xboxes. But if you're going to pick a standard that can work on mobile and desktop, there is no contender other than Vulkan.

[floatboth]

> Nobody even implements DX other than high-powered desktop GPUs

err, Intel iGPU, available in something as tiny/low-power as a LattePanda board… and all the Windows tablets…

[pjmlp]

1. Vulkan is an optinal 3D API on Android 7.0 and later devices.

2. Vulkan is not allowed on UWP apps

3. Even on Switch, Vulkan is not the primary 3D API.

[vetinari]

1. It is mandatory if the device claims to support VR mode;

2. Nobody (in Joel's on Software sense) is writing high performance 3D UWP apps anyway.

[pjmlp]

1. Basically Google and Samsung

2. UWP requirements apply to any Windows store game and Microsoft already started to be more bully about it

3. There is hardly any Vulkan game worth playing that isn't DirectX 12 as well.

[vetinari]

1. So basically the biggest Android vendor?

2. Both of them... If you are gamer, you are going to Steam (and Valve is not a friend of the Windows store idea). I'm not happy with this situation either, as I prefer GoG, and GoG is a distant second.

3. Doom, Wolfenstein II, F1 2017, The Talos Principle from the other side of genre spectrum or the upcoming Star Citizen. Vice versa is more true, there's no DX12 game worth playing, that's not also Vulkan game.

[sitkack]

WebGL can cover 87.3% of game revenue.

[dleslie]

AAA titles won't favour WebGL until the platform can compete with native, hand-tuned C++.

[sitkack]

AAA will eventually be a sliver of total gaming revenue.

[orbitur]

If Vulkan is the future, I wonder how mobile devs will make money if they can't target iOS.

[pjmlp]

It is a non issue thanks middleware.