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Considering AMD are in the middle of producing a brand new driver for Linux, it's not surprising they don't have Vulkan ready for Linux right from day one. Still, a shame for anyone on AMD hoping to test things out.

QuoteAMD has been participating in Vulkan’s development since its inception and providing builds of our Vulkan-enabled driver to game developers for many months. As we transition into the public phase, our initial driver release enables Vulkan support for select Radeon™ GPUs on Windows® 7, Windows® 8.1, and Windows® 10. An upcoming release of the amdgpu Linux driver will also feature Vulkan support.


Their Windows driver with Vulkan doesn't even support DirectX right now, so it doesn't seem like AMD are all that prepared on any platform, weirdly.

Here's a little interesting bit taken from it for you:
QuoteFinally, Vulkan has formal support for API extensions. API extensions allow AMD to design new hardware capabilities into future Radeon™ GPUs, then immediately expose those capabilities with a software plugin that interfaces with Vulkan in a compliant way.

I really do hope this doesn't turn into OpenGL all over again with such extensions, but only time will tell.

You can see the AMD Radeon article on Vulkan here. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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STiAT Feb 17, 2016
Quoting: PeciskCan you AMD supporters cut the drama for once? When AMD gets criticized objectively for having performance issues, it's Nvidia who's guilty (and sometime it is, but not for everything). Now AMD is bad because they take their time with getting their own turf in order.

It's tiresome.

I see it the same way, it's not as if we had a dozen of games available making direct use of Vulkan yet. Actually, we don't even have one yet, and will have one in the next few days.

Developers won't care too much, since Linux won't be their focus platform right now when they're developing games, so it will very likely be okay if AMD releases later.

And it's certainly not as if we'll see a HUGE performance boost right away anyway. My guess is, that there will be a lot of optimization in the engines and drivers over the coming year, as it has been with DirectX12 where certain driver releases pushed performance of some games for up to almost 50 %.


Last edited by STiAT on 17 February 2016 at 10:43 am UTC
Pecisk Feb 17, 2016
Quoting: STiAT
QuoteI really do hope this doesn't turn into OpenGL all over again with such extensions, but only time will tell.

Oh, that we'll certainly see. The same as the windows drivers offer features not being in DirectX (in example the NVidia HarWorks). That are selling points for the hardware vendors, patented things to get into games, make games look better on their hardware and getting their logo into the loading screens.

Nvidia HairWorks aren't drivers, but shader libraries which offer developers not to write their own libraries for drawing fur/hair (in this case). They are optimized and generate code which works perfectly with Nvidia drivers...big surprise.

AMD did a write thing starting their own libraries and open sourcing them (they are now compatible with DirectX, but I expect OpenGL/Vulkan variants to land sooner or later). In long term I see more usefulness from such software, as being open source encourages developers to share and improve such relatively generic techniques used by everyone. Nvidia however have complete devs attention at this moment, and when devs want to cut corners, obviously Nvidia deals are very tempting. AMD have lot of homework to do before fortune turns to their side.


Last edited by Pecisk on 17 February 2016 at 10:50 am UTC
Cyba.Cowboy Feb 17, 2016
And this is why when I buy the wife and I new laptops in a couple of months, I will go out of my way to get something with an NVIDIA graphics card... It's a little more expensive (okay, a lot more expensive...), but thus far AMD's support of Linux graphics cards has been appalling (all of the laptops we've had over the last fifteen years or so have had AMD graphics cards), and the fact that they can't get their s#&t in one sock to be ready for the Vulkan launch is just ridiculous!

NVIDIA's (official) drivers may be proprietary - but at least they're putting effort into making the Linux experience a better one!

I um-ed and ah-ed about going AMD again because it's so much cheaper and we're on a pretty tight budget... But we've given AMD a second chance, and a third, forth, fifth and sixth - it's time to look to a company that actually appreciates Linux-based operating systems.
Sabun Feb 17, 2016
Quoting: PeciskCan you AMD supporters cut the drama for once? When AMD gets criticized objectively for having performance issues, it's Nvidia who's guilty (and sometime it is, but not for everything). Now AMD is bad because they take their time with getting their own turf in order.

It's tiresome.

I think you've got the wrong idea about my post. My sole issue right now is with AMD, not with Nvidia. With AMD not being here right now, despite saying they would have a day-one proprietary driver for Linux yet not delivering showcases they have not put any plans into motion with a proper deadline.

We now have only Nvidia and Intel with Vulkan drivers for Linux. Guess what that means? Developers targeting our platforms will only test on those hardware. This time AMD itself is the one that has put itself outside of developers reach without a doubt. Several months down the line, everyone will be prepped for support for Nvidia and Intel on Linux, but not AMD. Time matters here.

This excuse about always giving AMD time is one that I've heard for the past eight years. No more.
mao_dze_dun Feb 18, 2016
It truly is shameful that AMD's code is in the heart of Vulkan but, as expected, they're not ready with the driver.
Shmerl Feb 18, 2016
Here it's estimated as "a number of weeks". No idea what that calculation is based on though.


Last edited by Shmerl on 18 February 2016 at 10:57 pm UTC
bridgman Mar 20, 2016
Quoting: SabunI think you've got the wrong idea about my post. My sole issue right now is with AMD, not with Nvidia. With AMD not being here right now, despite saying they would have a day-one proprietary driver for Linux yet not delivering showcases they have not put any plans into motion with a proper deadline.

Hi Sabun,

Just curious, when/where did we say that we would have a day-one proprietary driver with Linux ?

Thanks,
John
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