You can sign up to get a daily email of our articles, see the Mailing List page.
We do often include affiliate links to earn us some pennies. See more here.
The news doing the rounds right now is that the Nintendo Switch, the new gaming device from Nintendo, will use Vulkan. People are getting rather excited and thinking it will mean more Linux ports, but right now it won't.

For one thing, the Switch hasn't even been released yet and it remains to be seen if it's even successful. It seems obvious, but people aren't even thinking about that.

The second most important thing to remember is that this is a brand new API, it's not proven itself just yet and not that many developers are actually using it. It's been out for nearly a year and so far on Linux only two games use Vulkan.

For the record: Using an open API is amazing for the success of the API. I think this is a great thing for it, but I don't want people to be unrealistic about what this means for Linux gaming. I also want to state for clarity I am not being negative here, but trying to help people be realistic for now.

This could push Vulkan forward some more, because it will be in the minds of more developers and hopefully more will end up using it. This is good for the stability of the API too, since more feedback will be sent off for the drivers and so on. For the API itself, it's going to help it. If more games eventually come to Linux and use Vulkan, it may mean we get a more stable experience too. What it doesn't mean is that by using Vulkan more games will come to Linux.

There is far more to a game than a graphics API. Sure, it gives developers a lower barrier for entry, but when has that alone suddenly meant more Linux ports? Not often at all. We are still to this day dealing with tons of developers using Unity that don't want to bring their games to Linux, for example.

You still have to worry about:
- Vulkan itself
Vulkan is more complex than both OpenGL and earlier versions of DirectX, it will take quite some time to learn.

- Development for every other bit of the puzzle
There's still tons of middleware that doesn't support Linux, for example.

- Testing for the above
People like to claim distribution fragmentation isn't an issue, but I see a lot of support requests of games not working on certain distributions for a variety of reasons.

- Post-release fixes
No game is really finished at release

- Marketing (if they actually want to make any money at all)
Just being on Steam doesn't make a game sell any more.

The biggest issue however, is the same as always: publishers and our market share. We still have that small market share to think about, so do the publishers.

To wrap up all of the above: It's good for the API, everything else people claim about it meaning more Linux ports are speculating.

What can we do about it? We continue on as we always have without getting too hyped about things that, right now, don't really concern us directly.

Buy Linux games from legitimate stores (Steam, GOG, itch.io, Humble, directly from developers), as that helps Linux gaming directly. Don't buy games before they are released on Linux (be sure your money counts!), and make sure developers know you want their games on Linux.

Also, make sure developers know to get in touch with us directly, since we have a rather big reach nowadays. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Editorial, Vulkan
9 Likes
About the author -
author picture
I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
See more from me
The comments on this article are closed.
63 comments
Page: «7/7
  Go to:

Geopirate Dec 25, 2016
There are a few important things that are missed here.

First, the mobile market is largest, then the console market, THEN the PC market is smallest. PC here includes Windows/Mac/Linux/BSD/etc. PC gamers are still only ~ 30% of the console market. This is the reason AMD is still relevant even though they get crushed by Nvidia in the PC market.

With this in mind the real battle here is DX12 vs Vulkan. The Xbox uses DX and that's why games are developed with DX12 still, the Windows market is an afterthought. The Linux market is then a footnote. Some companies just make games for the PC market and they have a much smaller userbase so a few hundred Linux users can make a significant difference. This is why these porting companies even exist.

The switch announcement is big because it will push more developers to just write their game for Vulkan once and they can run it on every platform with less effort than what's currently needed for an OpenGL port.

The other thing that's kind of off topic but important is that Vulkan drivers for mobile are way better than anything else available. This is going to push adoption there regardless of anything else, which will likely trickle down. This is also likely why this decision was made for the Switch. It makes much more sense for the Switch to be an overpowered smartphone than it does to be a stripped down PS4. They also announced that this is not going to be a WiiU replacement and they are still continuing that line of products.
Creak Dec 26, 2016
The console market is even larger than you think, which makes Vulkan even less relevant for console game studios.

As a game developer, I've heard that PC gaming represents around 10% of the global gaming market share.
Let's take some examples with vgchartz's figures:

For Far Cry 4:
ps4:     4.04m
ps3:     1.29m
xone:    1.63m
x360:    0.90m
windows: 0.63m

console: 92.6%
pc:       7.4%


For Battlefield 1:
ps4:     4.08m
xone:    2.25m
windows: 0.38m

console: 94.3%
pc:       5.7%


Maybe indie games have different percentiles but they don't represent the global gaming market share.

Edit:
Also Wii U's production will be officially ended soon: http://www.theverge.com/2016/11/10/13583220/nintendo-wii-u-production-end

There are a few flaws in your argumentation :/


Last edited by Creak on 26 December 2016 at 10:52 pm UTC
elmapul Jan 13, 2017
Quoting: Geopirate... They also announced that this is not going to be a WiiU replacement and they are still continuing that line of products.

Nope, they said it will not replace 3Ds but it WILL replace WiiU
While you're here, please consider supporting GamingOnLinux on:

Reward Tiers: Patreon. Plain Donations: PayPal.

This ensures all of our main content remains totally free for everyone! Patreon supporters can also remove all adverts and sponsors! Supporting us helps bring good, fresh content. Without your continued support, we simply could not continue!

You can find even more ways to support us on this dedicated page any time. If you already are, thank you!
The comments on this article are closed.