Support us on Patreon to keep GamingOnLinux alive. This ensures all of our main content remains free for everyone. Just good, fresh content! Alternatively, you can donate through PayPal. You can also buy games using our partner links for GOG and Humble Store.
We do often include affiliate links to earn us some pennies. See more here.

Another SIGGRAPH 2015 Video Talks About Vulkan & OpenGL, Valve Talk Source 2

By - | Views: 13,813
Another video has surfaced from SIGGRAPH 2015, I somehow missed that it was posted last week, but the Valve section in particular is mighty interesting.

YouTube Thumbnail
YouTube videos require cookies, you must accept their cookies to view. View cookie preferences.
Accept Cookies & Show   Direct Link

What I didn't know, is that the initial meeting to ever properly discuss Vulkan was actually at Valve's offices. I knew they were in early discussions, but I didn't realise they were so invested in it that early on that they held the meetings. If you look at the timeline around the 59 minute mark, their progress has been amazing. Their progress has only been as fast as it has been thanks to AMD though, as they donated Mantle to the effort.

They believe they are on target to deliver the final specification by the end of 2015, so let's hope they are able to stick to it.

Valve has already shipped a version of Source 2 with Vulkan to AMD, Intel and Nvidia and Dan Ginsburg from Valve states:
QuoteOne thing that is very exciting, is that they all have it running on their drivers.

Skip to 1:40:00 for the Valve section.

It's really good to see them speak so highly of it, and steer people away from a closed API:
QuoteWe think Vulkan is the future. Unless you're aggressive enough to be shipping a DirectX 12 game this year, I would argue that there's really not much reason to ever create a DirectX 12 back-end for your game. The reason for that, is that Vulkan will cover you on Windows 10 on the same class of hardware, and so much more from these other platforms.


I already posted that Dota 2 will be the first game to use Vulkan from Valve.

LunarG also confirmed again that the cross-platform SDK tools will be open source, they are under NDA right now though. He said the repository for it will go open the day the specification formally goes out. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Editorial, Video
0 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.
18 comments
Page: 1/2»
  Go to:

jsa1983 Sep 24, 2015
Exciting times are ahead of us... Looking forward to playing Vulkan games natively on Linux.
Pecisk Sep 24, 2015
Valve, stop with this positivism. You can't be real. Internet says so.

Seriously though, it is nice to hear such optimism from Valve. I have never seen them rushing out to drink their own kool aid so testing of drivers must be quite promising.
drmoth Sep 24, 2015
This all so amazing I think I'm in shock!
Mountain Man Sep 24, 2015
The problem with their "no reason to ship a DX12 game" argument is that Microsoft has invested tremendous resources in DX12 (and DirectX in general) and won't let it go without a fight, and many programmers are already familiar with DirectX while they would have to learn Vulkan from scratch.

They can learn Vulkan, and building crossplatform just makes sense in today's market, but it's the Microsoft angle that's going to be the hardest to overcome.


Last edited by Mountain Man on 24 September 2015 at 1:59 pm UTC
sub Sep 24, 2015
Quoting: Mountain Man... won't let it go without a fight, and many programmers are already familiar with DirectX while they would have to learn Vulkan from scratch.

Right, since Direct3D 12 shares so much with previous Direct3D versions...
Mountain Man Sep 24, 2015
Quoting: sub
Quoting: Mountain Man... won't let it go without a fight, and many programmers are already familiar with DirectX while they would have to learn Vulkan from scratch.
Right, since Direct3D 12 shares so much with previous Direct3D versions...
It shares enough in common that they're just building on existing knowledge instead of having to learn a whole new set of tricks. When you have a publisher breathing down your neck to produce results, are you, as a developer, going to take the steeper or shallower learning curve? That's a very real consideration.
Furious Sep 24, 2015
Just wanted to say that this presentation has been already on the internet few weeks ago. But it was from different angle, like it wasn't the official one. Worth mentioning before someone will waste 2 hrs of their lives again ;) Either way, I don't think we will know anything more untill release. On every further presentation we got the same informations.
GustyGhost Sep 24, 2015
Quoting: Mountain Man
Quoting: sub
Quoting: Mountain Man... won't let it go without a fight, and many programmers are already familiar with DirectX while they would have to learn Vulkan from scratch.
Right, since Direct3D 12 shares so much with previous Direct3D versions...
It shares enough in common that they're just building on existing knowledge instead of having to learn a whole new set of tricks. When you have a publisher breathing down your neck to produce results, are you, as a developer, going to take the steeper or shallower learning curve? That's a very real consideration.

I can't help but imagine that unless a publisher is using their own in-house game engine, Vulcan should eventually be available through all of the major engines.
natewardawg Sep 24, 2015
Quoting: Mountain ManWhen you have a publisher breathing down your neck to produce results, are you, as a developer, going to take the steeper or shallower learning curve? That's a very real consideration.

This can go the opposite way as well. If there will be a same day release for any additional platform other than Windows/Xbox and Vulkan performs on par with DX12 then why waste a lick of time on DX12 since you're going to have to write a Vulkan implementation anyway within the same time frame.

But, how many companies (especially AAA) write their own engines? Very few. So, probably any AAA company who's making a multi-platform game, even considering which API they will implement will be a rare and/or short discussion.
Liam Dawe Sep 24, 2015
Quoting: FuriousJust wanted to say that this presentation has been already on the internet few weeks ago. But it was from different angle, like it wasn't the official one. Worth mentioning before someone will waste 2 hrs of their lives again ;) Either way, I don't think we will know anything more untill release. On every further presentation we got the same informations.

It was not something I saw before, and we didn't cover it on GOL, so it's news to me.
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.