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For those interested, Khronos Group has today announced the release of the Vulkan [Official Site] API version 1.1 and NVIDIA already have a beta driver ready.

Beaverton, OR – March 7, 2018 – The Khronos™ Group, an open consortium of leading hardware and software companies creating advanced acceleration standards, announces the release of the Vulkan® 1.1 and SPIR-V™ 1.3 specifications. Version 1.1 expands Vulkan’s core functionality with developer-requested features, such as subgroup operations, while integrating a wide range of proven extensions from Vulkan 1.0. Khronos will also release full Vulkan 1.1 conformance tests into open source and AMD, Arm, Imagination, Intel Corporation, NVIDIA and Qualcomm have implemented conformant Vulkan 1.1 drivers. Find more information on the Vulkan 1.1 specification and associated tests and tools at Khronos’s Vulkan Resource Page.

Find the official Khronos Group announcement here. You can also see the specification documents here. There will also be plenty of activity at this year's GDC (Game Developers Conferenc) with the Khronos Developer Day Sessions. You can see the full GDC schedule here.

On top of that, they've also got a presentation you can flick through here (~7MB), where you can find slides to explain things a little more like these:

Also, for those interested in testing out any of the new stuff, NVIDIA has their 387.42.05 beta driver out for Linux which includes full Vulkan 1.1 support available here.

On top of that, AMD have also put out their "Radeon™ Software for Linux® Driver 17.50" which includes Vulkan 1.1 support, find that here.

Right now, it doesn't mean all that much for Linux gamers until games and applications start making use of any of the new stuff. We're just reporting on it to keep you up to date.

Post updated to include more info after publishing. We may update it again, be sure to check back!

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Vulkan
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TheRiddick Mar 7, 2018
DRM has its place. The only time when it becomes a problem is when publishers use multiple layers and virtualisation methods to do it that kill game performance. I think Ubisoft and MS have done this in the past, it doesn't pay off but they still try as they might, silly corporate CEO's and shareholders...


Last edited by TheRiddick on 8 March 2018 at 5:12 am UTC
Shmerl Mar 8, 2018
Quoting: GuestThere may be legitimate security and privacy requirements for some applications.

The difference between DRM and security can be subtle at the first glance, but it's essential. DRM aims to take away control from the user, so in essence it's a user hostile feature. Security aims to protect the user, and should be controlled by the user (completely opposite idea from DRM).

Not sure how it translates here into Vulkan usage, but it would depend on the way it's used. If it will be used to create inaccessible data for users in their own system (HDCP like lunacy) - that would be evil. If user will have control over it - it won't.


Last edited by Shmerl on 8 March 2018 at 6:12 am UTC
Purple Library Guy Mar 8, 2018
DRM is bad. That said, it may not be a bad thing if Vulkan has it. The tactical issue (it may seriously harm developer uptake if Vulkan doesn't have a feature that corporations insist on) may outweigh the basic one (DRM is bad).

I mean, the way I see it goes something like this: Vulkan uptake --> Easy cross-platform development of games and other graphics-heavy things --> Fewer barriers to Linux use --> (contributes to) Eventual Linux World Domination --> Dominance of open source platform leads to greater user power and probably less DRM overall. So if Vulkan having DRM-related features is a price for its success, strategically it's probably worth it. But DRM is still fundamentally bad and I'm really not interested in contorting myself into a nuanced stance about that; any and all cases in which DRM seems like a necessary or good thing are due to broader bad things about the world we live in and how it's run. Those things should be changed.
TheRiddick Mar 8, 2018
Software DRM still minimises potential software sale loses and is kinda needed if you have a popular multiplayer component because just look at what has happened to PUBG. Brought to its knees due to cheaters/hackers and if they couldn't sell those keys to those cheaters and they could just copy/paste the game indefinitely due to no DRM.... the developer would go under.

This extreme anti-drm movement is a bit silly IMO. There is a reason to have certain levels of DRM, its just when it goes too far is the problem!
Purple Library Guy Mar 8, 2018
Quoting: TheRiddickSoftware DRM still minimises potential software sale loses and is kinda needed if you have a popular multiplayer component because just look at what has happened to PUBG. Brought to its knees due to cheaters/hackers and if they couldn't sell those keys to those cheaters and they could just copy/paste the game indefinitely due to no DRM.... the developer would go under.

This extreme anti-drm movement is a bit silly IMO. There is a reason to have certain levels of DRM, its just when it goes too far is the problem!

The thing is that ultimately, the "market" model doesn't work well for software (including games) and actually, these days, most informational-based things. The idea of the market is ultimately based on barter, trading one thing for another thing of vaguely equal value, ideally in such a way that both sides (having more use for what they're gaining than what they're trading away) in effect gain. Money is an intermediary that lets you more easily substitute different things by representing the value of the things abstractly--so if you sell a thing, you get money, and then you can use it to get any arbitrary other thing you want rather than just making a limited immediate trade. But it's still about a thing for a thing, giving up one thing to get another thing.

But information in the modern world is infinitely reproducible for almost zero effort. The barter model of one thing for another thing is based on me giving you a thing which I then no longer have. It is utterly inefficient for maximizing utility in the distribution of stuff that can be freely replicated. We need to find a new model for compensating creators. Our insistence on sticking to the barter model anyway leads to all the problems we're having with copyright laws, DRM, patents and so on. Unfortunately, a better model for compensating creators would probably eliminate the business model of a lot of very large, profitable corporations, so they will go to a lot of lengths to make sure it doesn't happen. This is the kind of thing I meant by DRM only looking useful due to broader bad things about the world.

(One possible example of an alternate model--the government creates a big pool of money, and sets up a sort of public Kickstart/Patreon thing. Every citizen controls an equal share and can give their piece to whatever artists or projects they want. The stuff that gets funded is freely available to all once created--so every citizen and maybe the whole world has free access to all the games, all the music, all the books written in the country. DRM becomes instantly pointless. Of course you'd pay higher taxes.)
stretch611 Mar 8, 2018
As mentioned, DRM restricts the User's rights. Period. It does not care if the person is doing something legal or not.

While you may think it is justified for them to prevent other applications from accessing a movie being rendered on the screen to avoid copying... that same DRM will prevent a critic from taking legitimate screenshots as part of a review.

There is also the possibility that a company may prevent streaming for no reason other than to keep people in the dark to how much a game sucks. How can you tell if the limited videos of game play they show you look like fun, when 99% of what you do is constant grinding? Think that is too extreme and won't happen, think again... its similar to when the movie industry won't allow any reviews of a crappy movie before it gets released... "but the trailer looked good... who knew everything else sucked."

Major pirates always have broken DRM... Always. DRM is used to screw a company's customers; i.e. you and me.
Eike Mar 8, 2018
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Quoting: Purple Library GuyBut information in the modern world is infinitely reproducible for almost zero effort. The barter model of one thing for another thing is based on me giving you a thing which I then no longer have.

That's still what is happening. Many users are giving money for a game, together (hopefully) compensating for the part of their lifetime the developers invested in making it and no longer have.
Ardje Mar 8, 2018
Quoting: noxHuh, the AMD thing sounds very interesting. They are combining the closed source and open source drivers into one package?
As far as I recall, the vulkan driver part was already intended to be opensource. But it took them a while to get there. So if you only use vulkan, the official AMD drivers should provide an almost full opensource path (maybe not for drm stuff though).
TheRiddick Mar 8, 2018
You can over analysis it as much as you like, at the end of the day its in their rights to secure the copyright of their IP how they see fit. I've never had a major issue with any games or software I bought, and some have serious DRM security (Simplify3D is MAC based!).

I know there are some real bad examples of DRM implementation, but that is on the dev/pub. And often those games suffer in sales due to the extreme drm methods (such as using VM).


Last edited by TheRiddick on 8 March 2018 at 10:27 am UTC
Shmerl Mar 8, 2018
Quoting: TheRiddickSoftware DRM still minimises potential software sale loses

That's the point, it doesn't minimize anything of the sort. It's a hostile feature aimed at those who are paying already, and has zero effect on those who don't.

Quoting: TheRiddickI know there are some real bad examples of DRM implementation

DRM is bad by definition, not by implementation. There are just levels of bad, from evil to very evil ;)


Last edited by Shmerl on 8 March 2018 at 1:55 pm UTC
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