Faalhaas, I guess my confusion stems from the first post mentioning Vulkan mentioning it in a Quake engine context:

Quoting: GuestQuake engine has linux support so no biggie. oh, if they use VKquake they can take advantage of vulkan.

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Now I am really confused, wasn't the talk about Vulkan about the Quake engine project? But then Ion Maiden's system requirements were bought in to the discussion?

Ion Maiden uses EDuke32 [External Link] and with it the Polymost OpenGL renderer. Originally created by Ken Silverman, the Build engine's creator.

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"What you're arguing for, that a license can be enforceably terminated for modifying a personal instance of a GPL software,"

It has been a while since I read GPLv2, but the GPLv3 explicitly allows this.

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For reference the text of the GPLv3 can be found here: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.en.html [External Link]

The text of the GPLv2(Which is the version Busybox uses) can be found here: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.txt [External Link]

Neither of them prohibit commercial use and that is on purpose since doing so would violate the Free Software Definition [External Link](and incidentally the open source definition [External Link], the annotated version of which is available here [External Link].

What these GPL lawsuits and settlements are typically about is copyleft [External Link] nature of the GPL. In other words the GPL prohibits people from taking the source code of a GPL work, creating a new product out of it, distributing the new product and then withholding the source code of it or releasing it under more restrictive terms.

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Quoting: CyrilIt will be available on GOG like their two other games?
I don't know about these games, but reading you about it... I think I'll buy the first one (or Frontiers) to see.
Their ratings are high.

Yes, it was just released on GOG. But sadly, seemingly without Linux support.

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Am I crazy in thinking that if you wanted to refer to the number of cores you would use the word "cores, if you wanted to refer to the numbers of threads you would use the word" threads" and if you wanted to refer to the number of cpus, you would use the word "cpus".

To me a CPU is a physical thing I can hold in my hands. Using the word CPU to refer to both that and number of threads total seems confusing to me. How can you, using that terminology, distinguish between a situation with multiple separate physical units, and one multicore unit?

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" I don't know if I'm just lucky but there haven't been a freeze for days."

Imagine reading that in a review: "It went without freezes for days, 5/5 stars".

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Quoting: tuubi

Quoting: KristianThe reason I suspect such a hypothetical situation might be useful is because DirectX has a lot of mindshare, tools, tutorials, books etc and most of all games that actually use it. Have many games ship with DirectX support vs support for open API's?

Direct3D 12 is a completely new graphics API and it isn't that much more established in the industry than Vulkan. As far as I know, only a couple dozen games have released on Windows with D3D12 support thus far, and none of them are D3D12 exclusive.

Quoting: KristianBy the way is Vulkan seeing any widespread adoption by Switch developers? AFAIK Nintendo only offers Vulkan as an alternative to their own API's. If Vulkan was the only option for a major console that would also help alot.

I don't think it matters. As long as a cross-platform API is properly supported, it doesn't need to be the only option. Nintendo wouldn't be a likely candidate to do something like this anyway.

I am just thinking that if Vulkan was the only option on the Switch then more games would have a Vulkan backend and the less work would be needed for a Linux port. If the Switch version of a game uses Vulkan than you have to support it for that anyway. But if the Switch version uses some proprietary Nintendo API, then that would not help porting efforts to Linux. The same goes for Mac and the PS4. There is no official Vulkan support on Mac and AFAIK none at all for the PS4. Never mind Vulkan being obligatory on those platforms.

"Direct3D 12 is a completely new graphics API and it isn't that much more established in the industry than Vulkan."

That is good. Hopefully this time around, the open API can gain the edge over the proprietary one.

I really wish some antitrust authorities or something like that could pressure Microsoft(Windows(DirectX)), Apple(Mac OS/iOS(Metal)) and maybe even the console manufacturers to give up on their proprietary API's. But it is not looking likely.

"As long as a cross-platform API is properly supported, it doesn't need to be the only option."

Didn't the PS3 also offer some form of OpenGL(PSGL?)? But as far as I know hardly anyone used it. It seems that so long as consoles offer proprietary API's that is what developers are going to use.

Edit:

Does anybody here know of actual Switch titles that use Vulkan on the Switch?

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"I still don't see the point. What would DX12 bring to the table that Vulkan doesn't offer? Many companies have invested a lot in Vulkan support and know-how already. Why would they want to switch to another API now, equivalent or not?"

I am not sure it would be useful at all. But in the (unlikely) event my hypothetical came true, it would show a change in attitude on the part of Microsoft, right?

The reason I suspect such a hypothetical situation might be useful is because DirectX has a lot of mindshare, tools, tutorials, books etc and most of all games that actually use it. Have many games ship with DirectX support vs support for open API's?

Hopefully that will change with Vulkan. If open API's are used more and more on the Windows side of things then that will help Linux gaming.

By the way is Vulkan seeing any widespread adoption by Switch developers? AFAIK Nintendo only offers Vulkan as an alternative to their own API's. If Vulkan was the only option for a major console that would also help alot.

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"even if Microsoft hypothetically released an open DX12 spec, (deliberately) breaking their own "standards" and making competitors scramble for compatibility with their own implementations would be par for the course."

Them not doing this, or anything like it, was intended as part of my hypothetical.

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