Since its release in 2016, Vulkan has positioned itself as the DirectX killer. It got off to a slow start, but the open-source interface has gained a lot of momentum in the last six years, appearing in games as diverse as red dead redemption 2 and Hollow Knight. However, with the recent release of Vulkan 1.3, we have reached a tipping point.
The latest version unifies Vulkan’s fragmented feature base. The software interface has been capable of doing things like ray tracing on smartphones for years, but the new standard specifies a list of key features that should make game development with Vulan easier and faster.
With promises of better support for unique hardware setups and clear performance improvements, perhaps the time has finally come for PC gamers to ditch DirectX in favor of Vulkan.
What is Vulcan?
Talos Principle was one of the first games to receive Vulkan support.
Vulkan is a cross-platform programming interface (API) from the Khronos Group. In simple terms, it is a computer that works on all three major operating systems (Linux, MacOS, and Windows) that allows games to communicate with the operating system. It is an intermediary that transmits instructions.
PC gamers are probably most familiar with DirectX, Microsoft’s own API that works exclusively with Windows. There are dozens of technical differences between DirectX and Vulkan, but here’s what you need to know: DirectX comes from Microsoft and runs only on Windows, while Vulkan comes from a group of industry executives and runs on multiple operating systems.
And it’s open source. Unlike DirectX, developers can modify and extend Vulkan to suit their needs. In fact, the recent Vulkan 1.3 update was primarily an exercise in adding functionality to the Vulkan core, to which both The Khronos Group and the developers contributed.
This recent update is a milestone for the API as it adds highly requested features to the core specification. For gamers, Khronos Group president Neil Trevett says the benefits are clear: “The result for consumers is that games will be able to ship sooner with more advanced functionality.”
Vulkan is faster than DirectX
The David vs. Goliath battle between a multi-billion dollar closed-end corporation and a non-profit open source consortium is a story for the ages, but there are more tangible reasons to support Vulkan in PC gaming. In one-on-one matches, Vulkan simply outperforms DirectX.
I tested four Vulkan and DirectX compatible games to gauge the differences in performance. Note that many games use one or the other, and some games use both for different things. For example, crysis remastered it uses DirectX as the main rendering engine, but uses Vulkan for ray tracing (see full list of Vulkan games).
Starting with the latest DirectX 12, Vulkan managed to outperform it red dead redemption 2 and strange Brigade, and 1080p and 4K. They are not small differences. IN a strange brigade at 1080p, simply switching to Vulkan resulted in a 9% increase in my average frame rate.
Note that the API was only thing that changed between runs, and a strange brigade and red dead redemption 2 both have in-game landmarks. There’s no cost to enable Vulkan either – it’s a free performance that you’re leaving on the table if you’re using DirectX.
Go back to DirectX 11 and the differences are even clearer. rainbow six siege and World War Z they have Vulkan and DirectX 11 available, and Vulkan is even faster at 4K and 1080p.
Made a big difference at 1080p World War Z, increasing my average frames per second by almost 21%. Vulkan handles multi-core CPU workloads much better than previous versions of DirectX (DirectX 12 is better in this regard) and that can make a world of difference when running at lower resolutions.
Those four games are not a complete representation of the games people play. But they are enough to move about what could be in a large number of DirectX exclusive titles. The good news for PC gamers is that Vulkan is getting better and better and that has nothing to do with performance.
Support for multiple platforms, Steam Deck and cloud gaming
Performance is the main thing, but Vulkan is really important because it has cross-platform support. DirectX only works with Windows. As a developer creating a game using DirectX, you should consider porting your game to other platforms. And other platforms are becoming much more important.
Steam Deck is a sign of the times. Valve recommends that developers use Vulkan as the primary API for Steam Deck because Steam Deck uses Linux. When I brought this up with Trevett, he agreed, but pointed to several larger industry trends driving Vulcan adoption.
“There are many trends in the industry encouraging greater support for Vulkan. Being the primary API on innovative devices like Valve’s Steam Deck is certainly one of them. Enabling game streaming services to host Linux games in the cloud is Layering Vulkan on top of Metal on iOS and MacOS has now been shown to deliver excellent performance, and of course having Vulkan as the preferred API for next-gen titles on Android (the biggest platform in the gaming segment). game market) doesn’t hurt either,” Trevett said.
Trevett also noted that Vulkan is the only modern API that is both cross-platform and open source. There are other operating systems and mobile devices, but Vulkan has applications elsewhere. For example, it works on Google Stadia and is even compatible with Nintendo Switch consoles.
The volcano is probably a big reason why we have Ruin and eternal doom ports on the Switch and here’s why hell it went to PC and Switch before moving to other consoles. With more games coming to more devices than ever before, the advantage of Vulkan is clear: it allows developers to build games for more platforms, and often with performance improvements over closed source APIs.
years in the making
Rainbow Six Extraction is one of the newer games with Vulkan support.
Vulkan was released in 2016, debuting as the only API in the Ruin. It was praised at the time, but the momentum Vulkan has gained since then is a story in itself. Vulkan is the reason we have Linux ports Shadow of the Tomb Raider and hollow Knight, and is a key player in mobile games coming to PC and vice versa.
You need look no further than red dead redemption 2 See Vulcan rise. A great AAA game from one of the richest game developers in the world has chosen Vulkan to have its default PC API instead of DirectX.
However, we are far from Vulkan being the default API in all games. Microsoft, rightly or wrongly, has a monopoly on PC gaming, and DirectX still fits into the workflows of countless developers. Hopefully, with the changes introduced by Vulkan 1.3 and the momentum with devices like the Steam Deck, we’ll see broader support in the future.
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Categories: GAMING
Source: newstars.edu.vn