Vulkan
Sign in to saveAlso known as glNext, Vulkan API, OpenGL Next
Vulkan is a cross-platform API and open standard for 3D graphics and computing. It was intended to address the shortcomings of OpenGL, and allow developers more control over the GPU. It is designed to support a wide variety of GPUs, CPUs and operating systems, and modern multi-core CPUs also.
Key facts
- Software.name
- Vulkan
- Software.logo
- Vulkan logo.svg
- Software.author
- AMD, DICE (original Mantle design)
- Software.developer
- (donated and derived variant, as Vulkan)
- Software.programming language
- (also available C++ API)
- Software.operating system
- Android, Linux, BSD Unix, Windows, Nintendo Switch, Fuchsia, Raspberry Pi, vxWorks, QNX, HarmonyOS, OpenHarmony, Oniro, Haiku, Stadia, TizenThrough portability workarounds: macOS, iOS, Aurora OS
- Software.genre
- 3D graphics and compute API
via Wikipedia infobox
~19 min read
Encyclopedic overview
36 sectionsContents
- Overview
- Features
- Cross-platform
- Lower CPU usage
- Multi-threading friendly design
- Pre-compiled shaders
- Others
- OpenGL versus Vulkan
- Versions
- Vulkan 1.0
- Vulkan 1.1
- Vulkan 1.2
- Vulkan 1.3
- Vulkan 1.4
- Planned features
- History
- 2015
- 2016
- 2018
- 2019
- 2020
- 2022
- 2024
- {{Anchor|Hardware}}Support across vendors
- Intel
- AMD
- NVIDIA
- Android and mobile GPUs
- Apple
- Huawei, OpenAtom Foundation and Eclipse Foundation
- Backwards compatibility
- See also
- Notes
- References
- Further reading
- External links
Vulkan is a cross-platform API and open standard for 3D graphics and computing. It was intended to address the shortcomings of OpenGL, and allow developers more control over the GPU. It is designed to support a wide variety of GPUs, CPUs and operating systems, and modern multi-core CPUs also.
Microsoft supports Vulkan 1.2 (and higher) on Windows 10 and 11, with a downloadable compatibility pack.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Vulkan” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.