Valve recommends developers choose Vulkan over DirectX 12

[HEXUS]

And Nintendo joins the Vulkan API creator Khronos Group.

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[maxp779]

100% agree with them open standards that work across multiple platforms are the way forward IMO.

[crossy]

Pardon my ignorance, but aren't these kind of low-level API's only really of interest to folks either doing action games on mobile, or those developing game frameworks? I remember being told some time ago that all the "proper" games development these days uses one of the many game engines, Source; Frostbyte; etc.

Second thing, while I applaud the idea of open standards for this kind of thing (mainly because I'm assuming it'll make decent porting a lot easier), anything Apple-y seems to be missing from that support list. Now is that because they just haven't got around to it (yet), or is Apple playing their "my way or the highway" gambit again.

[Brian224]

...I remember being told some time ago that all the "proper" games development these days uses one of the many game engines, Source; Frostbyte; etc...

Would the choice of game engine for a project be affected though, with for example UE4 currently supporting DX11/12 rendering?

[edzieba]

On the downside, DX12 has the backing of Microsoft and their wallet to assist with development and support. Vulcan does not.

[snaynay]

Pardon my ignorance, but aren't these kind of low-level API's only really of interest to folks either doing action games on mobile, or those developing game frameworks? I remember being told some time ago that all the "proper" games development these days uses one of the many game engines, Source; Frostbyte; etc.

Second thing, while I applaud the idea of open standards for this kind of thing (mainly because I'm assuming it'll make decent porting a lot easier), anything Apple-y seems to be missing from that support list. Now is that because they just haven't got around to it (yet), or is Apple playing their "my way or the highway" gambit again.

Many games are made from scratch, especially in the indie scene. Instead of "engines" they grab together a bunch of specific libraries for various parts and build it themselves. Vulkan would be one of those libraries.

Likewise, game engines also use these graphics libraries. So you want UE4 to be Vulkan forward, rather than DX12 forward, for example. But that is up to the engnine maintainers.

[snaynay]

Vulkan has the monetary backing of a lot of companies, including Microsoft.

[MattEvansC3]

Nice to see that they forget to mention that DirectX12 is also multi-vendor

[outwar6010]

I've always hated that each new version of dx has required an os upgrade

[sertin12]

Pardon my ignorance, but aren't these kind of low-level API's only really of interest to folks either doing action games on mobile, or those developing game frameworks? I remember being told some time ago that all the "proper" games development these days uses one of the many game engines, Source; Frostbyte; etc.

Game engines use a graphics API like Direct X 12 as their way to access the GPU to render things. They aren't a graphics API they are a render engine and they need a graphics API to actually do anything.

[directhex]

Second thing, while I applaud the idea of open standards for this kind of thing (mainly because I'm assuming it'll make decent porting a lot easier), anything Apple-y seems to be missing from that support list. Now is that because they just haven't got around to it (yet), or is Apple playing their "my way or the highway" gambit again.

Apple's new look-at-me-I'm-Mantle-too is called Metal.

[sirhobbes3]

Good to see Valve and Nintendo backing this as well as AMD. nVidia apparently is already actively developing for Vulkan too. I hope more open source stuff takes off, I'm tired of all the proprietary stuff floating around. It's ridiculous to rely on one company (ie: Microsoft for DX development) for something we depend on.

[jerequois]

anything Apple-y seems to be missing from that support list. Now is that because they just haven't got around to it (yet), or is Apple playing their "my way or the highway" gambit again.

Apple use ARM, x86, Nvidia and AMD - all of which are listed on the support list.

[MercutioUK]

Why would valve have interest in which gaming API is open source? It's not like they have an alternative platform to wi.... wait.

[DanceswithUnix]

On the downside, DX12 has the backing of Microsoft and their wallet to assist with development and support. Vulcan does not.

I wouldn't say Microsoft support is a plus. From what I have seen they aren't awful, but if you have experienced the awesome support on an IBM big iron box you realise just how meh getting MSDN is in comparison.

Nice to see that they forget to mention that DirectX12 is also multi-vendor

I make it a choice of AMD, Intel and Nvidia. Triple vendor isn't that impressive compared to, basically, everyone.

[DanceswithUnix]

Apple's new look-at-me-I'm-Mantle-too is called Metal.

Does Metal work on Intel based laptops or is it just on phones and tablets?

If the laptops don't support Metal, then that would make it more likely that we would see Apple picking up Vulkan.