I have found something that reconstructs the Mantle API: github.com/jmegaffin/magma
Because Vulkan is based upon Mantle, this gives an idea of how Vulkan will work. I am still looking though the header files so I am yet to make up my mind on the api's design.
What is everyone else's opinion of this?
Because Vulkan is based upon Mantle, this gives an idea of how Vulkan will work. I am still looking though the header files so I am yet to make up my mind on the api's design.
What is everyone else's opinion of this?
If you want something vulkan like then D3D12 is a better choice to look at as it has actual documentation.
Even if it's horrible like microsoft's usual fair.
Even if it's horrible like microsoft's usual fair.
Mantle also has actual documentation available for almost a year: http://www.amd.com/Documents/Mant...mming-Guide-and-API-Reference.pdf
I know the documentation has been out for a while but I haven't bothered reading it as Mantle is AMD hardware only and it is not easily-available for the public. Also, because Vulkan is nearing release, I thought it would be a good idea to start reading up. I could have created a library like this myself but being lazy, nope.
From what I have read so far (from the headers and the manual), I personally do not get much benefit from it over OpenGL as I can emulate a lot of it already (except the manual memory management and multiple thread rendering).
From what I have read so far (from the headers and the manual), I personally do not get much benefit from it over OpenGL as I can emulate a lot of it already (except the manual memory management and multiple thread rendering).
Oh, I was telling that to ratchetfreak, not you :)
As for emulation - it can be costly. Either because of more inefficient data structures, or because of more API calls. Vulkan/D3D12 will give opportunity to not emulate anything, but use GPU in a way it is most efficient (because it won't abstract GPU too much). Of course depending on your app/game it may be irrelevant and bottleneck is something else than API.
As for emulation - it can be costly. Either because of more inefficient data structures, or because of more API calls. Vulkan/D3D12 will give opportunity to not emulate anything, but use GPU in a way it is most efficient (because it won't abstract GPU too much). Of course depending on your app/game it may be irrelevant and bottleneck is something else than API.
Using vulkan/D3D12 as if it was opengl won't get you much.
One of the bottle necks of the driver is cache invalidation which is hard when you only have the information that opengl lets you give the driver (so the driver cheats). Vulkan/D3D12 puts the program more in control of when caches can be invalidated.
You need to tell the driver when operations can happen and which resources you will be using.
Will there be games that utterly fail to do this sanely? Sure. Will the IHV drivers be blamed? Of course. Will we then end up with similar per application hacks that opengl drivers need to do? Most likely.
One of the bottle necks of the driver is cache invalidation which is hard when you only have the information that opengl lets you give the driver (so the driver cheats). Vulkan/D3D12 puts the program more in control of when caches can be invalidated.
You need to tell the driver when operations can happen and which resources you will be using.
Will there be games that utterly fail to do this sanely? Sure. Will the IHV drivers be blamed? Of course. Will we then end up with similar per application hacks that opengl drivers need to do? Most likely.
Of course. Don't use a knife when a screwdriver is the tool you need.
OpenGL is a different tool to Vulkan so it has different uses. I am betting there will be an OpenGL-like wrapper for Vulkan soon after release (not a very good one though), so get ready for the influx.
OpenGL is a different tool to Vulkan so it has different uses. I am betting there will be an OpenGL-like wrapper for Vulkan soon after release (not a very good one though), so get ready for the influx.
I've seen a tech demo for a opengl ES wrapper around vulkan already.