Khronos launched the Vulkan 1.0 specification on February 16th, 2016 and Khronos members released Vulkan drivers and SDKs on the same day. Below you will find everything you need to come up to speed on Vulkan and to forge ahead and explore whether Vulkan is right for your engine or application.
Industry Forged
Vulkan is a new generation graphics and compute API that provides high-efficiency, cross-platform access to modern GPUs used in a wide variety of devices from PCs and consoles to mobile phones and embedded platforms.Vulkan Drivers
Behind every great API are the drivers that bring it life on your GPU. Download the latest drivers for your system that now include Vulkan 1.0.
Demos & Samples
Download demos and open source samples to take your new Vulkan API for a test drive - and get a heads up on Vulkan resources.
Engines
Looking to take your game to the next level? Look no further: Here are several game engines that currently support Vulkan.
Developers – Get your Vulkan SDK
The LunarG SDK provides Vulkan application developers with essential tools to accelerate the development process. There is both a Windows and a Linux version of LunarG SDK for Vulkan. As well, LunarXchange provides a mechanism for LunarG SDK users to submit issues and get answers to their questions.
Google gives you everything you need to incorporate Vulkan into your Android games and other apps where graphics performance is key. Visit the Android developer website to download the API, samples, and documentation: resources to help you hit the ground running.
Get Involved! Help Us Evolve the Vulkan Ecosystem
Khronos has placed an unprecedented amount of materials into open source so you can provide feedback, showcase your work, fix bugs, and extend Vulkan capabilities for the future. Get engaged AND show the world what YOU are doing with Vulkan.
Platform Vendors make your own SDK!
Want to create your own tools and SDKs for Vulkan? Here’s a link to Vulkan’s home on GitHub and to other resources you’ll need.
SDK creation materials in GitHub:
Vulkan Portability Initiative
To expand the number of platforms that Vulkan can support, Khronos has formed a Vulkan Portability Technical Subgroup within its Vulkan Working Group. This subgroup is tasked with developing specifications, open-source library code and tools, together with conformance tests to define and support the set of Vulkan capabilities that can be made universally available across all major platforms, including those not currently served by Vulkan.
Implement Vulkan for your Graphics Hardware
Khronos welcomes any company creating graphics hardware or systems to implement and ship the Vulkan API. The Vulkan specification is free for anyone to download and implement. If you want to use the Vulkan name or logo on your implementation, and enjoy the protection of the Khronos Intellectual Property Framework, you can become a Vulkan Adopter.
Industry Quotes
"Vulkan has a huge potential! We're only scratching the surface of what can be done with it, and porting The Talos Principle to Vulkan should be seen as a proof of concept. Vulkan in just one sentence? The endless war between performance and portability is finally over!"
“We are extremely pleased at the industry’s rapid execution on the Vulkan API initiative. Due to Vulkan’s cross platform availability, high performance and healthy open source ecosystem, we expect to see rapid uptake by software developers, far exceeding the adoption of similar APIs which are limited to specific operating systems.”
"Given the realism of the early Vulkan demos, it is clear that low-level hardware API like Vulkan is perhaps that magic bullet that the developers needed to develop even the most demanding content in form factors we could only dream off."
“Anytime we can converge on an idea, particularly an idea like Vulkan, which is made by the industry, is asked for by the industry, everybody gets stronger.”
Wyeth Johnson
Lead Technical Artist, Epic GamesRelated News
- New Vulkan Benchmark test for Android
- AMD Adrenalin 17.12.1 Released with support for OpenGL 4.5/4.6 + Vulkan 1.0.65
- Khronos presentations available from ESC Silicon Valley and the Embedded Vision Alliance Member Meeting
- Penn graphics students final project presentations today
- Khronos meet-ups this December