These guys on another forum are writing off Vulkan as Linux only. Here are some snippets of their comments:
Will never be as big as DX 12.
It's nothing more than the next OpenGL. OpenGL didn't beat directx and Vulkan will most likely won't either.
It's good to have options, but dev's can either go for the tested and true directx, developed and maintained by a major company, or Vulkan, suposed to be "open" but having dozens of big companies trying to push their interest on it.
In the end will be down to:
Dev confidence of long term dev/support on each platform. (experience costs time and money, and having a full dev team switch from directx to vulkan only to have all that training and internal proof of concept projects and such be for nothing would be a major blow)
Tools availability - Such as NVidia Gameworks and other big game devs are dependent on. If these aren't there then Vulkan ain't even an option.
Ease of use - Lets face it, most people don't know how to use linux. Unless it's a specific OS like SteamOS that has everything prepared, distributing a game for linux will be an absolute pain in the ass. It isn't technically impossible, but I don't see the Linux game machines be as widespread as they should to make it a viable market yet.
We will see.
In the end it ain't even the companies that are betting on it. It is the game devs and what technology they are willing to use. Sure it will make indie games and other projects more pretty graphically, but for bigger triple A titles, I don't see them making the switch and adding all that cost to train and develop the know how for the new technology unless it's really worth it, because both improve basically the same things so they aren't inherently automatically one better than the other.
Yes vulkan runs everywhere, so what? So did OpenGL, and what are games built upon? Yeah.
I just don't think Linux will ever appeal to the mass market, a few gamers maybe but I really do not believe it will profitable enough to get the support of the large game companies and there publishers/shareholders. Steam will always release on Windows anyway because that is where the money is even though they want to adopt Vulkan. It's good to have options yes, but I don't think it will ever break past the portable gaming scene (gaming tablets etc). Consoles are a push, but then hey... what PC gamers really care about consoles.
You seem to be missing the point. Just because Vulkan works everywhere, doesn't mean the games get published everywhere. Graphics is just one module on very large software, and with companies more and more using shit like NVIDIA GameWorks, that is Windows only (and consoles), games will be locked to windows anyway. And for consoles, each console uses their own graphic HW which may or may not be compatible with Vulkan, so there goes that too. And if you are looking into console for performance gaming, i only have one thing to say -> AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
I don't get why they kept bringing up Linux. Not once did I mention Linux. All I posted was a video about why gamers should care about Vulkan. It mentioned the recent Doom demo running on Vulkan.
Are you really getting aggravated over that? I left a forum about an year ago, because people there said and I quote "framerate doesn't matter. Physx and other things like that are more important, and this is why I will sell you 750(non Ti) instead of R9 270..." And I was out, never to revisit the forum again. Try to explain to the other guyz the truth, if not - link articles and stuff, and if they are stupid enough to ignore everything - let them stay ignorant. Nothing you can really do about it...
I think allot of developers are quite new to the gaming audience scene, and don't realize that allot of people are NOT running Windows10. That alone is a major reason to support Vulkan, remember Windows 7/8/8.1? lots of people still on those, despite Microsoft trying to force upgrades on them!
DX12 is easier to use however, its a FULL suite, Vulkan is strictly a graphics API
Its ironic that Microsoft is on that list.. Not sure WHAT part of Khronos group they support (infiltration unit? steal good parts from Vulkan and insert into DX12?)
lets see, we can make a game that only works on one version of one platform and make x amount of money. Or we can release on multiple platforms using this other API that works one all platforms and make many times x amount of money..........
Yeah but like I said, DX12 is a suite, Vulkan is a graphics API. Naturally there are challenges for using Vulkan that some developers are simply refusing to accept/work around. A developer argued with me once that Vulkan hasn't got any efficient SPIR-V compiler/converter which mean they couldn't use it as they have a budget and can't develop one themselves.
It all depends. If you ask Nvidia there is no reason to develop for DX12 as well since they suck at it. However we have like 20 new big games with DX12 support by the end of the year. Devs choose for themselves what to do. I am not sure, but I think PS4 does not support DX12 officially and we are talking about 40 million console players... Add that to the half the gaming world avoiding Windows 10 and those guys just cut off like half of their potential market...
I don't think Vulkan includes a Sound API for example, could be wrong.
Besides I'm not saying Vulkan is bad or anything, it is the future, but I understand some of the reasons for the resistance to it, given the development issues OpenGL caused for people.
Here is a recent quote from one of the guys that makes me lower my head in shame:
Re-training would cost too much and Microsoft/Nvidia would never let it happen.
DirectX tools/support are vastly more available and superior to and tools and support for Vulkan training and development of vulkan supported games are non existent compared to DX12, companies are not going to take the risk re-training staff to support Vulkan when there is no need to.
You will find that Vulkan will more than likely only be used on Linux platforms... because why re-invent the wheel??? DX12 works well and everyone is already comfortable with it. It has taken years for people to really adopt the NVidia way and the Nvdia physics platform... I doubt people are going to jump ship to Vulkan just because.
Vulkan WILL be better then DX12, but its too early atm to see that. I mean its more open and has a huge number of contributors, the only people making DX12 better is Microsoft, whom have more money but they are quite closed minded to the open source community so there are going to be significant limits to how far they can push their DX12 platform.
Vulkan just needs allot more developer tools to come out and mature to be successful, which will happen in time.
Update: He is right however, Vulkan uptake will be slow, going to take time for traction.
But we are not combining. AMD have way more issues right now to push Vulkan, Apple is Apple, Google doesn't really care, they will make their money no matter what, Nokia is basically dead, Samsung doesn't really care, Sony may care, but I doubt they will jump deep when their business in general is suffering for other reasons... So we are left with determined Microsoft versus undetermined everyone else...
