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> Game consoles don't use Vulkan The Switch does. Windows may be better served with D3D12, but Vulkan is fine for almost all cases. If you choose Vulkan rathe
by steeleduncan 4y ago
> Game consoles don't use Vulkan
The Switch does.
Windows may be better served with D3D12, but Vulkan is fine for almost all cases. If you choose Vulkan rather than D3D12 you also get Android, Switch, Steam Deck/Linux and if you aren't too bothered about performance, iOS/macOS via the MoltenVK translation layer.
PC+Mobile is a pretty massive chunk of the gaming market to get with just one graphics backend.
- flohofwoe 4y agoI haven't worked on the Switch yet, but AFAIK Vulkan is just an option there, the actually 'native' API is something provided by NVIDIA called NVN (would be interesting to know how many games use NVN vs Vulkan). In that sense it's similar to older Nintendo consoles, OpenGL was offered as an option, but everybody used the lower level native API anyway.
- pjmlp 4y agoPC GPUs are developed with collaboration with Microsoft, based on DirectX features, and if users of Khronos APIs are lucky they might eventually get them as extensions. Steam Deck/Linux emulates DirectX and Windows, no need to bother with anything Linux native. On Switch there is support for OpenGL 4.6, Vulkan and NVN, and just like on PC, if you want the full deal, NVN is the way to go.