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Vulkan is sort of a post-API API. It seems to be designed specifically with high performance render pipelines in mind, and "end users" should interface with it

Vulkan is sort of a post-API API. It seems to be designed specifically with high performance render pipelines in mind, and "end users" should interface with it through an intermediary layer. Ie, you might prefer bgfx[0], cinder[1] or openframeworks[2]. 0: https://github.com/bkaradzic/bgfx https://github.com/bkaradzic/bgfx 1: https://www.libcinder.org/ https://www.libcinder.org/ 2: https://openframeworks.cc/ https://openframeworks.cc/

tombert 3y ago
Yeah, I know, though for awhile on certain parts of the internet, whenever people asked for the best place to learn OpenGL, you'd inevitably get some comment like "OpenGL is deprecated, learn Vulkan", and I just wanted to strangle them and say "These are different things! It's like telling them to learn machine code instead of C". My most recent stuff has been playing with FNA, which more or less works across platforms and wasn't even terribly difficult to get working on Mac with F#. Still, a guy can dream about a world where Metal was the new standard.
- cmovq 3y ago
  > "OpenGL is deprecated, learn Vulkan" Unfortunately this is partially true unless we get more OpenGL updates. OpenGL doesn't support hardware ray tracing and some other newer features that are only supported in Vulkan\D3D12.
  - tombert 3y ago
    That's been a frustration of mine as well; the OpenGL people kind of abandoned it in favor of Vulkan without a viable alternative. I guess the typical response is that people will use something like a game engine anyway, so I guess fair enough, but I want something lower level than a game engine without having to get a doctorate in graphics rendering just to draw a rotating cube.
    - zamalek 3y ago
      > viable alternative WGPU (which is not web only) papers over many of the fiddly bits of Vulkan. It is lower level than OpenGL, but not frustratingly so. Although I agree: OpenGL is still situated in an abstraction sweet spot, and could use some love/replacement.

tombert 3y ago

Yeah, I know, though for awhile on certain parts of the internet, whenever people asked for the best place to learn OpenGL, you'd inevitably get some comment like "OpenGL is deprecated, learn Vulkan", and I just wanted to strangle them and say "These are different things! It's like telling them to learn machine code instead of C". My most recent stuff has been playing with FNA, which more or less works across platforms and wasn't even terribly difficult to get working on Mac with F#. Still, a guy can dream about a world where Metal was the new standard.

cmovq 3y ago
> "OpenGL is deprecated, learn Vulkan" Unfortunately this is partially true unless we get more OpenGL updates. OpenGL doesn't support hardware ray tracing and some other newer features that are only supported in Vulkan\D3D12.
- tombert 3y ago
  That's been a frustration of mine as well; the OpenGL people kind of abandoned it in favor of Vulkan without a viable alternative. I guess the typical response is that people will use something like a game engine anyway, so I guess fair enough, but I want something lower level than a game engine without having to get a doctorate in graphics rendering just to draw a rotating cube.
  - zamalek 3y ago
    > viable alternative WGPU (which is not web only) papers over many of the fiddly bits of Vulkan. It is lower level than OpenGL, but not frustratingly so. Although I agree: OpenGL is still situated in an abstraction sweet spot, and could use some love/replacement.