Intel Announces Support for Vulkan API

Intel (News - Alert) has announced its support – still in beta version – of its 6th-generation Intel Core and related processors for the new Vulkan 1.0 Application Programming Interface (API).

Although a report at PC World notes that much of Windows gaming has drawn its graphic beauty and power from DirectX tools, other competitors exist in the market. One such collection of graphics development companies, the Khronos Group, introduced Vulkan 1.0 last month. Group member Imagination Technologies (News - Alert), a major supporter of the Vulkan API release, has since launched its PowerVR Framework to add a control layer for the API. All together, it gives game development companies another set of tools to build their applications.

Intel’s support for Vulkan could represent a huge shift in support for gaming. Intel said it would begin to release drivers for it chips that are found on many Windows 7, 8, and 10 machines as well as open-source drivers that will work on Linux PCs – reportedly that will support Steam.

Vulkan’s claim to fame is that it replaces OpenGL, which was created in 1991 and has seen better days. OpenGL worked in such a way that it used abstraction layers to hide hardware. This made it difficult to port games from Windows that were developed with DirectX in mind because DirectX allows access to hardware on an intimate level.

Developers will have the chance with Vulkan to define exactly how they want hardware to render graphics. Fewer abstraction layers will mean better porting from one platform to another. It will also mean that developers have more control over how specific processors and GPUs will handle their games. This could also make it more cost effective for companies to develop games that work on a number of systems. Currently, Windows rules the universe of gaming while Linux sits in its shadow. Steam has brought a number of games to Linux, and Vulkan’s support for Steam should only serve to make the porting process even easier.

For the extra curious: PC World also noted that Intel competitor AMD (News - Alert) has already released its own Vulkan-ready drivers for its Radeon processors.