Unlocking the Power of Vulkan: Top 3 Stories from June 2019
Summary
In June 2019, NVIDIA highlighted three significant stories from the world of Vulkan development. These stories include tips and tricks for optimizing Vulkan performance, a video series on path tracing for Quake II RTX, and an overview of the evolution of graphical rendering techniques from rasterization to full real-time path tracing. This article delves into these stories, providing insights into the potential of Vulkan and its applications in game development.
Tips and Tricks: Vulkan Dos and Don’ts
Optimal use of Vulkan is not a straightforward concept, especially in the context of large engines. The increased performance potential of modern graphics APIs comes with a higher level of developer responsibility. To help developers maximize performance, NVIDIA shared a blog on Vulkan dos and don’ts, which serves as a useful stepping stone for those looking to utilize Vulkan to its full potential.
Video Series: Path Tracing for Quake II RTX
Quake II RTX started as a research project called Q2VKPT by Christoph Schied. He experimented with an NVIDIA RTX GPU and Quake II’s open-source code in Vulkan to understand the state of the art for path tracing in real time. Despite revamping the lighting systems to add more realistic lighting, the game still ran at 60fps at 2560×1440 on a GeForce RTX 2080 Ti. Christoph explains his process in detail in a talk delivered at the 2019 GDC, which has been broken down into three short videos.
From Rasterization to Full Real-Time Path Tracing
NVIDIA has been leading the charge into ray-tracing, a movement that has required the introduction of new hardware. In a video, NVIDIA’s Nuno Subtil explains the role that Vulkan and NVIDIA’s Turing architecture play in delivering real-time ray-traced games to consumers. He details the evolution of graphical rendering, ending with an explanation of full real-time path tracing, considered the “holy grail” of rendering solutions.
News Extra: Hello Games and Vulkan Support for No Man’s Sky
Hello Games announced their work on supporting Vulkan for No Man’s Sky, stating that final Vulkan support would bring many PC players an immediate performance improvement. This support is part of a larger body of work aimed at technical improvements for all players on all platforms.
The Importance of Vulkan Driver Support
NVIDIA provides comprehensive Vulkan driver support, including general release and developer beta drivers. The latest Vulkan 1.4 specification is available, offering full support and functionality on a range of NVIDIA graphics cards, including GeForce RTX and Quadro models.
Table: Supported Platforms for Vulkan 1.4 Drivers
| Platform | Supported GPUs |
|---|---|
| Windows 10/11, Linux 64-bit | NVIDIA GeForce RTX, NVIDIA RTX (Ampere GPU Architecture and above) |
| Experimental Support | Turing GPU Architecture |
| Full Support | Ada Lovelace, Ampere, Turing, Volta, Pascal, and Maxwell (first and second generation) based GPUs |
Conclusion
The stories highlighted by NVIDIA in June 2019 showcase the potential of Vulkan in game development. From optimizing performance to achieving real-time path tracing, Vulkan offers developers powerful tools to create immersive gaming experiences. With ongoing support and updates, such as the latest Vulkan 1.4 drivers, developers can continue to push the boundaries of graphical rendering. As demonstrated by projects like Quake II RTX and the upcoming Vulkan support for No Man’s Sky, Vulkan is a key player in the evolution of gaming technology.