Vulkan is the real name for these things:
- glNext
- OpenGL Next
- OpenGL NG
- Next Generation OpenGL Initiative
Key points:
- Vulkan will be multicore friendly
- Uses precompiled shaders based on the SPIR platform. This means in theory HLSL or CG could be compiled for Vulkan. Also means IP is protected.
- Works on all things capable of OpenGL ES 3.1
- Nearly zero driver overhead, cut out things like error management
- Works uniformly on mobile and desktop platforms
- Considered a derivative of AMD’s Mantle
More details will come in the following days as GDC is currently running and Valve is scheduled to be doing a presentation to show off Vulkan’s capabilities on Thursday.
OpenGL/ES will continue to be developed as Vulkan is extremely low level and therefore requires a lot more work.