The Khronos Group, that consortium of companies and schoolsresponsible for maintaining open standard APIs like OpenGL and OpenCL, has given a name to its upcoming OpenGL successor: Vulkan.
Like OpenGL it will be an open standard; unlike OpenGL (with its OpenGL ES variant)Vulkan supports mobile platforms, and The Khronos Group expects to start talking about initial specs for the tech later this year.
Vulkan already facescompetition from the likes of Apple and Microsoft,but it still has the OpenGL legacy advantage of being an open standard -- unlike proprietary graphics tech like DirectX 12 orApple's Metal.
According to its creators, Vulkan is designed to be a low-overhead APIthat minimizes a developer's need to rely on drivers by (among other things) offeringdirect GPU control andthe ability to conduct multi-threaded GPU command preparation for contemporary PC, console, embedded and mobile hardware.
More details can be found on the Vulkan website, alongside opportunities to participate in the development process.
This marks the fruitionof The Khronos Group's glNext initiative, andrepresentatives fromValve, Epic and Unity will join a consortium representative on-stage at GDC later this week to walk attending developers through a preview of the technology.
