Vulkan
lastmod 2018-08-17created 2016-02-161 edits
A new API unveiled at GDC 2015, held on March 3, 2015. It was called OpenGL NG, glNext, and so on, before being announced under the name Vulkan. AMD contributed all of the Mantle documentation, and it is being established as a standard. Whereas OpenGL originally targeted cross-platform use, yet because of the inherent hardware performance gap between x86-64-based and ARM-based systems only mobile platforms were split off to use OpenGL ES, Vulkan aims, in keeping with the times, to support a wider range of platforms such as PC, mobile, and VR all from the start. In a way, Vulkan may be the truly cross-platform 2D/3D graphics API... As a 3D graphics API with direct hardware access like Mantle or DirectX 12, it is expected to help reduce CPU overhead.