Vulkan
| Vulkan | |
|---|---|
| Original author(s) | AMD, DICE (original Mantle design) |
| Developer(s) | Khronos Group (donated and derived variant, as Vulkan) |
| Initial release | 16 February 2016 |
| Stable release | 1.4.318
/ 13 June 2025 |
| Repository | |
| Written in | C (also available C++ API) |
| Operating system | Android, Linux, BSD Unix, Windows, Nintendo Switch, Fuchsia, Raspberry Pi, vxWorks, QNX, HarmonyOS, OpenHarmony, Oniro, Haiku, Stadia, Tizen, Through portability workarounds: macOS, iOS |
| Type | 3D graphics and compute API |
| License | Apache Software License 2.0, MIT License, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International |
| Website | https://www.vulkan.org/ |
Vulkan is a cross-platform API and open standard for 3D graphics and computing. It was intended to address the shortcomings of OpenGL, and allow developers more control over the GPU. It is designed to support a wide variety of GPUs, CPUs and operating systems, and it is also designed to work with modern multi-core CPUs.
Microsoft supports Vulkan 1.2 (and more) on Windows 10 and 11, with a downloadable compatibility pack.