Vulkan is a cross-platform graphics API which supports all the major PC platforms, gaming consoles, and even smartphones. Unlike DirectX 12, it’s also open source. Both of these factors make it compelling to developers looking to simplify their coding while expanding their potential audience.
The developers of upcoming space simulation game Star Citizen have taken a bold decision to discontinue support for DirectX 11 and abandon their plans to support DirectX 12 in favour of Vulkan.
Current benchmarks put DirectX 12 and Vulkan on a similar level in terms of performance so it’s little surprise to see developers focus their efforts on the low-level graphics API which provides them with more scope and prevent delays from supporting two different APIs.
There’s a lot of similarity between DirectX 12 and Vulkan so there’s always the possibility Star Citizen’s developers will have another change of heart, but it’s hard to see this being the case short of significant performance advantages.
