DirectX-Graphics-Samples VS Vulkan-Docs

I also looked at the Microsoft sample like this: https://github.com/microsoft/DirectX-Graphics-Samples

It looks like Microsoft has official DirectX samples available, including an SSAO demo if you want to take a look at that. It does seem very different compared to your approach though, so it may not be of any use to you.

In my post I was using the generate mipmaps example to illustrate what I'm saying. In order to generate mipmaps in realtime in OpenGL you would simply make a call to generatemipmaps() or whatever it is called. In Vulkan it is more challenging because you have to do explicit resource management, but it isn't that bad still. In D3D12 you have to write your own compute shader https://github.com/Microsoft/DirectX-Graphics-Samples/blob/master/MiniEngine/Core/Shaders/GenerateMipsCS.hlsli

I wrote a sample a few years ago which implements this technique.

I eventually moved on to the official DirectX 12 Graphic Samples, which had isolated examples that were easier to learn from incrementally. The “Hello World” sample is the best starting point to get the renderer setup with a triangle. This repo is a great reference when you need to verify process and structure (like the order of operation of APIs). Whenever I had a strange bug in my app, I’d go back to these examples to do a diff and see what I was missing.

You probably want to take a look at the officiel DirectX samples page: https://github.com/microsoft/DirectX-Graphics-Samples It’s got samples covering a single topic each, which make them easier to digest, but there’s also the MiniEngine which is a render engine.

MiniEngine game engine

Something about the Github sample did catch my eye:

Microsoft put out this: https://github.com/microsoft/DirectX-Graphics-Samples

There is also this thing, but I never figured out how to compile that.

Pipelines (or in general terms PSOs) are the most problematic aspect of Vulkan / DX12 - much more than synchronization! Large parts of the gamedev industry seems to recognize all the performance issues with pipelines and therefore companies are experimenting with newer models like the VK_EXT_shader_object extension ("Vulkan without Pipelines": https://www.khronos.org/blog/you-can-use-vulkan-without-pipe...).

I've written a detailed comment about this before here (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37843946#37845431) but for a much more comprehensive explanation by an engineer from Nintendo read the initial proposal for the VK_EXT_shader_object extension: https://github.com/KhronosGroup/Vulkan-Docs/blob/main/propos...).

There's also Casey Muratori's mail to the Vulkan advisory on 2015 that basically predicts this whole clusterfuck would happen: https://github.com/cmuratori/misc/blob/main/vulkan_dynamic_s...

Apple -> MoltenVK is an emulation layer and doesn't give you as much control as using Metal directly.

Nintendo and Sony prefer their own APIs, NVN and LibGNM, and AIUI Vulkan is a second-class API on those platforms which does not offer as much power, it is widely understood studios use NVN and LibGNM to get access to the real hardware on those platforms.

Windows/AMD/NVidia/Intel -> HW manufacturers tend to prototype and release new features with D3D first and then 'backport' them to Vulkan after a while. DirectX 12 for example had mesh shaders for over 2 years before Vulkan got a vendor neutral extension for them[0]

Android and Linux are the only platform where Vulkan is a first-class citizen.

You could maybe argue Nvidia treats Vulkan as a first-class citizen because they tend to have vendor-specific Vulkan extensions for the latest features available before anyone else. But otherwise, no, Vulkan is not a first-class API anywhere except Linux and Android.

Graphics API wars are alive and well.

[0] https://github.com/KhronosGroup/Vulkan-Docs/issues/1423