GLFW VS Open-Source Vulkan C++ API

Compare GLFW vs Open-Source Vulkan C++ API and see what are their differences.

GLFW

A multi-platform library for OpenGL, OpenGL ES, Vulkan, window and input (by glfw)
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GLFW Open-Source Vulkan C++ API
78 36
12,172 2,911
1.6% 1.8%
9.3 9.1
7 days ago 4 days ago
C C++
zlib License Apache License 2.0
The number of mentions indicates the total number of mentions that we've tracked plus the number of user suggested alternatives.
Stars - the number of stars that a project has on GitHub. Growth - month over month growth in stars.
Activity is a relative number indicating how actively a project is being developed. Recent commits have higher weight than older ones.
For example, an activity of 9.0 indicates that a project is amongst the top 10% of the most actively developed projects that we are tracking.

GLFW

Posts with mentions or reviews of GLFW. We have used some of these posts to build our list of alternatives and similar projects. The last one was on 2024-03-16.
  • macOS 14.4 causes JVM crashes
    2 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 16 Mar 2024
    Minecraft runs on various Javas.

    And there's a known issue with an interaction between minecraft, Java, and the video drivers that crashes out and it can be traced back all the way to here: https://github.com/glfw/glfw/issues/1997

    It's not fixed.

  • Technical Considerations for GUI Toolkits [Discussion]
    1 project | /r/compsci | 11 Dec 2023
    Window context manager - glfw, sdl
    2 projects | /r/learnprogramming | 11 Dec 2023
    Types of tools for creating a gui (and how those tools approximately work): 1. Utilize the native _graphical interface API_, and depending on the platform, they have specific layers to interface: * Wayland, X11, for Linux * [GDI](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/gdi/windows-gdi) for windows * [Quartz](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quartz\_(graphics\_layer)) for macOS Example - GTK uses [wayland](https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gtk/-/blob/main/docs/reference/gdk/wayland.md) ([source code](https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gtk/-/tree/main/gdk/win32)) [X11](https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gtk/-/blob/main/docs/reference/gdk/x11.md) ([source code](https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gtk/-/tree/main/gdk/x11)) GDI ([source code](https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gtk/-/tree/main/gdk/win32)) Quartz ([source code](https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gtk/-/tree/main/gdk/macos)) [How to use wayland display server](https://bugaevc.gitbooks.io/writing-wayland-clients/content/black-square/the-wayland-client-library.html) (TODO missing "animation" section) 2. Utilize opengl _or other low level graphics api's_ with window context, use GPU to render widgets * Window context manager - [glfw](https://github.com/glfw/glfw), [sdl](https://www.libsdl.org/) * contexts and surfaces, reading input, handling events Example: ImGui, NanoVG, Nuklear, raylib Why? Mainly used for game development, but also good for gui's. _(i haven't seen any examples that uses this method that are used for developing general-use graphical user interfaces.)_
  • How to set-up GLFW 3.3.8 with C++ visual studio community 2022?
    1 project | /r/gamedev | 10 Dec 2023
  • Exploring Computer Graphics: Weekly Chronicle #1
    5 projects | dev.to | 16 Oct 2023
    GLFW: A library for window creation and managing user input.
  • New Vulkan Documentation Website
    10 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 11 Oct 2023
    Not SDL2, but GLFW has something like that under the tests/ directory:

    https://github.com/glfw/glfw/blob/master/tests/triangle-vulk...

  • LWJGL = SFML vs Allegro vs SDL vs Ogre vs ???
    2 projects | /r/opengl | 5 Jul 2023
    I'm not familiar with LWJGL, my 5 seconds on their website makes me think you might be looking for something like GLFW https://www.glfw.org/ to handle I/O and window creation/management.
  • I have spent two whole work days trying to install GLEW
    6 projects | /r/GraphicsProgramming | 3 Jul 2023
    Consider GLFW3 for windowing and GLAD for function loading. I've used this combination myself successfully. Granted, that is "two things" you need, but OTOH it'll work well.
  • OpenGL (GLFW and GLAD) not linking with cmake
    2 projects | /r/cmake | 30 May 2023
    There is a pattern to it which is usable with every GitHub repository. For example, GLFW v3.3.8 can be fetched from: https://github.com/glfw/glfw/archive/refs/tags/3.3.8.tar.gz
  • Help
    1 project | /r/cpp_questions | 24 May 2023
    That is a static or import library for glfw. You need add the path to the directory where this file is located to the "library directories", see: https://www.learncpp.com/cpp-tutorial/a2-using-libraries-with-visual-studio-2005-express/

Open-Source Vulkan C++ API

Posts with mentions or reviews of Open-Source Vulkan C++ API. We have used some of these posts to build our list of alternatives and similar projects. The last one was on 2023-07-05.
  • what math is required?
    2 projects | /r/vulkan | 5 Jul 2023
    It might be useful to maybe look at the Vulkan.hpp examples since you can do the same in about 200 lines of code. https://github.com/KhronosGroup/Vulkan-Hpp/blob/main/samples/15_DrawCube/15_DrawCube.cpp
  • Vulkan-Hpp now provides C++20 module interface file
    1 project | /r/vulkan | 28 Jun 2023
    1 project | /r/cpp | 28 Jun 2023
  • How do you guys organize everything?
    1 project | /r/vulkan | 18 Jun 2023
    Wow that library looks amazing, I'll definitely be using it. Bonus that it's official from the Khronos Group. https://github.com/KhronosGroup/Vulkan-Hpp
  • An idea to ease wrapping C libraries in C++.
    3 projects | /r/cpp | 18 Jun 2023
    Even auto-generated c++ wrappers like vulkan-hpp require lots of manual maintenance.
  • Anybody know why V-EZ has not been updated in 5 years?
    5 projects | /r/vulkan | 15 Jun 2023
    Ultimately I went with vulkan.hpp RAII bindings, even though that way also has some learning curve and I couldn't find any documentation other than the RAII programming guide. It's great for getting started, but could use a complementary auto-generated API doc. There are also decent programming samples, which really suck for getting started, but otherwise do a good job of presenting concepts they focus on. Putting the available resources together I was able to get a project going in two weekends.
  • Using enum classes as bitmasks
    1 project | /r/cpp | 24 May 2023
    This is exactly how the official Vulkan C++ API, Vulkan-Hpp does it. For the precise example mentioned in the blog post:
  • Recommendations on how to start a small Vulkan project
    6 projects | /r/vulkan | 16 May 2023
    Or the vulkan.hpp RAII samples would be a good place?
  • What's the most hilarious use of operator overloading you've seen?
    7 projects | /r/cpp | 6 May 2023
    For a real-life example: consider the vk::raii namespace of Vulkan-Hpp, where the developers have posted examples. The vk::raii::su namespace has a bunch of free functions that one might think are associated with a Vulkan instance/object (in fact, the Vulkan Tutorial does implement them as member functions), but they are much nicer when used as pure functions. It keeps the class/struct definition itself nice and clean.
  • Vulkan-HPP + Vulkan C API == Aliasing Bugs!
    1 project | /r/vulkan | 12 Feb 2023
    final c++17 draft (N4659) first post-publication draft after c++20 (N4868) vulkan-structs.hpp (containing the vk::ImageCreateInfo definition) VkImageCreateInfo struct

What are some alternatives?

When comparing GLFW and Open-Source Vulkan C++ API you can also consider the following projects:

SDL - Simple Directmedia Layer

Ogre 3D - scene-oriented, flexible 3D engine (C++, Python, C#, Java)

bgfx - Cross-platform, graphics API agnostic, "Bring Your Own Engine/Framework" style rendering library.

Skia - Skia is a complete 2D graphic library for drawing Text, Geometries, and Images.

glad - Multi-Language Vulkan/GL/GLES/EGL/GLX/WGL Loader-Generator based on the official specs.

urho3d - Game engine

Irrlicht - An automatically updated mirror of the Irrlicht SVN repository on sourceforge

OpenSceneGraph - OpenSceneGraph git repository

OpenVDB - OpenVDB - Sparse volume data structure and tools