webgpu-headers VS Vulkan-Docs

There's standardized C API which is both implemented by Dawn and wgpu.rs:

https://github.com/webgpu-native/webgpu-headers/blob/main/we...

...and this standardized API would also enable other independent native implementations.

There's even thought put into the API being extensible via 'struct chaining', this is how the native implementations also accept SPIRV shader bytecode instead of just WGSL shader source code.

The API definition exists:

https://github.com/webgpu-native/webgpu-headers/blob/main/we...

The next missing piece is a standard window system glue API for WASI though.

At first it was for only web, but browsers implement it using compiled code (C++/Rust) and you can use the implementation directly. Wgpu is for Firefox, Dawn is for Chrome. There is a C header for them: https://github.com/webgpu-native/webgpu-headers/blob/main/webgpu.h.

> Wgpu actually has C bindings to allow you to write C/C++ code with it, as well as use other languages that interface with C. That being said, wgpu is written in Rust, and it has some convenient Rust bindings that don't have to jump through any hoops. On top of that, I've been enjoying writing in Rust.

Why the bloat when this exist? https://github.com/webgpu-native/webgpu-headers

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