Vulkan
| Vulkan | |
|---|---|
| Original authors | AMD, DICE (original Mantle design) |
| Developers | Khronos Group (donated and derived variant, as Vulkan) |
| Initial release | 16 February 2016 |
| Stable release | 1.4.346
/ 13 March 2026 |
| 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, Aurora OS |
| 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/ |
| Repository | |
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 modern multi-core CPUs also.
Microsoft supports Vulkan 1.2 (and more) on Windows 10 and 11, with a downloadable compatibility pack.