Khronos announced the launch of Vulkan 1.4, a new version of the platform for the development of video games and 3D graphics applications, the ultimate (and almost the only) alternative to Microsoft DirectX.

Vulkan is a Free, open source API (no license fees) and among the platforms that have not stopped improving version after version since they emerged from the API created by AMD (Mantle), when it worked to optimize the chips created for the PS4 and Xbox One consoles, it is increasing under the direction of the Khronos Group and today has for partners in addition to AMD Intel, NVIDIA, ARM and Qualcomm.

What’s new in Vulkan 1.4

It also has the support of major vendors graphics engines (iDTech, Unreal, Unity, Frostbite or CryEngine) and this is it Application programming interface It has a lot to do with game development. And there you know that it is essential that Microsoft and its DirectX have alternatives.

“Vulkan 1.4 is a developer-driven update that enhances the value of Vulkan as a stable and reliable framework for building graphics-intensive applications on any platform”Khronos explained in the release announcement: “A breakthrough release that directly incorporates long-requested features and proven extensions to the core standard, improving the flexibility and performance of Vulkan across a wider range of devices.”.

The industry group responsible for the API emphasized that Vulkan conformance test suite (an extensive open source test suite that all Vulkan implementers must pass to increase cross-platform consistency) it has been verified for AMD, ARM, Imagination, Intel, NVIDIA, Qualcomm and Samsungwhich already have approved development drivers compatible with Vulkan 1.4.

In addition, Mesa open source Linux drivers have passed Vulkan 1.4 compliance on hardware from AMD, Apple, Intel, NVIDIA and Qualcomm. Production controllers that have passed Khronos’ formal compliance testing process are listed in the API Compliant Product Registry.

Vulkan has published extensive version change documentation and announced that the Vulkan SDK will be updated in January 2025 to include support for version 1.4. Besides the technical features, what we said above is most important: DirectX has rivals.