Can someone explain what Vulkan 1.0.1.0 CTS is please?

[Sonic Angel Knight]

Today i got a update for my shield tablet except i dunno what the stuff mean, more particually the first thing is.
Latest change notes.

• Conformity with Vulkan™ 1.0.1.0 CTS
• Fixed boot loop issue with certain SD cards nearing their capacity limit
• Fixed Android Privilege Escalation Exploit (CVE-2016-5195)
• Overall stability and security improvements

Well i know Vulkan is supposed to be spelled "VULCAN" like the gun, but i doubt it has anything to do with a gun at all. Is the first i heard of this so it must be new, so if anyone can explain this clearly to me, i would appreciate it.

 

[Depravo]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulkan_(API)

 

[Yil]

How does vulkan have to do with booting android?

 

[grossaffe]

Vulkan is a new graphics API (formerly under the name Mantle before being released) as an alternative to OpenGL and Direct3D.

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

Vulkan is a new graphics API (formerly under the name Mantle before being released) as an alternative to OpenGL and Direct3D.

So is it better than opengl or just different? Any specific you can tell me?

 

[grossaffe]

So is it better than opengl or just different? Any specific you can tell me?

It's still very young, but theoretically, it is supposed to cut down on overhead. I understand the performance boost can be rather notable in CPU bottlenecked systems.

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

well by the version number 1.0.1.0 it sounds like it is new

so from the sound of it, should it be replacing the open gl sometime soon? I hardly know what opengl is either, but if it show promise, is good.

 

[raulpica]

CTS = Compatibility Testing Suite.

It means that it fully supports Vulkan APIs in their 1.0.1.0 revision.

What are APIs, you might ask? They're what engines use to tell the 3D hardware what to do. You want to render a cube on your screen? Gotta use APIs for that.

Before now, usually you either used OpenGL or DirectX, which are highly abstracted ("not optimised", if you want) high-level APIs.

Vulkan is a lower level API, which reduces overhead (every time you call an API, some power is "wasted" just because of some stuff you need to do before you can actually do what the API does) which in turns means faster, meaner graphics with the same hardware. It's a win/win for everyone. DirectX 12 is the same (only proprietary to MicroSoft) and Metal is as well (this time, from Apple).