1 page.title=Vulkan 2 @jd:body 3 4 <!-- 5 Copyright 2016 The Android Open Source Project 6 7 Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); 8 you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. 9 You may obtain a copy of the License at 10 11 http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0 12 13 Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software 14 distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, 15 WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. 16 See the License for the specific language governing permissions and 17 limitations under the License. 18 --> 19 <div id="qv-wrapper"> 20 <div id="qv"> 21 <h2>In this document</h2> 22 <ol id="auto-toc"> 23 </ol> 24 </div> 25 </div> 26 27 <p>Android 7.0 adds support for 28 <a href="https://www.khronos.org/vulkan/">Vulkan</a>, a low-overhead, 29 cross-platform API for high-performance 3D graphics. Like OpenGL ES, Vulkan 30 provides tools for creating high-quality, real-time graphics in applications. 31 Vulkan advantages include reductions in CPU overhead and support for the 32 <a href="https://www.khronos.org/spir">SPIR-V Binary Intermediate</a> language. 33 </p> 34 35 <p>System on chip vendors (SoCs) such as GPU Independent Hardware Vendors (IHVs) 36 can write Vulkan drivers for Android; OEMs simply need to integrate these 37 drivers for specific devices. For details on how a Vulkan driver interacts with 38 the system, how GPU-specific tools should be installed, and Android-specific 39 requirements, see <a href="{@docRoot}devices/graphics/implement-vulkan.html">Implementing 40 Vulkan.</a></p> 41 42 <p>Application developers can take advantage of Vulkan to create apps that 43 execute commands on the GPU with significantly reduced overhead. Vulkan also 44 provides a more direct mapping to the capabilities found in current graphics 45 hardware, minimizing opportunities for driver bugs and reducing developer 46 testing time (e.g. less time required to troubleshoot Vulkan bugs).</p> 47 48 <p>For general information on Vulkan, refer to the 49 <a href="http://khr.io/vulkanlaunchoverview">Vulkan Overview</a> or see the list 50 of <a href="#resources">Resources</a> below.</p> 51 52 <h2 id=vulkan_components>Vulkan components</h2> 53 <p>Vulkan support includes the following components:</p> 54 <p><img src="{@docRoot}devices/graphics/images/ape_graphics_vulkan.png"></p> 55 <p class=img-caption>Figure 1: Vulkan components</p> 56 57 <ul> 58 <li><strong>Vulkan Validation Layers</strong> (<em>provided in the Android 59 NDK</em>). A set of libraries used by developers during the development of 60 Vulkan apps. The Vulkan runtime library and the Vulkan driver from graphics 61 vendors do not contain runtime error-checking to keep Vulkan runtime efficient. 62 Instead, the validation libraries are used (only during development) to find 63 errors in an application's use of the Vulkan API. The Vulkan Validation 64 libraries are linked into the app during development and perform this error 65 checking. After all API usage issues are found, the aplication no longer needs 66 to include these libraries in the app.</li> 67 <li><strong>Vulkan Runtime </strong><em>(provided by Android)</em>. A native 68 library <code>(libvulkan.so</code>) that provides a new public native API 69 called <a href="https://www.khronos.org/vulkan">Vulkan</a>. Most functionality 70 is implemented by a driver provided by the GPU vendor; the runtime wraps the 71 driver, provides API interception capabilities (for debugging and other 72 developer tools), and manages the interaction between the driver and platform 73 dependencies such as BufferQueue.</li> 74 <li><strong>Vulkan Driver </strong><em>(provided by SoC)</em>. Maps the Vulkan 75 API onto hardware-specific GPU commands and interactions with the kernel 76 graphics driver.</li> 77 </ul> 78 79 <h2 id=modified_components>Modified components</h2> 80 <p>Android 7.0 modifies the following existing graphics components to support 81 Vulkan:</p> 82 83 <ul> 84 <li><strong>BufferQueue</strong>. The Vulkan Runtime interacts with the existing 85 BufferQueue component via the existing <code>ANativeWindow</code> interface. 86 Includes minor modifications (new enum values and new methods) to 87 <code>ANativeWindow</code> and BufferQueue, but no architectural changes.</li> 88 <li><strong>Gralloc HAL</strong>. Includes a new, optional interface for 89 discovering whether a given format can be used for a particular 90 producer/consumer combination without actually allocating a buffer.</li> 91 </ul> 92 93 <p>For details on these components, see 94 <a href="{@docRoot}devices/graphics/arch-bq-gralloc.html">BufferQueue and 95 gralloc</a> (for details on <code>ANativeWindow</code>, see 96 <a href="{@docRoot}devices/graphics/arch-egl-opengl.html">EGLSurface and OpenGL 97 ES</a>). 98 99 <h2 id=apis>Vulkan API</h2> 100 <p>The Android platform includes an 101 <a href="https://developer.android.com/ndk/guides/graphics/index.html">Android-specific 102 implementation</a> of the <a href="https://www.khronos.org/vulkan/">Vulkan API 103 specification</a> from the Khronos Group. Android applications must use the 104 <a href="{@docRoot}devices/graphics/implement-vulkan.html#wsi">Window System 105 Integration (WSI) extensions</a> to output their rendering.</p> 106 107 <h2 id=resources>Resources</h2> 108 <p>Use the following resources to learn more about Vulkan:</p> 109 <ul> 110 111 <li> 112 <a href="https://googleplex-android.git.corp.google.com/platform/frameworks/native/+/nyc-dr1-release/vulkan/#">Vulkan 113 Loader </a>(libvulkan.so) at <code>platform/frameworks/native/vulkan</code>. 114 Contains Android's Vulkan loader, as well as some Vulkan-related tools useful to 115 platform developers.</li> 116 117 <li><a href="https://android.googlesource.com/platform/frameworks/native/+/master/vulkan/doc/implementors_guide/implementors_guide.html">Vulkan 118 Implementor's Guide</a>. Intended for GPU IHVs writing Vulkan drivers for 119 Android and OEMs integrating those drivers for specific devices. It describes 120 how a Vulkan driver interacts with the system, how GPU-specific tools should be 121 installed, and Android-specific requirements.</li> 122 123 <li><a href="https://developer.android.com/ndk/guides/graphics/index.html">Vulkan 124 Graphics API Guide</a>. Includes information on getting started with using 125 Vulkan in an Android app, details on Vulkan design guidelines on the Android 126 platform, how to use Vulkan's shader compilers, and how to use use validation 127 layers to help assure stability in apps using Vulkan.</li> 128 129 <li><a href="https://www.khronos.org/#slider_vulkan">Vulkan News</a>. Covers 130 events, patches, tutorials, and more Vulkan-related news articles.</li> 131 </ul> 132
