Vulkan 1.3 implementation for AmigaOS 4

VulkanOS4 brings the Vulkan graphics API to PowerPC Amiga hardware. It provides a complete Vulkan 1.3 runtime with two installable client drivers (ICDs), a loader library, and a full SDK for developing Vulkan applications on AmigaOS 4.

Its currently in the upload queue on os4depot - https://os4depot.net/index.php?function=uploads

https://github.com/derfsss/VulkanOS4

@derf
You cant stop ! Cool :)
I see it works through ogles2.library, that good too. How fast is it ? And, is there real use for us of it for real ?

@kas1e

Its no where near as fast as Warp3dnova is currently - I may get the cow3d test converted for vulkan as a good comparison. Currently there is no real use but this will need to be supported for most graphical programs in the future.

The positive is that Vulkan is made for modern GPUs, so even if the cpu is not multi-core, the GPU can still do its stuff!

The main bottlenecks are.

1) Its early code, so there is bound to be more that can be done to speed things up.
2) It can do GPU workloads thanks to Hans and Daniels work on radeon driver/ogles2 library but it could always do better with direct access e.g. new Radeon driver with direct vulkan support.
3) Single core CPU...

For the future, I aim to have sdl2/3, qt6 and even workbench work via vulkanOS4 API.

@derfs

Niiice

Hi,

I installed it and launched the pref to create env settings.

When I launch an example I can see it in the Window it opens in software mode but it is really slow. In Hardware mode, the window is black, nothing is displayed.

Maybe I missed something?

Petrol

thumbs up!

@derfs
Quote:
Imho that too bold :) I mean, currently our problem is not the API by itself, but the driver/kernel/whatever. See, on some test cases we have (irrlicht examples , some games examples) it show pretty bad fps and results in whole. Making an API on top of it for sure will no way make it any better, but only will slow things down.

What is really need it probably, is full MESA port working directly over warp3d at minimum, or, bypass warp3dnova completely in favor of direct usage, or, making _another_ radeon driver with help of AI which may deal with our slow corner issues if possible (if that will be not a kernel in end of all). Or even if it should be Vulkan today and not MESA, then yes, the same directly to driver or at minimum over warp3dnova. The more layers in between always bad.

In other words, making SDL2/3/QT/WB to render via any other API is no problem, problem that it will slower in compare as it now. See, there is many examples on amigaos4 when you use opengl and things start to be even WORSE if without , especially when there is many small context swithes..

@kas1e

It would not matter if its Vulkan or Mesa, direct access to the GPU would need to be created in either route.

I chose Vulkan as the starting point as its designed to be less cpu intensive, which is something we need right now. It was also quicker to create VulkanOS4 than it would be to make the equivalent MesaOS4.

I understand your points but we have to start somewhere

@Petrol

*edit* software will always be slow, however its even slower due to debug still being on as its a first release

Can you provide system information please.

e.g.

X5000
Radeon RX 560
plus output from running the example. thanks!

@derfs

So yeah, it's cool that you did that, even if we don't have any use for it right now.

I'm having the same issue—hardly any of the examples work. I just get a black window with nothing displayed in it.

Installed via Execute and AutoInstall





Tested on X5000/40 with an RX580 (8GB)