Metal & Vulkan

[moshee]

Now that Apple has decided that OpenGL is obsolete, are you planning any support for newer graphics APIs such as Metal and Vulkan (maybe via MoltenVK)? Since this is a brand new project, I am hoping to see some forward-looking plans, especially for when GL is officially gone from macOS.

[andlabs]

Probably in dedicated OS-specific (or -extra/-future, in the case of Vulkan) packages, since Metal and Vulkan do not appear to be becoming cross-platform standards the same way OpenGL has.

[moshee]

It seems like Vulkan is at least trying to be cross platform, even without Apple's help. From what I've heard, it has good performance and pretty much full compatibility on macOS via MoltenVK, in addition to having official support in Linux and Windows. Could I convince you to plan for Vulkan as a core feature, or is it still too early?

[andlabs]

That would also depend on distribution requirements. If Vulkan would require shipping extra modules (or extra installation dependencies) it wouldn't likely be core, but it would definitely still be eligible for inclusion somehow. (It would require extra refactoring of uiArea.)

[mischnic]

since Metal and Vulkan do not appear to be becoming cross-platform standards the same way OpenGL has.

Maybe not even a single-platform standard (yet), because it requires a Mac from 2012 or newer.