Google will be releasing the Vulkan, a 3D rendering API to Android, as posted on the official Android Developers Blog.
Vulkan has a similar goal to the Metal API of Apple for the OS X and iOS operating system as a low-overhead graphics API which will give developers better access to the graphics processor and better control over the rendering of graphics.
According to the blog post, one challenge that developers are experiencing in rendering for 3D graphics for games and applications is CPU overhead, which eats up power and time that could go into drawing the 3D scene instead.
Vulkan, developed by the Khronos Group, looks to address this problem. The Khronos Group is also the company behind other standards such as OpenGL and WebGL, with Vulkan being tapped as the next generation of the OpenGL standard.
When Vulkan was first announced back in March, the Khronos Group did so with a list of partners for both hardware and software, but with no such support from an operating system.
"Hardware and software companies need an open 3D API to maximize market reach and minimize porting costs, and Vulkan is being forged by a broad consortium of industry leaders to do exactly that," said Khronos Group President Neil Trevett.
Trevett added that strong developer support for Vulkan will be ensured with its adoption and availability for several platforms including Android, Linux, Windows and SteamOS. This would lead to the creation of a significant amount of quality content across various platforms that utilizes the royalty-free Vulkan as a standard.
Vulkan, however, is currently still under development. The standard will most likely not be included in Android M that Google is launching later within the year. Companies such as Imagination Technologies, known for the PowerVR GPUs, have already started to demonstrate the power of Vulkan on Android through prototype drivers.
Google is currently supporting the OpenGL standard for the Android operating system, and the company said that support for the standard will not cease. Developers could continue to use OpenGL while they learn how to make the most out of the power of Vulkan as it rolls out.
There will be no rush, as Google said that it is committed to provide developers with an excellent experience, whatever their choice may be when it comes to which API to utilize.
