Apparently an app is being announced at WWDC but I'm sure people will complain if it's a native app that can't be deleted.
Yes. Announced. "And everybody here gets a beta copy TODAY!" "Release to general public to take place in Fall of 2017" ...And the crowd goes wild!!
What are you talking about? If it's announced as part of iOS 10 it will ship this fall. It's Google that announces things that may or may not ever ship.
There didn't seem to be much excitement around Android Wear. Definitely a meh portion of the presentation. Apple has a real shot to completely own this space.
The integration of Vulkan into Android N was good to see. Finally mainstream mobile is reaching a level of parity with desktop API's. If only Apple would get on-board, Metal's hype is dead at this point.
And how Vulcan is doing right now? How many devices support it and is it that effective as it was claimed to be? What about fragmentation of the platform, and as a results, fragmentation of Vulcan supported hardware capabilities on the majority of devices?
...vulcan is there and Metal is dead...riiiight (sigh).
... I do think iPhone is a better hub since it's always with you and not in another room ...
Eventually, I think the Watch and other Apple wearables will be the main UI device. It really is always with you, and you don't need to drag it out of your pocket to use it.
The Google home device is even worse. It forces you to go to whatever room(s) it's in. And besides, you simply can't trust Google. They're an advertising company. 97% of their revenue comes from ads. They're selling your lifestyle data for a profit.
There didn't seem to be much excitement around Android Wear. Definitely a meh portion of the presentation. Apple has a real shot to completely own this space.
The integration of Vulkan into Android N was good to see. Finally mainstream mobile is reaching a level of parity with desktop API's. If only Apple would get on-board, Metal's hype is dead at this point.
And how Vulcan is doing right now? How many devices support it and is it that effective as it was claimed to be? What about fragmentation of the platform, and as a results, fragmentation of Vulcan supported hardware capabilities on the majority of devices?
...vulcan is there and Metal is dead...riiiight (sigh).
Won't the Vulcan API's work with most Google Android devices? Seems so from the way I've read it, but if you've seen something that says otherwise feel free to correct me. In the meantime it looks like a pretty good cross-platform solution to me, and simplifies things for game developers doesn't it?
The integration of Vulkan into Android N was good to see. Finally mainstream mobile is reaching a level of parity with desktop API's. If only Apple would get on-board, Metal's hype is dead at this point.
And how Vulcan is doing right now? How many devices support it and is it that effective as it was claimed to be? What about fragmentation of the platform, and as a results, fragmentation of Vulcan supported hardware capabilities on the majority of devices?
...vulcan is there and Metal is dead...riiiight (sigh).
Vulkan is cross-platform (Windows, Android, SteamOS, etc.), this goes beyond just Android. It's a low level API with feature support equivalent to DX11/DX12. Companies like nVidia, AMD and Intel have already launched Vulkan drivers for their hardware.
If it was launched on iOS, only devices with the A9 or A9X could support it.
Any Android device with a Mali T760/T8xx, Adreno 4xx/5xx, nVidia Kepler/Maxwell or PowerVR 7XT GPU can support Vulkan.
Here's a shot of Doom running on Vulkan. It's worth noting that Vulkan 1.0 was only launched a few months ago.
Imagination Technologies, the designer of GPU's in Apple's SoC's, has demonstrated Vulkan on numerous occasions running on their hardware. Clearly not for Apple's benefit.
And how Vulcan is doing right now? How many devices support it and is it that effective as it was claimed to be? What about fragmentation of the platform, and as a results, fragmentation of Vulcan supported hardware capabilities on the majority of devices?
...vulcan is there and Metal is dead...riiiight (sigh).
Won't the Vulcan API's work with most Google Android devices? Seems so from the way I've read it, but if you've seen something that says otherwise feel free to correct me. In the meantime it looks like a pretty good cross-platform solution to me, and simplifies things for game developers doesn't it?
Yeah, it WILL...probably.
Just like it WILL BE (probably) fully cross-platform.
" cross-platform solution to me"
Just like OpenGL that was supposed to be that same cross-platform solution.
"and simplifies things for game developers doesn't it? "
It will seem less like the gov't is watching you when Google is the watchdog. I am not entirely sure I want to hand over my life to a big tech company. Seems like there was a book or two with this theme in it.
Any Android device with a Mali T760/T8xx, Adreno 4xx/5xx, nVidia Kepler/Maxwell or PowerVR 7XT GPU can support Vulkan.
I suggest you to figure out what is the percent of those devices that have aforementioned graphics chips...
For example, Mali T760/T8xx it is : Meizu m1 note, Sony xperia e4g , Galaxy S6, Lenovo A3900, Gionee Marathon M5 and ZTE blade QLUX 4g, Gionee F103 and Lenovo GW Note 8. These are not exactly low-tier devices...
"If it was launched on iOS, only devices with the A9 or A9X could support it."
Can you provide a link to where did you get that from?
Because if Apple were to allow Vulcan to run, that will be through Metal and Metal is supported by everything starting with A7/A7x.
Any Android device with a Mali T760/T8xx, Adreno 4xx/5xx, nVidia Kepler/Maxwell or PowerVR 7XT GPU can support Vulkan.
I suggest you to figure out what is the percent of those devices that have aforementioned graphics chips...
For example, Mali T760/T8xx it is : Meizu m1 note, Sony xperia e4g , Galaxy S6, Lenovo A3900, Gionee Marathon M5 and ZTE blade QLUX 4g, Gionee F103 and Lenovo GW Note 8. These are not exactly low-tier devices...
"If it was launched on iOS, only devices with the A9 or A9X could support it."
Can you provide a link to where did you get that from?
I don't have a percentage, but SoC's using these GPU's have been in devices since late 2014 (a little bit earlier if you include nVidia). Of course, the software support might never find its way to a good number of these.
PowerVR 7XT are Imaginations first GPU's to support Android Extension Pack, which extends to features used in OpenGL 4.x such as tesselation (https://imgtec.com/powervr/graphics/series7xt). As such, the A9 and A9X should be able to offer support as they use PowerVR 7XT GPUs.
Previous PowerVR 6 series can technically offer some support, but with only equivalent features to OpenGL ES 3.1.
Previous PowerVR 6 series can technically offer some support, but with only equivalent features to OpenGL ES 3.1.
Series 6 and 6XE/6XT offer EXACTLY the same support of Vulkan (Vulkan 1.0) as do 7XE/7XT/7XT+. Which means, A7, A8 devices - namely, iPhone5s, iPhone6, 6+ and iPod Touch (6th gen), iPad m3, Ipad m2, iPad m4, iPad Air and Air2 should be able to support Vulcan 1.0 just the same way iPhone 6s, 6s+ could.
No competition for HomeKit, because HomeKit is a joke. It's a missed opportunity for Apple. They could have made the AppleTV the central hub, but looks like they insist on buillding it around your phone (or iPad).
I have an Amazon Echo here, loving it.
One word: premature
Amazon Echo is premature and Google knew it, that's why they can't release anything until the earliest end of year (and that usually never happened). Google is all about talk first deliver later. Do you really think Apple don't have special team developing HomeKit as we speak? Rest assured there will be great upgrade coming, but Apple will never talked about it if they are not ready yet. Unfortunately Google does.
Previous PowerVR 6 series can technically offer some support, but with only equivalent features to OpenGL ES 3.1.
Series 6 and 6XE/6XT offer EXACTLY the same support of Vulkan (Vulkan 1.0) as do 7XE/7XT/7XT+. Which means, A7, A8 devices - namely, iPhone5s, iPhone6, 6+ and iPod Touch (6th gen), iPad m3, Ipad m2, iPad m4, iPad Air and Air2 should be able to support Vulcan 1.0 just the same way iPhone 6s, 6s+ could.
this will make up about 60-61 percent (including A9/x devices) of all iOS devices.
No, they don't offer the same support.
The 6 series can only support features up to OpenGL ES 3.1 or equivalent, hence the missing support for AEP.
Vulkan can work on a GPU that supports OpenGL ES 3.1 because it's backwards compatible, but that does not mean that GPU can magically support DX11/DX12 or equivalent features such as tessellation or geometry shaders.
The smart home battle between Apple, Google and others continues to heat up, with Google on Wednesday announcing Home, a new voice-activated hardware kit that brings the Google assistant service to any room in your house.
Like Amazon Echo, Google Home is an always-listening piece of hardware that allows users to issue commands using natural language. The hardware will launch later this year, though Google has yet to announce a price.
Demonstrated by Google at its annual I/O conference, Home allows users to control connected devices in their home, get answers from Google, stream music, and more.
The hardware itself is a small speaker, with swappable exterior shells that can be chosen to match a home's decor. And because it's always plugged in, Google Home is capable of pumping out room-filling sound for music and voice feedback.
Home is also designed with multi-room support, allowing users to own multiple hardware units and place them throughout their house. And it'll play nice with Chromecast, allowing users to rely on just their voice to queue up content on an HDTV.
Yea Huawei gets another shitty google hardware exercise pigeon holed by terrible reference design in customizable versions of egg shell white but only because they can't force Motorola or Samsung to be inspired by what they dream up in Korean plastic.
The smart home battle between Apple, Google and others continues to heat up, with Google on Wednesday announcing Home, a new voice-activated hardware kit that brings the Google assistant service to any room in your house.
Like Amazon Echo, Google Home is an always-listening piece of hardware that allows users to issue commands using natural language. The hardware will launch later this year, though Google has yet to announce a price.
Demonstrated by Google at its annual I/O conference, Home allows users to control connected devices in their home, get answers from Google, stream music, and more.
The hardware itself is a small speaker, with swappable exterior shells that can be chosen to match a home's decor. And because it's always plugged in, Google Home is capable of pumping out room-filling sound for music and voice feedback.
Home is also designed with multi-room support, allowing users to own multiple hardware units and place them throughout their house. And it'll play nice with Chromecast, allowing users to rely on just their voice to queue up content on an HDTV.
Yea Huawei gets another shitty google hardware exercise pigeon holed by terrible reference design in customizable versions of egg shell white but only because they can't force Motorola or Samsung to be inspired by what they dream up in Korean plastic.
Did you write that comment in another language and then use some sort of translation app?
Series 6 and 6XE/6XT offer EXACTLY the same support of Vulkan (Vulkan 1.0) as do 7XE/7XT/7XT+. Which means, A7, A8 devices - namely, iPhone5s, iPhone6, 6+ and iPod Touch (6th gen), iPad m3, Ipad m2, iPad m4, iPad Air and Air2 should be able to support Vulcan 1.0 just the same way iPhone 6s, 6s+ could.
this will make up about 60-61 percent (including A9/x devices) of all iOS devices.
No, they don't offer the same support.
The 6 series can only support features up to OpenGL ES 3.1 or equivalent, hence the missing support for AEP.
Vulkan can work on a GPU that supports OpenGL ES 3.1 because it's backwards compatible, but that does not mean that GPU can magically support DX11/DX12 or equivalent features such as tessellation or geometry shaders.
This whole talk doesn't make sense...
If there are Vulkan 1.0 specs, then they are Vulkan 1.0 specs everywhere (meaning - it is the same set of instructions / functions/commands / subAPIs or whatever you want to include there). That is known as a standard (or specifications for that standard) and that is exactly how the document is called.
If it is not the case (Vulkan is not a separate standard/specs for it), then why even use Vulkan X.X notation for describing capabilities to begin with? Vulkan is advertised as a successor of OpenGL and DX, not as something that is built on top of OGL and DX...As a result, Vulkan specs canNOT be based off neither OGL nor DX specs.
(now, equivalent features is a totally different thing).
Nowhere in the document you can find references to OpenGL standard, aside from mapping of features (aka compatibility). In total, there are 8 mentions of OpenGL, half of which are in the legal definitions at the top of the document...in the span of 900+ page document.
TL:DR - everything that I said in the previous post still stands, because those various chips ALL support Vulkan 1.0 according to VR specs. Period.
There is no additional caveat or "but", because if there is, that will strip Vulkan 1.0 official specs (PDF) of ANY meaning or value.
The 6 series can only support features up to OpenGL ES 3.1 or equivalent, hence the missing support for AEP.
Vulkan can work on a GPU that supports OpenGL ES 3.1 because it's backwards compatible, but that does not mean that GPU can magically support DX11/DX12 or equivalent features such as tessellation or geometry shaders.
This whole talk doesn't make sense...
If there are Vulkan 1.0 specs, then they are Vulkan 1.0 specs everywhere (meaning - it is the same set of instructions / functions/commands / subAPIs or whatever you want to include there). That is known as a standard (or specifications for that standard) and that is exactly how the document is called.
If it is not the case (Vulkan is not a separate standard/specs for it), then why even use Vulkan X.X notation for describing capabilities to begin with? Vulkan is advertised as a successor of OpenGL and DX, not as something that is built on top of OGL and DX...As a result, Vulkan specs canNOT be based off neither OGL nor DX specs.
(now, equivalent features is a totally different thing).
Nowhere in the document you can find references to OpenGL standard, aside from mapping of features (aka compatibility). In total, there are 8 mentions of OpenGL, half of which are in the legal definitions at the top of the document...in the span of 900+ page document.
TL:DR - everything that I said in the previous post still stands, because those various chips ALL support Vulkan 1.0 according to VR specs. Period.
There is no additional caveat or "but", because if there is, that will strip Vulkan 1.0 official specs (PDF) of ANY meaning or value.
I'm talking about equivalent features, not the other standards themselves. You don't seem to understand. The PowerVR 6 series GPU's do NOT support these features.
Just because Vulkan is backwards compatible with GPU's that can support OpenGL ES 3.1 does not in any way mean they can offer full support of the API's features. Yet they remain limited to the equivalent feature set of OpenGL ES 3.1.
Hence, you could not show me tessellation or geometry shaders on a PowerVR 6 series GPU.
No competition for HomeKit, because HomeKit is a joke. It's a missed opportunity for Apple. They could have made the AppleTV the central hub, but looks like they insist on buillding it around your phone (or iPad).
I have an Amazon Echo here, loving it.
One word: premature
Amazon Echo is premature and Google knew it, that's why they can't release anything until the earliest end of year (and that usually never happened). Google is all about talk first deliver later. Do you really think Apple don't have special team developing HomeKit as we speak? Rest assured there will be great upgrade coming, but Apple will never talked about it if they are not ready yet. Unfortunately Google does.
There's nothing wrong with stating what you are going to do or what you want to do and then doing it. We announced we were going to the moon years before we did. Babe Ruth signaled where he was going to hit the ball for a home run. Many of people have stated that they were going to build and business one day and they do it. Just because Apple doesn't do it doesn't mean it's wrong.
I'm talking about equivalent features, not the other standards themselves. You don't seem to understand. The PowerVR 6 series GPU's do NOT support these features.
My point is that if you can throw away a feature that is part of the standard A, then that it is not a standard A anymore...due to A being a defined set of features.
If you mention that certain hardware supports standard A, then whatever A has in that list, has to be supported by a certain hardware piece.
So, if hardware1 supports Vulkan 1.0, it supports its fully.
And if hardware 2 (in specs) mentioned support of Vulkan 1.0, then it supports that list/set of features fully as well.
This means that both have the same Vulkan capabilities.
Now, some of that hardware MIGHT have additional capabilities beyond 1.0 set, but that is irrelevant for the discussion, especially because there is no younger than 1.0 vulkan specs sheet..
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It really is always with you, and you don't need to drag it out of your pocket to use it.
The Google home device is even worse. It forces you to go to whatever room(s) it's in.
And besides, you simply can't trust Google.
They're an advertising company. 97% of their revenue comes from ads.
They're selling your lifestyle data for a profit.
If it was launched on iOS, only devices with the A9 or A9X could support it.
Any Android device with a Mali T760/T8xx, Adreno 4xx/5xx, nVidia Kepler/Maxwell or PowerVR 7XT GPU can support Vulkan.
Here's a shot of Doom running on Vulkan. It's worth noting that Vulkan 1.0 was only launched a few months ago.
Imagination Technologies, the designer of GPU's in Apple's SoC's, has demonstrated Vulkan on numerous occasions running on their hardware. Clearly not for Apple's benefit.
PowerVR 7XT are Imaginations first GPU's to support Android Extension Pack, which extends to features used in OpenGL 4.x such as tesselation (https://imgtec.com/powervr/graphics/series7xt). As such, the A9 and A9X should be able to offer support as they use PowerVR 7XT GPUs.
Previous PowerVR 6 series can technically offer some support, but with only equivalent features to OpenGL ES 3.1.
Which means, A7, A8 devices - namely, iPhone5s, iPhone6, 6+ and iPod Touch (6th gen), iPad m3, Ipad m2, iPad m4, iPad Air and Air2 should be able to support Vulcan 1.0 just the same way iPhone 6s, 6s+ could.
The 6 series can only support features up to OpenGL ES 3.1 or equivalent, hence the missing support for AEP.
Vulkan can work on a GPU that supports OpenGL ES 3.1 because it's backwards compatible, but that does not mean that GPU can magically support DX11/DX12 or equivalent features such as tessellation or geometry shaders.
I'm talking about equivalent features, not the other standards themselves. You don't seem to understand. The PowerVR 6 series GPU's do NOT support these features.
Just because Vulkan is backwards compatible with GPU's that can support OpenGL ES 3.1 does not in any way mean they can offer full support of the API's features. Yet they remain limited to the equivalent feature set of OpenGL ES 3.1.
Hence, you could not show me tessellation or geometry shaders on a PowerVR 6 series GPU.