The Raspberry Pi 4 will improve its 3D rendering with the Vulkan 1.2 update

Recently, in a blog post by the CEO of Raspberry Pi, Eben Upton, disclosed that la Raspberry 4 now complies with version 1.2 of the Vulkan Graphics API.

After reaching version 1.0 in November 2020 and version 1.1 in October 2021, version 1.2 integrates 23 frequently used Vulkan extensions into the standard and is considerably closer to the last version, 1.3, which was released in January.

Khronos has given his approval and with which there should be a driver update in a future version of the operating system.

“All the necessary changes were already incorporated in the previous Mesa v3dv driver and will eventually be available in future updates to the Raspberry Pi OS. Compatibility with various other extensions, some of which are essential in Vulkan 1.3, as well as many bug fixes and performance improvements. ”, says Iago Toral of Igalia.

The current version of Mesa is 22.1.3 and the new code probably will not be available until 22.2. This means that some work will be required for early adopters. Upton's article also points to a contribution by Roman Stratiienko that adds Android support to the controller. This paves the way for running Android games on the Pi 4 through a port of Google's operating system, such as Lineage OS.

This development, including support for Vulkan 1.2, does not necessarily mean popular games will be seen or can be used for things of this type in the Raspberry Pi 4. But it could lead to improvements in application performance like Kodi, VLC, or hardware-accelerated web apps.

There are also Vulkan libraries for machine learning, which opens new ways to train neural networks on Pi clusters. For most people who use their Pi as a server, DIY controller, or lightweight desktop, Vulkan 1.2 compliance won't be noticeable. Desktop graphics on the standard Raspberry Pi operating system are controlled by OpenGL.

This is the old graphics API that Vulkan is supposed to replace. yesAccording to Upton, there is one group that benefits: Android 3D games and other apps. Android uses Vulkan as a low-cost graphics API.

As with most Raspberry Pi advancements, this seemingly small change could open up unforeseen opportunities. Support for Vulkan 1.2 gives developers the same 3D graphics interface (but not the same power) as 2019 NVIDIA graphics cards, 2020 Intel chips with integrated graphics, and dozens of other devices.

With a Vulkan 1.0 driver installed, Toral was able, in 2020, to run the original Quake trilogy on a Pi 4, with not-so-bad frame rates. Setting up a modern Vulkan driver for the Pi 4 is of particular importance to Upton.

In fact, before working on the Raspberry Pi, Upton was part of the team at Broadcom that designed the VideoCore 3D GPU chip, the same one that's mounted on every Raspberry Pi board. Upton also represented Broadcom from 2007 to 2012 at Khronos, the graphics API standards body that oversaw standards like OpenGL.

OpenGL was already showing its age in Upton's time, and he was involved in the initial effort to release its successor, Vulkan.

“We tend to push Mesa releases forward instead of waiting two years for them to appear in the next major Debian release. It's probably too late for a September release, so I'm thinking year-end,” he said. As for where this technology could go, he said, "it's useful as a more efficient back-end for the various standard game engines (in particular, Epic Games' Unreal engine)." Studios investing in porting games to the platform are something else, "but it's nice to have the basics in place."

Finally, it is worth mentioning that support is not yet available on the downloadable operating systems suitable for Pi boards, but should be available soon.

For those who are interested in knowing more about it, you can check the details In the following link.


Be the first to comment

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked with *

*

*

  1. Responsible for the data: AB Internet Networks 2008 SL
  2. Purpose of the data: Control SPAM, comment management.
  3. Legitimation: Your consent
  4. Communication of the data: The data will not be communicated to third parties except by legal obligation.
  5. Data storage: Database hosted by Occentus Networks (EU)
  6. Rights: At any time you can limit, recover and delete your information.