Minecraft: Java Edition 26.2, the first version with Vulkan 1.2

37 pointsposted 5 days ago
by ObviouslyFlamer
(minecraft.net)

10 Comments

jchw

37 minutes ago

I find this choice interesting. Vulkan is a sensible choice given the game is multiplatform (and of course they mention MoltenVK right in the announcement.) Despite that, I still find it interesting that a Microsoft subsidiary would make this choice given that Vulkan is a direct competitor to Direct3D and that Microsoft seemed to only begrudgingly continue to support OpenGL and wgl. (Am I hallucinating, or was there not a period of time where the graphics drivers shipped from Windows Update simply omitted OpenGL support, leaving you with only the terrible OpenGL 1.4 software renderer?)

ramon156

4 days ago

> Under Vulkan, we will prefer your dedicated graphics card over any integrated graphics, which is a change from OpenGL

Did OpenGL not do this?

voxic11

4 days ago

OpenGL doesn't have any way to do this except sometimes via vendor specific extensions. Basically how OpenGL works is it creates the graphics context on whichever device the system hands it. So you can configure the GPU used by OpenGL on the system level but not at the application level.

CyborgCabbage

an hour ago

I believe if you plug your monitor into your motherboard then OpenGL will use your integrated graphics rather than your card. I think with Vulkan it doesn't matter what port you plug it in, it can coordinate it?

chainingsolid

4 days ago

I don't remember being able to pick which card OpenGL uses, while with Vulkan it's a required question the App has to answer...

SugarReflex

an hour ago

Is it safe to say that this positively affected me? For the very first time I installed Linux Mint on my old gaming with a 1080 TI and installed Minecraft/Steam. Minecraft ran beautifully and it is Java Edition 26.2. I've had a harder hit and miss time with games on Steam.

CyborgCabbage

an hour ago

Unless you changed the setting it still uses the OpenGL backend by default