Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Gaming
  3. News

Razer is now a member of the consortium responsible for Vulkan-based graphics

By

The Khronos Group made a brief announcement on Thursday, stating popular PC gaming peripheral maker Razer is now a Contributor Member. The Khronos Group is the non-profit consortium behind the new open-source Vulkan Application Programming Interface (API) that is becoming more commonly used in PC gaming. It’s an alternative to the long-used DirectX and OpenGL graphics APIs.

“Razer is a world leader in connected devices and software for gamers,” the Khronos Group said. “Its award-winning design and technology span systems, peripherals, audio and wearable technologies. Razer co-founded OSVR, an open-source platform that integrates VR, AR and mixed reality hardware and software APIs that support a universal VR ecosystem.”

Recommended Videos

The Khronos group launched the Vulkan specification on February 16 along with drivers and software development kits. It is meant for all modern graphics chips found in PCs, gaming consoles, mobile devices, and embedded platforms. It enables software like PC games and graphics-intensive applications to ‘speak’ directly to the graphics chip to a certain degree for optimal performance.

Related: 
Best new movies to stream on Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video, HBO Max, and more

Unlike Microsoft’s DirectX, which was specifically created for Microsoft Windows, Vulkan is designed to work on different operating systems. Companies that now support Vulkan through graphics drivers include AMD, Nvidia, Intel, Qualcomm, and a few others. Epic Games’ widely-used Unreal Engine for games on a multitude of devices supports the new Vulkan API as well.

News of Razer’s involvement with the Khronos Group arrives after the company announced that software supporting the Open Source Virtual Reality (OSVR) platform is now available on Steam. Developers looking for cool apps and games for the OSVR HDK 1 and HDK 2 kits can simply enter “OSVR” in Steam’s search tool to pull up the compatible software. Each listing features the OSVR logo by its name.

“This is a great milestone for VR, giving users access to more hardware and content and driving Valve’s and OSVR’s shared vision of totally open VR content to everyone,” Razer OSVR lead Christopher Mitchell said.

The Vulkan API is what is left of AMD’s “Mantle” initiative to provide game developers more access to its graphics chips based on the Graphics Core Next architecture. Software has many layers, with the outermost layer seen by the consumer. Mantle, Vulkan, and the latest version of DirectX are more “close to the bone” than what we have seen in the past, enabling developers to have better access to the underlying hardware to create the best, fluid experience. Vulkan expands on Mantle by supporting more than just AMD’s hardware.

Razer’s involvement in the open-source Vulkan project should come as no surprise given it co-founded the open-source OSVR consortium for virtual reality. Both projects are seemingly meant for each other, as the happy couple aims to provide the ultimate experience without restrictions. After all, Razer is all about serving up the absolute best for PC gamers across the globe and Vulkan seems aimed at doing just that.

Kevin Parrish
Kevin Parrish
Former Contributor
Kevin started taking PCs apart in the 90s when Quake was on the way and his PC lacked the required components. Since then…
Topics

Editors’ Recommendations

The best PlayStation launch games, ranked
best ps1 games sony ps1

The most important time in a console's life is its launch. This is when a new piece of hardware needs to prove that it is worth investing in, which always comes down to games. Launch titles are rarely the best games on the system, although some of Nintendo's launch games buck that trend, but at least need to show off what the system can do. PlayStation always had a secondary selling point with its consoles, such as doubling as a CD player or DVD player, so it is interesting to speculate how successful those early consoles would've been judged solely on their games. We now have launch titles from the PS1 all the way up to the PS5 (and soon to be PS6) to look back on with fresh eyes to see just how good those first games were.

Air Combat - PlayStation 1

Read more
The Switch 2 is the perfect example of why console launches don’t feel special anymore
The Switch 2 being unboxed.

I will never forget the unbearable excitement I felt on that early morning on my 7th birthday. It was 1998, and Pokémon was the biggest thing in the world, especially for an elementary school kid like me. Except that I didn't have a single card or game to my name. In fact, I didn't even have a Game Boy. That, plus Pokémon, was the only thing I asked for that birthday, and I knew I would get it.

I can still remember lying awake half the night, unable to sleep while my imagination ran wild with unrealistic machinations of what the game would be like. I woke up just as early to the sounds of my parents and sister setting up decorations downstairs and bided my time before I could go down. It was a school day, but they could sense my excitement well in advance and agreed to let me open one thing before school.

Read more
If the leaks are true, ROG Xbox Ally’s price could be anything but an ally
The ROG Xbox Ally UI.

There's still a lot we don't know about the ROG Xbox Ally, but a potential price has leaked that shatters any hope of it being affordable. First seen by 3djuegos on the ASUS Store, the ROG Xbox Ally was listed at 599 Euro (roughly $700 USD) while the ROG Xbox Ally X was listed for $899 Euro (roughly $1,050 USD). The listing appears to have been created by accident, but those price points raise eyebrows.

ASUS prices its own handheld PCs around that same price, with the 2023 ROG Ally landing at $500 and $650, depending on the version. While that's a reasonable price point compared to other handhelds on the market (like the $1,000 MSI Claw 8 AI+), it's still significantly more than a base-level Steam Deck.

Read more