Simpler Vulkan : a Framework for Vulkan

Sammanfattning

Vulkan is a modern cross-platform graphics API. It contains little to no abstraction, allowing the user to customize their Vulkan application as they see fit down to the smallest details. Because of this lack of abstraction, Vulkan is cumbersome to work with if you are starting from an empty project, or if you are a beginner. Students without any prior graphics programming experience fit the latter criteria, and therefore they should not start from an empty project. To make it possible for them to learn graphics programming using Vulkan within a reasonable time frame, a framework is needed. This thesis presents Simpler Vulkan, a framework that adds an abstraction layer on top of Vulkan, which allows students to work with Vulkan in a more beginner-friendly manner. Simpler Vulkan was made specifically for the courses TSBK07 and TSBK11 at Linköping University. It is a framework designed with a minimalistic philosophy, meaning it contains few to no functionalities outside of the intended use cases. Based on a comparison of lines of code between programs written with Simpler Vulkan and programs written with the OpenGL framework used in the courses, Simpler Vulkan performs similarly. Additionally, based on a small qualitative interview survey, Simpler Vulkan seems to be a straightforward and intuitive framework for students who have never used Vulkan before. However, for students who have prior experience with Vulkan, the Simpler Vulkan framework might limit them too much in their ability to customize Vulkan to fit their needs.