Vulkan - Wikipedia is a newer API as a successor of OpenGL ES - Wikipedia . Unlike OpenGL ES, Vulkan is a low-level API which means Vulkan can be optimized for any hardware, even on entry-level hardware to maximize the potential of the CPU and the GPU. Vulkan also supports multi-core rendering unlike OpenGL ES which is limited to only a single or few cores which might be a bottleneck for newer devices. Vulkan 1.1 requires at least Android 9.0 and a GPU that supports it and Vulkan 1.3 requires Android 13 and a GPU that supports it. If Vulkan were to be added to Nomad Sculpt, it means that it is possible to create more complex 3D models and render at higher resolution due to optimization to take the full potential of both the CPU and the GPU.
The videos shown here is to prove that Vulkan can achieve better performance than OpenGL ES:
The Nomad Sculpt that I am running on Xiaomi Redmi Note 12 4G - Full phone specifications although its GPU, Adreno 610 already supports Vulkan from the specs shown here: Snapdragon 685 4G Mobile Platform | Qualcomm , however it uses OpenGL ES 3.2 as shown in this log screenshot:
Does anybody have a phone here that already supports Vulkan both the hardware and the software on Nomad Sculpt?
Nomad does not support vulkan.
It would not make much difference for render speed, newer graphics API shines when you have lot of objects and materials in your scene. But for a sculpting app it’s less critical as, you often have a low amount of objects.
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What about iOS? Does it already use Metal?
Although Nomad Sculpt is a sculpting app, I do not even use it for sculpting. I use it to create 3D environments, scenes and renders, not sculpting
Maybe show how you’re struggling with the current nomad, before making work for the developer.
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One of the biggest issues that I am currently experiencing now is to get Ultra HD resolution. Vulkan actually solves this by taking the advantage of multi core capabilities of modern CPU and the full potential of GPU. This allows for higher rendering resolution since the performance of the chipset is not bottlenecked. This allows people who have budget device can render at stunning quality
Nomad sculpt. The clue is in the name.
3840x2160 is a big frame for a desktop workstation, let alone a portable device. Remember that Nomad is now targeting web, ios, android, windows, mac. Adding vulkan to that pile is non trivial, and according to the dev, won’t help the core sculpting experience.
For the record I tested on a 2 year old ipad, throwing several heavy sculpts together to see what happens. This is 4.55 million unique polys, 6.76 million after instancing. An ultra hd render at 100 samples takes about 15 seconds.
I’d suggest either using software better suited to this task, or invest in better hardware.
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I found many alternatives on Play Store but none of them could match the quality of Nomad Sculpt
And besides that, many of them were made using Unity. Nomad Sculpt isn’t even made using a game engine
Unity or not is not relevant.
Modern API are useful if:
- you want to use feature that are exclusive to them (and apart from Ray Tracing, it’s mostly the same)
- you got lot of api calls which is usually the case for heavy scenes (I’m not talking about 100s of objects… way more than that)
On iOS, I still use OpenGL but everything gets translated to Metal.
In practice if I change to Metal not much will change.
I don’t want to handle 2 backend api (Vulkan vs Metal).
So I’m waiting for something better to come up that could abstract these (WebGPU?)
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Hi, @stephomi I have a great idea instead of upgrading Vulkan, why not just allow overclocking (only when paired by a cooler) and support up to 4 fastest big cores? Also add pause USB PD while rendering to allow the charger ti redirect the power to the mainboard instead of the battery to prevent overheating and the maximum wattage is the device max charging watt
