The Vulkan vs. OpenGL Dilemma: Should You Enable All Extensions and Features?

Описание: Explore the decision-making process in Vulkan when enabling extensions and features compared to OpenGL's approach. Discover the trade-offs and best practices for efficient GPU interfacing.
---
This video is based on the question https://stackoverflow.com/q/63020989/ asked by the user 'janekb04' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/12501684/ ) and on the answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/63021083/ provided by the user 'Blindy' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/108796/ ) at 'Stack Overflow' website. Thanks to these great users and Stackexchange community for their contributions.

Visit these links for original content and any more details, such as alternate solutions, latest updates/developments on topic, comments, revision history etc. For example, the original title of the Question was: Create Vulkan Instance/Device with all supported extensions/features enabled

Also, Content (except music) licensed under CC BY-SA https://meta.stackexchange.com/help/l...
The original Question post is licensed under the 'CC BY-SA 4.0' ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... ) license, and the original Answer post is licensed under the 'CC BY-SA 4.0' ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... ) license.

If anything seems off to you, please feel free to write me at vlogize [AT] gmail [DOT] com.
---
The Vulkan vs. OpenGL Dilemma: Should You Enable All Extensions and Features?

When working with modern graphics APIs like Vulkan, developers often find themselves at a crossroads. A common question arises: Is there any downside to enabling all available extensions and features during Vulkan instance or device creation, similar to how OpenGL operates? This blog will delve into this question, providing insights and best practices for optimizing your Vulkan applications.

Understanding the Vulkan API Approach

The Basics of Vulkan

Vulkan is designed to give developers maximal control over GPU resources and features, allowing detailed optimization and performance tuning. Unlike OpenGL, where all extensions and features are generally enabled by default, Vulkan requires developers to explicitly specify what they need when creating a vkInstance or vkDevice.

Why Choose Vulkan?

Fine Control: Vulkan offers a level of granularity not found in OpenGL. You can determine the specific extensions, features, and resources needed for your application, enabling tailor-fitted performance.

Performance Optimization: By only enabling what you need, you lower the overhead of unused capabilities, potentially increasing performance and reducing resource consumption.

The Case Against Enabling Everything

Testing for Extensions

While the idea of enabling all available extensions and features in Vulkan seems straightforward, several practical considerations complicate this approach:

Extension Detection: Even if you enable all extensions, you still need to check if an extension is actually supported on the target device before using it. This involves calling functions like vkEnumerateInstanceExtensionProperties and handling the results carefully.

Resource Management: Enabling unnecessary extensions can lead to increased memory usage and the potential for wasted resources, as the system may allocate space for features that your application never actually utilizes.

Performance Overhead

Although Vulkan offers the flexibility to enable a broad range of extensions and features, doing so may introduce performance trade-offs. Here are key points to consider:

Increased Latency: More enabled features mean more potential paths for the driver, which can inadvertently increase decision-making time in rendering pipelines.

Complexity in Synchronization: Unused features may complicate synchronization and management of resources, leading to performance degradation.

So, What Should You Do?

Focus on Testing and Needs Analysis

Instead of enabling everything, take the following approach:

Identify Required Features: Carefully analyze your application’s needs and only enable extensions that are essential. This decision should be driven by the functionality required by the rendering and compute operations.

Benchmark Performance: Before making sweeping changes, run benchmarks to compare performance with different configurations. This hands-on experience can vastly improve your understanding of what your application needs.

Use OpenGL if Necessary: If the overhead of managing Vulkan becomes prohibitive and you find that the ease of use of OpenGL outweighs the benefits Vulkan offers for your project, consider leveraging OpenGL instead. Sometimes, simplicity can be more beneficial than fine control.

Conclusion

In summary, while the idea of enabling all extensions and features in Vulkan sounds appealing for its simplicity, it contrasts starkly with Vulkan's philosophy of control and precision. Striking the right balance between enabling necessary features and optimizing performance is key. Tread carefully on your development journey, and remember that und