Vulkan
Vulkan is a low-overhead, cross-platform graphics and compute API developed by the Khronos Group, designed for high-performance 3D graphics and parallel computing. It provides explicit control over GPU hardware, reducing driver overhead and enabling efficient multi-threading and multi-core CPU usage. It is widely used in gaming, professional visualization, and embedded systems for rendering complex scenes and performing GPU-accelerated computations.
Developers should learn Vulkan when building high-performance applications requiring fine-grained control over GPU resources, such as AAA games, VR/AR experiences, or scientific simulations, as it minimizes driver overhead and supports multi-threading. It is particularly useful for cross-platform development on Windows, Linux, Android, and embedded systems, where performance and efficiency are critical. Use cases include real-time rendering engines, compute shaders for AI or physics, and applications targeting modern GPUs with complex shading and geometry.