Not as low as it sounds. Costs is actually the most common reason why developers say they resort to all kind of wrappers instead of making proper native versions. DX basically is the biggest bone in the industry's throat now. And that's why something of high quality like Vulkan is needed to replace it. It's finally happening luckily. But how well it will go - time will tell.

Haha Vulkan high quality? DirectX 12 is going to be way more advanced than Vulkan.

Hmmmm....looks like you never read the EULA.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/gp/lifepolicy
Business, Developer, and Desktop Operating System Software Products

Microsoft will offer a minimum of 10 years of support for Business, Developer, and Desktop Operating System (consumer or business) Software Products. Mainstream Support for Business, Developer, and Desktop Operating Systems will be provided for 5 years or for 2 years after the successor product (N+1) is released, whichever is longer. Microsoft will also provide Extended Support for the 5 years following Mainstream support or for 2 years after the second successor product (N+2) is released, whichever is longer. Finally, most Business, Developer, and Desktop Operating System Software products will receive at least 10 years of online self-help support.

Consumer Software and Multimedia Software Products

Microsoft will offer Mainstream Support for either a minimum of 5 years from the date of a product’s general availability, or for 2 years after the successor product (N+1) is released, whichever is longer. Extended Support is not offered for Consumer software and Multimedia products with the exception of Windows Desktop Operating system which follows the Business, Developer, and Desktop Operating System Software Products policy as outlined above.

So what did you have to say?

*confused* Why shall I call you a DRM fanboy?

But for the 10 years, that WAS true, not anymore. See above ;)

EDIT:

Forgotten to replay with the main point: Quite a lot of Linux-versions you can pay for a 1 year support, so getting full service

I love how inviting some people here are. They really make you want to contribute to their fanatical cause.

Keep smoking. DX12 is a Mantle clone, and Vulkan will go further than Mantle. Of course MS will try to clone that too. Today they are monkey followers, not creators. No matter anyway, since DX will remain MS only.


You should be surprised how anyone in their right mind can support lock-in without being a monopolist shill.

I don´t believe you got the point---you have it make it EASY for the clueless once. Affordable, endorable and so on! Hell, that´s even the reason why GOG exists...
...devs could be offering their games DRM-free on their own pages and create a new "One-Time-One-Entry-Store" each time! But hey, that´s not clever! And only the diehard believers would do this!
That´s exactly the same situation as for graphics APIs/ Multiplattform and so: Make it easy and many of the clueless once will find the right way!

Clueless developers is a very bad use case to begin with. Catering for them to some degree is needed but it's never going to be enough. What I meant is that clueless developers will never make educated decisions anyway.

Development tools are being improved however to the common benefit of everyone. You can monitor Glave:
http://lunarg.com/Vulkan/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miZmas6sGqM

More details will be announced on the upcoming Siggraph and GDC Europe:
http://s2015.siggraph.org/attendees/courses/events/overview-next-generation-graphics-apis
http://schedule.gdceurope.com/session/dx12-vulkan-dawn-of-a-new-generation-of-graphics-apis

So I don't see DX12 having any early advantage over Vulkan. The main problem for Vulkan will be simply reaching placed where it's not yet certain to be. For instance PlayStation and Xbox. The later will happen only when MS will be really pressured (because they are jerks), and PlayStation is likely to happen sooner.

Why do you sit when you take a dump when squatting is better?

Force of habit I guess, plus some "incentives" of companies who would benefit from using DirectX and decreasing OpenGL.

Keep dreaming DirectX 12 will be way more advanced than Vulkan and Vulkan is the Mantle clone. AMD said they gave the Khronos Group Mantle for Vulkan.

I doubt you even know what you are talking about. AMD obviously gave access to Mantle to many stakeholders. Including MS. And MS just copied all the ideas practically verbatim. Apple did the same in Metal. There is factual anecdotal evidence that MS didn't even bother to change the documentation much. It's good that AMD eventually gave it to Khronos to make an open API. It's MS who will now play the catch up game, not Khronos anymore.

DirectX12 is based on AMD Mantle

Microsoft copy+pasting like weasels, and then 'locking' it to their new OS.

Exactly my point.

It's at least proving that D3D12 = OpenGL 4.4.

More like D3D12 = Mantle clone. Mantle (and in result its derivatives like Vulkan, Metal and DX12) is quite different from OpenGL.

Vulkan is a copy of AMD's Mantle as well AMD gave Mantle to the Khronos Group.