That's the big question I have: how well does Vulkan seem to be bridging the divide between API and GPU semantics? Will we finally see a time where graphics drivers no longer monkey-patch per game?
(I'm still somewhat skeptical as the monkey patching is a value-add secret sauce that seems likely to continue solely because it's such a weird competitive thing between the two biggest vendors and a galvanizer for the brand loyalties they try to maintain, but perhaps I'm just feeling pessimistic about the capitalist drives here.)
> how well does Vulkan seem to be bridging the divide between API and GPU semantics?
That's the entire point behind Vulkan. OpenGL was created back when we still had fixed-function rendering pipelines in GPU's, and while it has evolved to support the massively parallel supercomputers GPU's have become it doesn't have much low-level control over it. Vulkan gives the engine developer the thinnest abstraction possible over a modern GPU, from everything from explicit resource sharing and even explicit access to multiple GPU's (no more relying on nVidia and AMD to add SLI/Crossfire profiles).
(I'm still somewhat skeptical as the monkey patching is a value-add secret sauce that seems likely to continue solely because it's such a weird competitive thing between the two biggest vendors and a galvanizer for the brand loyalties they try to maintain, but perhaps I'm just feeling pessimistic about the capitalist drives here.)