Valve’s Steam Frame VR headset, powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC, is utilizing the open-source Zink driver for OpenGL compatibility on top of the Vulkan API. This decision was made despite the availability of the native Freedreno Gallium3D driver for Qualcomm Adreno graphics.
Mike Blumenkrantz of Valve's Linux graphics team and a lead Zink developer confirmed the driver implementation in a recent blog post. According to Blumenkrantz, “On both Android and native, it’s zink all the way down.” This indicates a deliberate choice to leverage the OpenGL-on-Vulkan implementation for the Steam Frame.
The Steam Frame went on sale this week with a starting price of $1059 USD. The use of Zink is seen as a sign of the maturity and progress of this OpenGL-on-Vulkan technology.
Read the original coverage
💬 Comments
📜 Comment Policy