Hey Guys,

I have being playing around directx since dx9 to dx12, and haven't touch any other graphics APIs yet. For all those years, I really enjoy developing dx with all its helping tools/libs: dx debuglayer, GPU-validation layer, GPUView, VSGD, and recently, the PIX. Now I have to switch to use mac os (and ios maybe?) exclusively in the near future. So I need to pick up another compatible graphics API to play with. What I really enjoy is DX12 style lower level APIs, and have heard that there are maybe only two choices for me: Vulkan (not sure mac os support it or not?) and Metal.

Since I haven't touched either APIs, I really wish to know what you guys think of it: is it in a mature state for beginner? (I remember when I work on my first DX12 project when DX12 just coming out, driver bugs drives me crazy....) are there any good GPU debug tools available for the API? (does Metal get renderDoc support?) are there any good profiling tools? (like GPUView for DX) are there plenty of tutorials/samples on the internet for beginners?

Also it will be great if anyone could talk about the general pros and cons for using Vulkan/Metal on apple devices.

Thanks in advance

edit - and opengl but you said you wanted low level.

I know Vulkan and Metal are *really* low level, but are we at the point where opengl is considered NOT low level?

Cant you like just look at RenderDoc's project page? https://github.com/baldurk/renderdoc

but are we at the point where opengl is considered NOT low level?

So it seems 'cross-platform' Vulkan could only work on windows, linux/unix (for desktop/laptop)? Feel really bad to see that 'cross-platform' is narrowing down....

If I got it correctly writing driver for Vulkan should be easier than writing for OpenGL( since lots responsibilities is moving from driver to developer) Why mac os have opengl support but not Vulkan? (I don't have any experience with mac before....)