Vulkan Support in Vortex Editor (Tech preview)

Owned by Marc Lievin
Feb 21, 2023

For users with non NVIDIA graphics hardware, Vulkan technology has been introduced into Vortex Studio. Mechanical design workflows are the only supported use cases at this time.



Please note that Vulkan support is in development and has not reached feature parity with the OpenGL real time render system.

There are also visual differences from the standard OpenGL 3D view.

However, Content created with Vortex Editor in Vulkan is compatible with any rendering version and can be reopened with OpenGL technology.

The Vulkan renderer is in a technical preview state at this time, and certain features may not fully work.

How to enable Vulkan support in Vortex Editor

A new Vulkan renderer has been integrated in the Vortex Editor, which will allow use of the editor on most PCs and laptops.

If a non-NVidia graphic card is detected, the new Vulkan renderer is automatically selected. Otherwise OpenGL will be used.

The graphic renderer can also be manually chosen via a new entry in the Display Options page of the Editor as shown below.


When Autodetect is selected, systems that have several graphic cards will choose OpenGL when an NVidia card is available. Otherwise, it will select Vulkan.

However, notably on laptops, some power saving modes can result in  graphic card being disabled entirely. If this is the case, it may not be possible to switch display renderer types. In order to avoid this situation, please make sure that power saving mode is turned off.



How to enable Vulkan support in Vortex Player

By default, the Vortex Player still is using OpenGL. However, it is possible to start the player in Vulkan mode with a command line.

  1. Open a Windows shell and go the your installed Vortex Toolkit bin directory.
  2. Run the following command line : VortexDirector.exe --launch "..\resources\config\player_Vulkan.vxsimulator"


Graphics Features Supported in Vulkan mode

  • All accessories to display the dynamics features:
    • Collision Geometries
    • Constraints
    • Inertia Bodies
    • Center of Mass adjustment
  • Editor graphics user interface features: 
    • Object manipulation (Position, Rotation, Scale)
    • Connection Graph
    • VHL interfaces to mechanical systems
    • Scripting
    • Collision Rules
    • Configurations
  • Graphics features:
    • Cameras
    • HUD
    • Multi-tab workflows
    • Single layer materials
    • Animation Path
    • QT Console

Graphics Features Not Yet Supported in Vulkan mode

The following features are scheduled on the roadmap as targeted rendering for mechanical engineering:

  • Cables rendering
  • Earthworks rendering
  • Ocean rendering
  • Previewers for basic geometry, material and texture 

We recommend using Unity or Unreal for other advanced rendering features:

  • Light Halo and Probe, Shadows
  • Ambient, Directional, Point, and Spot Lights
  • Decals, 2D Particle rendering
  • Multi layered materials, blend modes
  • UV modifications on imported 3d models
  • Vehicle Traces
  • Weather effects, Skydome, Skybox
  • Vegetation, Trees, Grass
  • Character, Humans animation
  • Color and Depth Camera
  • LIDAR Sensor
  • VR