This tutorial, written shortly after Vulkan's 2016 release, aims to teach the basics of the Vulkan graphics and compute API from the Khronos group. Vulkan offers better abstraction of modern graphics cards than APIs like OpenGL, potentially leading to improved performance and driver behavior. While similar in concept to Direct3D 12 and Metal, Vulkan is cross-platform, supporting Windows, Linux, and Android.

However, Vulkan's verbosity requires developers to manage details like frame buffer creation and memory management from scratch, making it suitable for those enthusiastic about high-performance computer graphics. Prerequisites include a Vulkan-compatible graphics card, C++ experience, a C++17 compliant compiler, and basic 3D graphics knowledge. The tutorial will guide users through setting up the development environment using the Vulkan SDK, GLM, and GLFW, and then implementing the core components needed to render a triangle.

Each chapter introduces concepts, demonstrates API calls, and abstracts functionality into helper functions. The tutorial also provides links to the full code listing, a FAQ section, and encourages community feedback and contributions to its GitHub repository. The content is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0, with code listings under CC0 1.0 Universal.