Announcing SilverLining 7, with Vulkan support!

We are proud to announce the launch of version 7.0 of the SilverLining Sky, 3D Cloud, and Weather SDK, featuring the promotion of SilverLining’s Vulkan support to production status!

Vulkan is the successor to OpenGL, offering better performance for your simulation and training applications due to its lower-level interface. With version 7, SilverLining now supports OpenGL, DirectX 11, and Vulkan as core renderers.

Vulkan does have a steep learning curve for developers, so we have included lots of sample code and integrations with emerging Vulkan-based engines as part of the version 7 SDK. In addition to a low-level sample built on the Vulkan SDK itself, we have included sample integrations with VulkanSceneGraph, Diligent, and the Rocky geospatial engine from Pelican Mapping.

With SilverLining 7, migrating simulation and training applications that require physically accurate sky and weather effects to Vulkan is now possible. VulkanSceneGraph offers a migration path for developers who were building on OpenSceneGraph, and Rocky offers a migration path for osgEarth users. Moving to Vulkan is still a large project, but it may come with substantial performance benefits and overall modernization of your systems. The ecosystem of engines and middleware that has supported simulation and training under OpenGL is making its way to Vulkan, and SilverLining 7 is a part of that transition.

Vulkan support in SilverLining is available to current license holders with an active support and maintenance plan, as well as to new licensees. License purchases and support plan renewals may be purchased at our online store, or contact us for a formal quote. Free evaluation SDK’s are also available at https://sundog-soft.com/evaluation-downloads-silverlining/.