Feature comparison between wgpu and DiligentEngine.

[crlf0710]

Hello, recently i've been using a libray called DiligentEngine in C++ (https://github.com/DiligentGraphics/DiligentEngine), and i'm seeking for something similar in Rust language. After some research it seems wgpu is the closest at this point. I'm curious what developers of wgpu consider the most important pros and cons of wgpu compared to that library, aside from the language difference, of course.

By the way, that library has quite a few nice tutorial samples. I think it would be very encourging if wgpu can provide some similar examples!

[kvark]

I interacted with Diligent just a bit. I think they are in entirely different categories: Diligent is an engine, while wgpu is a GPU abstraction (which can be a part of an engine).
So Diligent should be compared to things like Bevy and Rg3d instead of wgpu.

[crlf0710]

Thanks you for your reply. Yes, i should have wrote clearer. There's a component called DiligentCore in it that is a GPU abstraction, which can be used alone. This single component is quite similar to wgpu in principle.

[kvark]

Ok, I looked at it briefly, and here is what I found:

1. DiligentCore is close to wgpu-hal in principle (as opposed wgpu-core). It's also unsafe, and also uses explicit resource transitions, although DC's Vulkan backend calls FlushBarriers everywhere, which I find strange. I assume it's designed to have minimal friction when implementing on different backends, but the actual details of this trade-off are likely different from WebGPU.
2. wgpu (and wgpu-hal) follows the actual standard that's been worked on for years by the group. There is a specification and a test suite. While DC's API is more ad-hoc, and not as tested for edge cases.
3. DC's Metal backend is not free, requires a commercial license. Other backends are the same: DX12, DX11 (which we need to revive), Vulkan, and OpenGL.
4. DC's shader pipeline is built on SPIRV-Cross, HLSL2GLSL, glslang, DXC, or some combination of them. wgpu-hal uses naga purely, and should weigh lighter because of that.

[crlf0710]

Thanks!