Nintendo Switch to support Vulkan, OpenGL 4.5 and OpenGL ES

A few developers are buzzing today about The Khronos Group's decision to add Nintendo's upcoming Switch console to its lists of hardware compliant with the OpenGL 4.5, OpenGL ES, and Vulkan (OpenGL's successor) APIs it maintains.

This is worth knowing for developers who have embraced these APIs and are contemplating how (or if) they'll make Switch games. As developer Ethan Lee points out on Twitter, it also suggests the Switch will better support OpenGL than some established, popular platforms -- including iOS and MacOS.

We've seen a number of high-profile developers embrace Vulkan specifically this year, citing notable performance benefits. For example, id Software claimed that patching Vulkan support into the PC version of Doom earlier this year would help facilitate "super-high framerates."