Today's I/O news is slowing down, but that doesn't mean that cool or important stuff has dried up just yet. Last year, Google announced that it was bringing support for Vulkan 1.1 to Pie, but now the company has said that v1.1 will be a requirement for 64-bit Android devices running Q or higher.

Vulkan is a cross-platform, low-overhead graphics API. You might have heard it used most in reference to gaming, especially if you use Linux, and it's a pretty big deal. v1.1 includes support for multi-view, HLSL, and device groups among other things. It effectively improves graphics performance on Android, especially for intensive titles.

Developers using OpenGL should be on the lookout for a new driver that supports Vulkan-based devices. 32-bit devices get a pass, even though Google strongly recommends Vulkan 1.1. Android Q will also see experiemental support for ANGLE built on top of Vulkan.

Source: Google