Mryntu

Vulkan is a very useful API for rendering projects, and I would like to learn how to use it as it opens up new possibilities for doing some rendering tricks much more efficiently than in OpenGl.

I am having significant trouble learning it, however. It is a very complex API with many essential details. These details, while useful, are not interesting enough in and of themself to reliably hold my attention for long periods, even if I put in significant effort. I find when I go through the written tutorials that I get very distracted by almost anything. For example, when I was reading about its mechanism for selecting a GPU in a multi-GPU system instead of focusing on the syntax that I want to learn, I ended up thinking about all the implications of such a selection existing, compared to the fact that it does not in OpenGl. Distractions such as that end up drastically increasing the time that I need to spend on the reading, and skimming is not an option either as the details really are important. There are also diminishing returns as my ability to use will power to remain focused diminishes much more quickly than I would like it to (I can only get through maybe ~10 pages of this reading in a single sitting while maintaining the focus that I feel is necessary.)

This problem is not unique to Vulkan. I had the same problem, but to a much lesser extent, when learning OpenGl. In that instance, I was able to find video tutorials that explained the necessary concepts very succinctly. This helped both because the explanations were more succinct, with only the necessary information (including theory when appropriate) to use the API (and I could look at written alternatives when I wanted more details). When I attempted this for Vulkan, however, the only video tutorials that I could find were both outdated and contradicting the text tutorials in a few places, making me very weary of using them as I may pick up bad practices or outdated Vulkan. Video tutorials also work well for me as they keep on moving even if I get temporarily distracted, thus pulling my attention back. When reading, if I get distracted I automatically stop reading.

I would also like to note that this isn't an issue of lazyness; I am willing to put in significant time to do it, but I find that my ability to focus is quickly diminishing.

As such, I ask: How can I learn Vulkan (Ideally, the advice will be applicable to other similar tasks as well) reasonably efficiently and how can I counter the described road-blocks?

I am right there with you; I find it incredibly difficult to work through something substantial and new without disappearing down many little rabbit holes.

Here's a simple idea: have you considered just making a list of "questions to answer"? It would be for items that you want to explore in order to flesh out your understanding, but aren't in the main thread of your learning.

Items on the list would resolve in one of four ways:

1. It graduates to the main thread when you stop understanding what is going on.


2. You come to understand it over time without doing an explicit research, just from context and osmosis.


3. Through devoted time (perhaps at the end of a session, when your attention is starting to flag anyway), you eventually fill in the hole with some side-research.


4. It turns out to be unimportant enough that it never comes up again, and can safely be ignored.

The most important things, I think, are not to go down every rabbit hole you see right away, and to reserve some time to go through the list from time to time and fill in some of the missing puzzle pieces.

I've found that a useful trick is to have a specific project or end goal in mind. That helps to focus your attention on completing that project or goal, and gives you a purpose to think about what you're reading. It can also help you retain more of what you're reading, since you're always applying the new things you're learning.

Frequently, you'll be able to find beginner oriented projects online that you could try to build, or maybe you have some vision or project that you want to use this new technology for.

I find that having a project or goal really helps you 1) stay motivated to keep reading 2) retain the material (and have some code snippets to use later), and 3) not get lost down long rabbit holes (although this still requires some willpower).

Good luck!