Any plans for AMD Mantle support?
RejZoR
Slovenia Join Date: 2013-09-24 Member: 188450Members, NS2 Playtester, Reinforced - Shadow
Slovenia Join Date: 2013-09-24 Member: 188450Members, NS2 Playtester, Reinforced - Shadow
So, NS2 is one of the rare games where you can switch between rendering API's and i was wondering, we have D3D9, D3D11 and OpenGL. And i'm hoping UWE would also add AMD Mantle. If you don't know, AMD Mantle is an AMD specific high performance API that has a much more direct connection to the hardware and thus offers much higher performance. And better performance never hurts right?
Comments
Would have to ask if it's worth the time tbh, there are probably other things they could do that would be more helpful to more people.
EDIT: As it has been pointed out to me, this post is misinformation, please scroll down and see a more correct post below.
Could only find the GPU market share for Q1 this year, this is how it looks like this from this article.
If there is going to be linux support for AMD mantle it would be a possible alternative to opengl but at present the only confirmation is on windows, as well as talk it is unlikely to be implemented on xbox one and PS4.
So far only frostbite 3 / BF4 are confirmed using it and only on windows..
Not to say it might become an awesome idea in the future but I can think of a load of changes opening more doors for the spark engine over adding this as it stands right now.
Even still,
While the percentage is better for gpus than cpus, my point still stands.
EDIT: Also steam call it ATI, fk yeah, old school.
I always forget about the steam stats...
I do wonder how that GPU mix would look with origin users.
The only way I would see Mantle being worthwhile for UWE is if it was supported by xboxone and/or PS4 but only if they had plans to develop spark for those consoles in the future.
I personally think taking the linux/steamOS - openGL - NVIDIA path as a focus is the right one for them now.
Honestly I wouldn't even want this. I would want them to spend those resources in some other area. Also... I'm a nvidia user...
Not sure what problems are you talking about, i'm playing the game using D3D11 since it was introduced and i never had any issues. I only had it with D3D9 with shadows sometimes going funky. But that only happened like twice.
Just saying.
I think I read somewhere that it's supposed to break windows' monopoly on gaming pcs, as DirectX is only compatible with windows, and virtually the only relevant API. It's supposed to run on all platforms.
This is no facts. I think I read it somewhere.
Yeah, give me Mantle, and the game will run smooth as butter for me.
So you are saying they should focus only on Nvidia GPU's? Oh yeah, thats a great plan, no wait, which one is the better manufacturer right now... :-bd
Also no, don't only focus on nvidia gpus, just don't pour time and money into something that will help out very few.
If it makes the game truly playable at least to those few its worth it compared to right now.
Nope I never said they should 'only' focus on that...
However improving those things to a time frame that works with steamOS and steambox releases will likely bring a lot more extra sales with some fresh players / stayers to NS2.
I hope, if nothing else, that Mantle causes MS to buck it's ideas up and have a complete rethink around it's DirectX implementation and strategy, so not only do they make it a lot smoother and faster, but maybe will release the API publicly.. Although, I am probably dreaming...
Mantle is a GPU API. Not CPU.
AMD is losing to Intel in the area of CPU (where both may be losing to ARM long term). In the GPU arena, AMD is losing to NVidia. So this may be their management's shot to reverse the trend - to provide something unique yet useful and carve up their secure position on the market like 3Dfx did once.
But there is a problem - 3Dfx succeeded because it was first to bring a huge innovation - their first card brought filtered textures and HW rendering, huge performance and quality improvement. Yet the proprietary API finally became hindrance - there were technological limits they could not pass due to the low level API being too tied to the HW ( no 32bit color, etc. ), and the trend was to move to a generic, HW independent API that would simplify development. Performance boost may be nice, but I don't think it will outweigh the need to optimize and write the code for different graphic libraries - and Mantle being low level means you need intimate knowledge of the HW, similar to the ancient assembler programmers who wrote those amazing 8bit games nobody thought would be possible to run. Few companies have budget and knowhow for that.
The best outcame I can see is some guru like Carmack writing some new, revolutionary engine that will be able to really take advantage of the low level optimizations, and other companies licensing it for their games. But I think you can forget about average game dev company using it to its full potential. Plus, I don't believe the hype so much, I think the performance gains will be only slight, not decisive. What could be achieved, though, would be smoother, more balanced performance overall, which might be worth it.
Which is why I went and posted the GPU stats right after that being pointed out.