[Devblog] Mantle comes to Sniper Elite 3!

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Gloomy

Golden Member
Oct 12, 2010
1,469
21
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Have there been any games that have used Mantle's Asynchronous Compute Queue? DICE mentioned it during a presentation, but said they never implemented it (as of march 2014) and Rebellion also mentions it only to note that they haven't used it either.

Not Mantle, but console games are using it. Here's an example: http://fumufumu.q-games.com/archives/Cascaded_Voxel_Cone_Tracing_final_speaker_notes.pdf

Page 95-96. They use three asynchronous compute queues and get 5ms back on a 33ms frame. This is on a PS4.
 

geoxile

Senior member
Sep 23, 2014
327
25
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I wonder why they are using 3 asynch compute queues if PS4 have 8 ACEs.

I think that's just for some of the post processing, not necessarily all of it. On the topic of ACEs. It's my understanding that the ACE is a hardware-level implementation for scheduling and dispatching compute tasks, like you would find in a modern CPU. Async compute queue as a software-level feature allows the developer to manually schedule graphics and compute tasks to execute in parallel. So it may be the case that using all 8 ACEs wouldn't benefit the async compute they've implemented in software because between the graphics and compute tasks it's already as efficient as possible.

It's interesting to see there's a 15% improvement just on the graphics side. I wish I could get that in Battlefield 4. Thanks for sharing that
 

Gloomy

Golden Member
Oct 12, 2010
1,469
21
81
I think that's just for some of the post processing, not necessarily all of it. On the topic of ACEs. It's my understanding that the ACE is a hardware-level implementation for scheduling and dispatching compute tasks, like you would find in a modern CPU. Async compute queue as a software-level feature allows the developer to manually schedule graphics and compute tasks to execute in parallel. So it may be the case that using all 8 ACEs wouldn't benefit the async compute they've implemented in software because between the graphics and compute tasks it's already as efficient as possible.

It's interesting to see there's a 15% improvement just on the graphics side. I wish I could get that in Battlefield 4. Thanks for sharing that

33ms > 27ms is actually a 22% improvement!

That's going from 30FPS to 37FPS.
 

BFG10K

Lifer
Aug 14, 2000
22,672
2,817
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And only people in the Early Access program have access to DX12 currently which doesn't sound to be a final version also.
Where did I say it was the final version? Also Mantle isn't the final version either, given we're repeatedly told it's beta.

I also noticed nobody addressed my comment about BF4 + 285? What do you all think will happen to Sniper Elite when AMD's next graphics cards are released, but the developer doesn't bother patching their application?
 

Makaveli

Diamond Member
Feb 8, 2002
4,715
1,049
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Where did I say it was the final version? Also Mantle isn't the final version either, given we're repeatedly told it's beta.

I also noticed nobody addressed my comment about BF4 + 285? What do you all think will happen to Sniper Elite when AMD's next graphics cards are released, but the developer doesn't bother patching their application?

You didn't say it was final but the main point is DX12 is not in the version of W10 that we are all testing, its only available to developers.

As for patching its a great question but we will have to cross that bridge when we get there. I would think they would have also asked themselves this same question.
 

3DVagabond

Lifer
Aug 10, 2009
11,951
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Apparently it might be free? I'll be surprised, but hexus is speculating it will be.
http://hexus.net/tech/news/software/75225-windows-9-free-upgrade-windows-8-users/

windows_market_share_sept_2014.jpg


Considering Win8's market share, or lack there of, It doesn't look like Msft is really offering much. XP is still installed on more systems than 8 and 8.1 combined. What about the Win7 folks? Over half the home PC's will need to upgrade their OS.
 
Aug 11, 2008
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windows_market_share_sept_2014.jpg


Considering Win8's market share, or lack there of, It doesn't look like Msft is really offering much. XP is still installed on more systems than 8 and 8.1 combined. What about the Win7 folks? Over half the home PC's will need to upgrade their OS.

So? Over half the gamers will have to "upgrade" their gpu to use mantle.
 

BFG10K

Lifer
Aug 14, 2000
22,672
2,817
126
You didn't say it was final but the main point is DX12 is not in the version of W10 that we are all testing, its only available to developers.
Again, this applies equally to Mantle. Mantle is not the final version, and it's only available to certain developers.

As for patching its a great question but we will have to cross that bridge when we get there.
That bridge is already here with the 285/BF4. Even EA/DICE will eventually stop patching BF4. Then what's left? Either stay on old AMD hardware where Mantle performs where it should, or switch to the now-faster DX path. Either way, Mantle becomes a temporary one-trick pony.
 

NTMBK

Lifer
Nov 14, 2011
10,208
4,940
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windows_market_share_sept_2014.jpg


Considering Win8's market share, or lack there of, It doesn't look like Msft is really offering much. XP is still installed on more systems than 8 and 8.1 combined. What about the Win7 folks? Over half the home PC's will need to upgrade their OS.

Windows 7 is 5 years old- 6 years old, by the time Windows 10 actually comes out. How much do you expect to get from Microsoft for a single one-off payment? You are already guaranteed to get free security fixes until 2020, over a decade after the operating system launched. And software engineering is far from cheap. Yet you expect them to spend considerable sums of money to port new features back to their 5 year old product so that you can enjoy them for free?

If you really value something, then you should be willing to pay for it. Software doesn't happen by magic, it happens because a lot of people put a lot of hard work into it- and those people frankly deserve to be paid.
 

TechFan1

Member
Sep 7, 2013
97
3
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That windows market share is not indicative of what gamers have as an OS. Just look at the steam hardware survey, windows 8/8.1 is installed on nearly 30% of gamer systems.
 

davie jambo

Senior member
Feb 13, 2014
380
1
0
Maybe to you.

This game has appeal to people that like that style of play.

It is a bit rubbish to be fair

I'll try this mantle driver tonight after work. Looked for it Sat morning but they had not updated the game yet

I got to the final level of this game , you have to destroy a load of vehicles. Was too hard so I gave up and I did not care what happened