Newsgroup: it.comp.giochi.action
Titolo: AMD Ends Revolutionary Mantle API 1.0, Asks Devs To Focus On DirectX 12

LOL
 
AMD Ends Mantle API 1.0 – Raja Koduri Advises Devs To Focus on Latest 
DirectX and Vulkan (OpenGL)
 
This is a major news since the launch of the new API which was meant to 
be released for many more titles and as a public SDK too. Raja Kodouri 
has released a statement suggesting that Mantle will continue to evolve 
and enhance its capabilities beyond its  mastery of draw cells and will 
continue to serve AMD as a graphics platform for innovation. It will be 
available to select partners with custom needs however for wide 
utilization, AMD has suggested developers to go the route of DirectX 
and OpenGL while taking advantage of Mantle to get an insight on 
specialized features which the latest DirectX and OpenGL may not 
provide in their infancy. Before talking further, let’s take a recap of 
how Mantle was meant to work and how DirectX followed its footsteps to 
become a next generation API for developers:
 
So how does Mantle work?
 
The Mantle API is geared towards AMD GCN hardware which includes their 
Radeon HD 7000, 8000 and R200 series cards.While Mantle’s first focus 
would be the graphics processing unit utilization, from recent 
benchmarks we have come to the conclusion that Mantle’s initial focus 
would be to eliminate scenarios where the processor becomes the 
bottleneck of the entire system causing performance degradation. Mantle 
API helps by reducing the CPU load for better utilization of the system
hardware.
 
This shows that performance improvements with be expected on both Intel 
and AMD processors based rigs since Mantle removes a lot of the load 
from the CPU to allow the GPU to run at its true potential. Users who 
are currently using Kaveri APUs along with GCN based graphics cards 
would expect a massive improvement as compared to users with FX CPUs or 
intel’s high-end range of processors. This is mainly since Kaveri APUs 
which compared to FX processors and Intel’s HEDT lineup are more 
limited in terms of x86 potential and total threads hence lesser load 
on the CPU side from different tasks would enable the GPU to better 
utilize the full potential of the Kaveri APUs. Unfortunately, we didn’t 
have access to Kaveri since we haven’t received a sample yet so our 
testing would be done on our AMD test rig which includes a FX-8350 
processor.
 
AMD Mantle
 
Do note that Mantle update doesn’t has any sort of restriction when it 
comes to CPU so gains are expected across both Intel and AMD based 
processors since it offers more in-depth utilization of the hardware. 
Our complete benchmark analysis of Mantle with Battlefield 4 can be 
seen here.
 
Mantle is an API that is thought to be a direct competitor to 
Microsoft’s Direct X and Open GL. It allows for a high number of Draw 
Calls to be submitted per frame resulting in higher performance. The 
problem with this statement is that it was interpreted to mean that it 
would make AMD’s Graphic Cards more efficient without the CPU being a 
factor. Because we now know that it is actually designed to reduce the 
workload of the CPU, comparison against Direct X changes completely. 
The new variable that comes into play for comparison is whether or not 
a game is CPU-Intensive. If a game is CPU intensive and you have a CPU 
that is not naturally capable of dealing with the load then Mantle will 
help you, if not then don’t expect miracles.
 
What Happens To Mantle API Now?
 
Mantle, as stated above, will be available to developers with custom 
needs and the new API will be brought to Battlefield Hardline from DICE 
(AMD Trusted Partner). AMD’s Robert Hallock has the following to say:
 
AMD’s game development partners have similarly started to shift their 
focus, so it follows that 2015 will be a transitional year for Mantle. 
Our loyal customers are naturally curious about what this transition 
might entail, and we wanted to share some thoughts with you on where we 
will be taking Mantle next:
 
AMD will continue to support our trusted partners that have committed 
to Mantle in future projects, like Battlefield™ Hardline, with all the 
resources at our disposal.
 
Mantle’s definition of “open” must widen. It already has, in fact. This 
vital effort has replaced our intention to release a public Mantle SDK, 
and you will learn the facts on Thursday, March 5 at GDC 2015.
 
Mantle must take on new capabilities and evolve beyond mastery of the 
draw call. It will continue to serve AMD as a graphics innovation 
platform available to select partners with custom needs.
 
The Mantle SDK also remains available to partners who register in this 
co-development and evaluation program. However, if you are a developer 
interested in Mantle “1.0” functionality, we suggest that you focus 
your attention on DirectX® 12 or GLnext.
 
As an API born to tackle the big challenges in graphics, much of this 
evolution is already well under way. We invite you to join AMD this 
week at Game Developer Conference 2015 to see not just the future of 
Mantle, but the future of PC graphics itself. AMD will be releasing a 
450 page programming guide and reference API to assist developers 
working on APIs that feature the technology and work path surrounding 
Mantle such as Vulkan and DX12.
 
As we move in the future, we will see new APIs making use of better 
implementation that will be able to combine GPU VRAM delivering more 
video memory by accessing the frame buffers across each cards and 
furthermore, combining cards (Cross-SLI) from both AMD and NVIDIA to 
work as a single entity by communicating in parallel across each core 
on the GPU and CPU. There’s a lot that can be achieved with the 
upcoming and current APIs such as Mantle if developers are willing to 
pay more attention to them like DICE who were first to adopt Mantle 
support in their games. Vulkan, formerly known as OpenGL is another API 
making use of multi-threading efficiency to enhance performance and a 
good read on how it works can be seen in the article from 
PCPerspective.
 
Vulkan even allows the game developer to disable most of the error 
checking for production code. Rather than having the API look over the 
game code’s shoulder to make sure it’s not going to crash itself, like 
OpenGL and OpenGL ES does, all of that debugging cruft can be unhooked 
from shipped games. With this, the driver can be simple and the 
developer does not need to wait for the driver to make sure that the 
developer isn’t doing what the developer already checked to make sure 
didn’t happen before it sent its request to the driver. Wow, that 
sentence seems like an awful waste of time, doesn’t it?
 
But all of that makes the CPU side more efficient
 
The Khronos Group has also tweaked the GPU side as well. Before now, we 
had a war between GLSL in OpenGL and HLSL in DirectX. HLSL was quite 
popular because Windows and Xbox were very popular platforms to target 
a game for. When AMD made Mantle, one of their selling points was that 
the Mantle shading language was just HLSL. This meant that game 
developers could keep using the shader language that they know, and AMD 
would not need to maintain a whole separate compiler/interpreter chain.
 
When you are not bound by draw call limitations, another bottleneck 
might just be how much you can push through the shader cores. A good 
example of increasing the load on shaders would be increasing 
resolution (unless you run out of video memory or video memory 
bandwidth first). When AMD chose HLSL, it meant that they could make 
shaders for Mantle run just as fast as shaders for DirectX. This means 
that they would not be sacrificing top-end, GPU-bound performance for 
low-end, draw call-bound, CPU performance. via PCPerspective
 
While AMD promised a Public SDK of Mantle to be released this year, it 
seems like they have canned it since Mantle is being replaced by 
DirectX and Vulkan (OpenGL) and advising devs to make a switch to them 
too. Mantle has so far been able to achieve the purpose it was built 
for. It has pushed the major software makers to push to address CPU 
bottlenecks and how to get more out of the untapped potential of 
processors. Since it’s launch, NVIDIA has pushed for enhancing this 
bottleneck with driver support on DX 11.2 API and Microsoft will be 
launching their DirectX 12 API this year. The titles in development 
with Mantle support will be worked on with full AMD support and work 
with continue till DirectX 12 hits on consumer level, however we can’t 
tell what happens to Mantle post-DirectX 12 and that will possibly 
explained by AMD on March 5th at their GDC presentation.

 LOL
 
Fatto benissimo, le premesse erano buone ma tutte le tecnologie
proprietarie sono merda fumante.
Meglio ancora delle dx sono le prossime opengl
 
 
 
-- 
- I'm afraid to close my eyes, I'm afraid to open them
 
- Devi sparargli sul naso!
 
- Rivoglio il mio scellino!

 Meglio ancora delle dx sono le prossime opengl
 
+1...
 
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  parte di Vulkan.
 
Amd voleva usarlo per spingere le sue soluzioni ma il lasso di tempo di 
vantaggio che hanno avuto non l'hanno saputo sfruttare. Un po' come trueaudio 
che ancora sta li' e quasi nessuno usa.
 
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