AMD Wants Mantle On Linux, OS X, Mobile Devices

[iniudan]

Found a video of the presentation

[peppercats]

Oh man, a phoronix subject that I happen to be an expert on!

OpenGL is ass.
DirectX is bigger ass.

I don't particularly enjoy working directly with either anymore, it feels about the same as when I have to go manage some C code. I don't want to do it, I won't enjoy doing it, but somebody has to do it.

Not much information about this, so no comment on mantle.

[iniudan]

Here DICE's Johan Anderson presentation at APU13.

[ChrisXY]

presentation about Mantle that also includes more low-level details about the graphics API,

Still no specification?

[89c51]

A G3D state tracker will be more than welcome if they are serious about linux.



And an analysis by elanthis.

[Nille]

A G3D state tracker will be more than welcome if they are serious about linux.

You sure? I mean Intel doens't use Gallium3D

[89c51]

You sure? I mean Intel doens't use Gallium3D

Thats their problem basically.

[[Knuckles]]

I am really confused at this point. Why would anyone code against a vendor specific API? In Linux, you code against OpenGL, and it will work on pretty much any graphics card.

Oh, but you see, that's not true. In reality, you code against OpenGL, and it will work on nvidia, intel and mesa. But not on Catalyst.
Just check the release notes of every game released on linux for the past 12 months.

So instead of cleaning up their act, they just introduce another API and say "you shouldn't use OpenGL on our hardware, anyway".

[Nille]

Thats their problem basically.

If you want high speed mantle rendering you can use the fglrx. A Gallium3D State Tracker change nothing. But if Intel can Support Mantle on linux is a big win.

[rvdboom]

You guys should check the provided slides above and look for instance at semiaccurate.com's forum for informed thinking about Mantle before dismissing it for various reasons.
The facts are :

1/ Game developpers and particularly engine developpers seem **very** interested in it
2/ In particular, Mantle adresses CPU overhead in OpenGL and DirectX, which is one of the main reasons Mesa is slower according to X11 developpers (IRC)
3/ There are Nvidia developpers at the AMD APU13 Summit right now
4/ The improvements provided by Mantle will apply not only to games but to any 3D application.
5/ Creating a Mantle path in a game engine seems simple (2 man months for Oxide)
6/ AMD stated that Mantle is not restricted in itself to their own architecture. It can be used with others using a plugin-system, so there's no reason NVidia and Intel cannot develop a layer to use with their architecture. And since AMD has a rather good track record in opening their standards (x86_64, Hypertransport, HSA, etc.) and passing the IP to foundation, Mantle could probably become an open standard as OpenGL.

I don't know if Mantle will live to its promises but I do think that people should look into it closely before dismissing it completely.