LLVMpipe vs. OpenSWR Software Rendering On A 40 Core / 80 Thread Tyan Server

[coder]

What's the raytracing performance like on this sort of hardware? I mean it's an old technique, surely the performance gains since the early 1990s have been vast.

Intel was talking up realtime raytracing, in the days prior to Larrabee's cancellation. They even demo'd a ray-tracing mod of some quake version (3?) running on Skulltrail (dual-processor Core 2 Quad).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blfxI1cVOzU

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Skulltrail

Most recently, Imagination was pushing realtime raytracing. Too bad they've fallen on hard times.

https://www.imgtec.com/powervr/ray-tracing/

https://www.imgtec.com/blog/unreal-engine-and-the-ray-tracing-revelation/?utm_source=blog&utm_campaign=related_blog_links&utm_medium=Alex%20Voica&utm_content=introducing-the-brand-new-opengl-es-3-0

I was hoping realtime raytracing would be the next big feature of Apple iProducts (I don't own one, but them doing it might bring along the rest of the industry). But they're no longer going to use Imagination GPUs, so... probably not.

[Kamikaze]

I remember changing the settings to full software rendering in UT '99 because of an OpenGL issue.

I think UT'04 even had a software renderer! Perhaps that was the last AAA shooter to have one?

[smitty3268]

What kind of cpu usage were you seeing? Did it use any more than 8 cpu cores, for example?

[schmidtbag]

This was a lot more disappointing than I expected.  Perhaps the low clock speeds became too much of a burden? Michael: You should also try testing a GPU like a GT 630, 620, 440, 430, or 240, if you have any of those on hand.  Those have 96 CUDA cores and ought to be very close GPU analogues.  They may have more cores but they also have lower clock speeds and are designed for graphics tasks.  I get the impression AMD/ATI GPUs have shorter pipelines, which is why I don't think any of those would be as good of a test.

[Adarion]

Well, if you consider 10fps playable. And that is on a AMD 5x86 133MHz, the top of the line 486. On a more common DX2 66MHz or DX4 100MHz the framerate is even lower. Quake was really meant as a Pentium game, and even on a Pentium 133MHz it only averages about 27fps (which was considered playable back then). I'm not making up these numbers BTW. I tested Quake on these systems a few months ago.

I was running original Quake on my 486 DX2/66, 8 MiB RAM, 1 MB VRAM PCI dGPU. It was playable. Really low resolution and everything but it was running and I also had CD audio. The first mission pack required ~40 MiB RAM, so that would not run and I think that was also CPU wise no longer really playable.

[devius]

I was running original Quake on my 486 DX2/66, 8 MiB RAM, 1 MB VRAM PCI dGPU. It was playable.

Yeah, I also remember stuff from 20 years ago as having super high-resolution, but it was just 640x480, and when revisiting it more recently it didn't look as impressive as it did back then.

I'm sure in your memory it was playable, and you did enjoy it, but it was running at something between 5-10fps, and no more. At the time that was somewhat "normal", but I assure you it wouldn't be as much fun today.

The slowest 486 I tried to run Quake (deathmatch) on back in May of this year on a retro lan party was a 133MHz AMD 5x86 and it wasn't playable. Even on a Pentium 133MHz laptop it would slow down considerably when the action picked up and there were many players and explosions on screen. This was at 320x200.

If you add a 3D accelerator then it will probably run fine, but a 486 alone isn't enough for Quake. Doom on the other hand runs very well on a 66MHz 486.

The first mission pack required ~40 MiB RAM

Actually, it only required 16MB: https://www.mobygames.com/game/quake...magon/techinfo

[DrYak]

I remember changing the settings to full software rendering in UT '99 because of an OpenGL issue. {...} It totally worked in software mode, despite not being as smooth and looking like pixel porridge.

Descent II (1996) was another game that had option for full software rendering at the same time as Quake II.
(But ran way faster even on much simpler hardware, among other because it was optimised for indoor-labyrinth type of settings, using some portal-like acceleration)

I'd have been using something around 320x200 (or 320x240, since it was co-developed by Michael Abrash, who discovered/popularized that mode).

Actually it could run at anything that was realistically available back then.
Including all possible Tweaked Mode/ XMode resolutions (including less typical like 400x600)
Including high resolution SVGA if VESA BIOS extension were available (I don't remember if Linear Extension was required ? Certainly the DJGPP platform used could also support banked mode).

[GreatEmerald]

I think UT'04 even had a software renderer! Perhaps that was the last AAA shooter to have one?

Yea, but I never actually got that running. Hmm. (Also, "UT'04" looks rather ambiguous; it's UT2004.)

[DMJC]

Ah man, Descent 2, that brings back memories. Wing Commander 1/2/3/4 and Privateer all ran well on a 486. The move to PCI based systems had so many teething issues with DOS. Raytracing always looked great, hence why Privateer's user interface screens and cockpits looked awesome. All pre-rendered using a 3D package. EA later moved to PowerAnimator and SGI hardware for rendering videos/backgrounds/textures/modelling.

[linuxgeex]

Intel was talking up realtime raytracing, in the days prior to Larrabee's cancellation. They even demo'd a ray-tracing mod of some quake version (3?) running on Skulltrail (dual-processor Core 2 Quad).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blfxI1cVOzU

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Skulltrail

Most recently, Imagination was pushing realtime raytracing. Too bad they've fallen on hard times.

https://www.imgtec.com/powervr/ray-tracing/

https://www.imgtec.com/blog/unreal-engine-and-the-ray-tracing-revelation/?utm_source=blog&utm_campaign=related_blog_links&utm_medium=Alex%20Voica&utm_content=introducing-the-brand-new-opengl-es-3-0

I was hoping realtime raytracing would be the next big feature of Apple iProducts (I don't own one, but them doing it might bring along the rest of the industry). But they're no longer going to use Imagination GPUs, so... probably not.

Some games are using real-time raytracing for shadows.