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More Driver CPU Overhead Work Being Tackled By Valve Developers

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  • #11
    Originally posted by humbug View Post
    I guess it's a question of how much AMD values openGL performance on windows, or do they not worry because most people use directX.
    for direct3d9 you can always use gallium nine on windows...

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    • #12
      Originally posted by microcode View Post

      For what it's worth, there's basically no legal or technical reason they couldn't ship Mesa on Windows (it'd be a bit of work getting it integrated with the platform, adapting the kernel driver, and getting the WGL implementation up to scratch though).
      As far as I'm aware, everything is licensed permissively (MIT, Khronos, or Boost).
      Though I would love to see that, I know enough of the internals of the Windows driver to know that won't happen; it would be more than "a bit of work". DX and *insert-propriety-APIs-that-I-am-not-sure-if-I-can-discussed-here* dependencies are a whole other can of worms. Yes there's no legal reason, but technically there are plenty.

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      • #13
        Originally posted by humbug View Post
        I assume that now Mesa openGL is already faster than Windows Crimson drivers OpenGL.
        Maybe, but given that OpenGL gaming is completely irrelevant on Windows and they still need to support the compatibility profile mess somehow (which mesa explicitly does not support, which is also why Doom doesn't work with Mesa), I highly doubt it would be worth the effort.

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        • #14
          Originally posted by humbug View Post
          The last one year Valve is investing like crazy into AMD's linux ecosystem. I wonder if they have some special plans to launch AMD ryzen+Vega based steam machines.
          Or it's just the fact that since this stuff is open source they can help out...
          My take is that for SteamOS to be a top-tier gaming platform, Valve has recognized that being able to write and contribute upstream the code that scratches their specific itches is key.

          When a Valve developer works with an NVidia card, he is working with a black box over which he has no control. Sure, he can ask NVidia to implement a specific thing, but ultimately NVidia can do whatever they want.

          When a Valve developer works with an AMD card, he can check what the code does throughout the entire stack, profile it and implement + test the code that fixes the problem or enhances performance and submit it upstream.

          Which of the two scenarios is the more palatable one to someone wanting to build a platform and a product? Hint: It's not the NVidia scenario.

          And yes, this likely implies that any official Steam Boxes in the pipeline will feature AMD hardware.

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          • #15
            Valve is really committed to Steam OS/Steam boxes and that means that it needs to have drivers that can handle what the game developers/porters need.
            Originally posted by ShFil View Post
            Still wondering why amd doesn't sell license for small GCN to arm manufactures.
            I don't know if they can sell to arm since they sold the Imageon (Adreno) to Qualcomm and maybe that deal had some limitations.

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            • #16
              Originally posted by microcode View Post
              For what it's worth, there's basically no legal or technical reason they couldn't ship Mesa on Windows
              except it will not be able to replace their dx driver

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              • #17
                Originally posted by pal666 View Post
                except it will not be able to replace their dx driver
                So? You can run as many versions of Mesa and different OpenCL runtimes that you want on a kernel driver, resource sharing is handled at the kernel driver level.

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                • #18
                  Originally posted by mibo View Post
                  I think Valve is not so much interested in fps but rather in low latency to get a good VR experience from AMD/MESA.
                  VR is still in development. This is a great opportunity for them to get on the Vulkan/Wayland bandwagon and be able to build their entire VR solution without dealing with any of the legacy baggage from X and OpenGL. Yes, we're happy to have so many games run on Linux, but ultimately we are great beta testers who will submit quality bug reports and follow up. We not only do this work for free, we are happy to pay for the privilege.

                  With Ubuntu moving back to Gnome/Wayland, I would not at all be surprised to see them move Brewmaster back from Debian.

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