12 replies to this topic

[IMG News]

Tuncer Deniz, the founder and publisher of Inside Mac Games, has updated his blog with a story on multi-thread OpenGL, which promises to give Mac gaming a huge boost in terms of performance. Here's a clip from the blog:

According to some people I've talked to, multi-threaded OpenGL games will see huge gains in performance. With multi-threaded OpenGL, the game, for example, can run off one core/CPU, while OpenGL can work on the second core/processor for its processing.

To check out the blog entry, follow the link below.

Return to Full Article - InsideMacGames News

[bobbob]

IMG News, on August 14th 2006, 03:19 PM, said:

With multi-threaded OpenGL, the game, for example, can run off one core/CPU, while OpenGL can work on the second core/processor for its processing

Like Quake 3, Quake 4, and Call of Duty 2? Except the game programmers don't have to manually separate the threads?

[the Battle Cat]

If I read the blog correctly, I take it that PPC users and some older Intel Mac owners are out of luck.  Bummer.  At least it is a brighter future to look forward to and yet another incentive to get a Macintel.  Too bad the new OpenGL can't take advantage of the extra CPU in a PPC like it does with the intel cores.

[Eric5h5]

the Battle Cat, on August 14th 2006, 09:08 PM, said:

If I read the blog correctly, I take it that PPC users and some older Intel Mac owners are out of luck.

I'm reading it as "unknown" at this point.  I'm not sure what exactly would prevent it, though.  I'm guessing it's more of a promotional thing, like the SMP patch for Quake 4, where they just kept saying "Intel" and would never once breathe a word about PPC (resulting in people asking "does it work on PPC too?" over and over) even though it got a speed boost as well.

--Eric

[Rev-O]

As long as the (hopefully soon to be released) Merom MacBook Pros have support for Multithreaded OpenGL and the unnamed UK based developer finally releases Fable, I'll be happy.

[Eric5h5]

The unnamed UK based developer could be VP, you know....

--Eric

[Batcat]

I remember reading that Unreal Engine 3, or at least UT2007, has a multithreaded renderer. Don't remember if it's API, OS or CPU-agnostic, tho, if that was even mentioned.

ATi began working in multicore/multiproc support in its Windows drivers quite some time ago. The gains were modest.

[bobbob]

Batcat, on August 15th 2006, 12:35 AM, said:

ATi began working in multicore/multiproc support in its Windows drivers quite some time ago. The gains were modest.

ATI and nVidia have.

[Gary Patterson]

This looks more like driver threading for OpenGL itself, rather than threading in the rendering engine. Once it's in place, any rendering engine will gain benefit, even if it's not multithreaded in itself.

And let me also say "Woohoo! Excellent stuff!"

[Janichsan]

Eric5h5, on August 15th 2006, 09:10 AM, said:

The unnamed UK based developer could be VP, you know....

--Eric

Does this mean, the flashy OpenGL graphics in HoI 2 get much faster?

[teflon]

chances are that Apple will hold it off till 10.5, so that they can say "look at the massive speed increase weve built into OGL" and have that as a marketing point.

but if its only on the MP right now, but will be in 10.5, then everyone with dual processors should see an improvement.

[Eric5h5]

Janichsan, on August 15th 2006, 05:01 AM, said:

Does this mean, the flashy OpenGL graphics in HoI 2 get much faster?

Yes.    I was thinking more along the lines of X3: Reunion or Domination, if they ever get around to those....

--Eric

[Batcat]

bobbob, on August 15th 2006, 03:54 AM, said:

ATI and nVidia have.

Gary Patterson, on August 15th 2006, 04:00 AM, said:

This looks more like driver threading for OpenGL itself, rather than threading in the rendering engine. Once it's in place, any rendering engine will gain benefit, even if it's not multithreaded in itself.

Not quite sure what distinctions you two are making, but I had in mind the likes of

http://developer.amd.../ATIMThread.pdf

http://www.anandtech...d...?i=2377&p=3

http://www.driverhea...es/dualcore512/

http://www.xbitlabs....1011083359.html

http://windowssdk.ms...y/ms681824.aspx

..and more.