Async Compute Support for more platforms

Hi,
Hope I'm posting in the correct forum, wasn't sure if I should post here or in "Betas & Experimental Features".

2017.3 added support for Async Compute but unfortunately it is currently only supported for PS4.
https://forum.unity.com/threads/preview-of-2017-3-features.497331/

I'm working a game for XBox so I was wondering if anyone knows if/when more platforms will be added? Couldn't find any info on the Unity Roadmap nor on the forums.

 

Bumping this in hopes of getting some answers.

 

Heyhey,
Thanks for the reply. That's great to hear, will give that a go when it's out.

Unfortunately we're not using SRP right now (It's on the roadmap), will there also be support for the non-SRP projects as well later on?

 

Hey,
Oh that's awesome. Then I'm going to give DX12 a go and see how things run.

Thanks again for the help.

 

Should this work on pc when using dx12?

 

what other platforms does it support now? i tried dx12 on pc and the latest metal on mac, neither seemed to work as "
SystemInfo.supportsAsyncCompute" is always false

 

I've also had the same experience on two machines, Both Windows 10, one with a Geforce 970, and the other with a Geforce 1050. Both running latest Unity 2019.3, DX12 using legacy pipeline.

 

i can expect 970 doesn't support async compute, because Maxwell does not support such feature. But 1050 should work though. My gpu is radeon pro 5500m and RDNA should support async compute as well. Yet it doesn't seem to work.

 

Bumping this thread a bit, but when using Vulkan, Unity tells that the async compute is not supported. Only DX12 yields that async compute is supported. Why is that?

 

Hi, @OlibobUnity, I am also very interested in async compute support. What is the current status? In particular, any plans to support it on mobile platforms (Vulkan on Android, Metal on IOS).

I am currently exploring a feasibility of running some GPU simulation on phones as well as standalone VR headsets such as Quest 2. I assume that especially for VR it is necessery to decouple graphics rendering from compute (it is fine if the simulation drops below real-time but not acceptable for the graphics). Thanks for your response

 

Hi @OlibobUnity, any news on this? Cheers

 

I'd be interested in knowing that too.

 

To these platforms even support async compute at the hardware level? I couldn't find any async compute dispatching APIs on Metal.

Also, async compute isn't meant for spreading work across multiple frames like that. It's goal is to increase GPU utilization on the same frame by using idle shader cores for compute work like SSAO during rasterization tasks like generating shadow depth maps or filling g-buffers, which don't use all shader cores. For this to work, the GPU must support running multiple compute and graphics command queues in parallel. It was created first by AMD for their GCN architecture (which is used in the PS4 and Xbox One). NVidia didn't implement it until three GPU generations later (with Pascal), but even then the gains on NV hardware were smaller due to the way it does task scheduling.

 

Hi @Neto_Kokku, thanks for your explanation. I thought that the hardware, which supports DX12/Vulkan/Metal supports asyn compute by default but it seems it is not the case. What I am looking specifically is something like in the presentation below but on VR hardware (Quest 2 and Vulkan for now)

https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1024344/

https://developer.download.nvidia.c...BZkKeCLTiwORBzaR2AaDMDmugnLd64I0OtI-d1THwN6mg

 

After doing some research, some mobile GPUs do support async compute. This Vulkan example from Khronos group shows exactly that:
https://github.com/KhronosGroup/Vul...mance/async_compute/async_compute_tutorial.md

In Vulkan async is done by using multiple queues, and even my lowly Adreno 610 seems to support 3 queues according to some Vulkan caps viewer app.

So yeah, Unity seems to be behind the times on that one.

 

@richardkettlewell do you know if async compute is coming to mobile anytime soon?

 

Oh really? To be clear, I mean async compute, not async readback.

 

Any update on this topic?

 

So, what platforms support this feature exactly Unity?

 

I'd also love to know. My PC with 1050ti returns false on SystemInfo.supportsAsyncCompute. Is there a particular model from which this is enabled?

 

I just tested with RTX 3080 with Direct3D12, still false. I guess this feature isn't supported yet, but I'd love to play with it as soon as it is.

 

If anyone is interested, on gtx 1060 with unity 2023.1a21 'SystemInfo.supportsAsyncCompute' seems to finally return true for me

 

Wanted to poke this thread (as this is one of the top google results) - is this supported on Quest 2 now?