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multi-threaded OpenGL in Leopard?

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Randy-Edmonds, Aug 22, 2006.

  1. Randy-Edmonds

    Randy-Edmonds

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    Multi-threaded OpenGL in Leopard. Have the Unity developers heard of this?


    "Arstechnica and InsideMacGames write about some OpenGL optimizations which were privately announced at WWDC two weeks ago.

    According to the articles, the new Mac Pro already incorporates the new multi-threaded OpenGL in the pre-installed version of Mac OS X (10.4.7). The official release of the new version of OpenGL for existing Mac owners remains uncertain.

    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. So they work in concurrent fashion instead of co-habitating one CPU.
    One demo reportedly had a doubling of frame rate when taking advantage of the multi-threaded OpenGL. And with dual and multi-core processors becoming commonplace, many customers will be able to take advantage of these optimizations.

    Macworld points out that individual games have to be tailored for the new version of OpenGL before seeing the benefits, but game developers seem enthusiastic about its release."     -- quoted from MacRumors.com



    You can read more about it here...
    http://www.macrumors.com/pages/2006/08/20060821223856.shtml
     
    Randy-Edmonds, Aug 22, 2006
    #1

  2. Aras

    Aras

    Unity Technologies

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    Yes (though at least I don't know any exact details).

    So it keeps me wondering: apparently video drivers for PC have been multithreaded for quite some time already. Without the developer having to worry about this... So I'm not sure what Apple is making and why does the developer have to "tune" their app for it to work.
     
    Aras, Aug 22, 2006
    #2

  3. Joachim_Ante

    Joachim_Ante

    Unity Technologies

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    The reason they gave was that it would run slower if you have a lot of synchronization points. Like glGet's. So developer wants to enable it only if he knows he doesn't have those.
     
    Joachim_Ante, Aug 22, 2006
    #3

  4. Randy-Edmonds

    Randy-Edmonds

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    Great. So, of course, you guys are aware of it, that begs the question: Will Unity support it?
     
    Randy-Edmonds, Aug 22, 2006
    #4