Mantle (API)

Mantle
Developer(s) AMD, DICE[1]
Development status Beta
Operating system Windows, Linux (announced)[2][3]
Platform x86 and x86-64
Type API for rendering
License Proprietary & freeware
Website www.amd.com/mantle

In computing, Mantle is a low-level rendering API targeted at 3D video games.[4] AMD originally developed Mantle in cooperation with DICE, starting in 2013.[1] Mantle was designed as an alternative to Direct3D and OpenGL, primarily for use on personal computers, although Mantle supports the GPUs present in the PlayStation 4 and in the Xbox One.[1][5] According to AMD, Mantle will make a shift in focus after March 2015 to other areas since the Mantle-derived Vulkan API from the Khronos Group is largely replacing it in the gaming industry.[6] While supported in drivers for two years, the Mantle API itself was not made public until March 2015.[7]

Overview

The draw call improvements of Mantle help alleviate cases where the CPU is the bottleneck. The design goals of Mantle are to allow games and applications to utilize the CPUs and GPUs more efficiently, eliminate CPU bottlenecks by reducing API validation overhead and allowing more effective scaling on multiple CPU cores, provide faster draw routines, and allow greater control over the graphics pipeline by eliminating certain aspects of hardware abstraction inherent to both current prevailing graphics APIs OpenGL and Direct3D.[8]

CPU-bound scenarios

With a basic implementation, Mantle was designed to improve performance in scenarios where the CPU is the limiting factor:

GPU-bound scenarios

Mantle is also designed to improve situations where high resolutions and “maximum detail” settings are used, although to a somewhat lesser degree, as these settings tax GPU resources in a way that is more difficult to improve at the API level. While Mantle provides some built-in features to improve GPU-bound performance, gains in these cases are largely dependent on how well Mantle features and optimizations are being utilized by the game engine. Some of those features include:

[13][14]

Benchmarks

Other claims

Support

The Mantle API is only available as part of AMD Catalyst, only for Microsoft Windows, but not for other operating systems such as Linux. AMD promised to support their Mantle API only for their graphics cards and APUs which are based on their Graphics Core Next microarchitecture, but not older products based on the TeraScale microarchitecture. As of July 2014 the implementation of the Mantle API is available for the following hardware:

Game engines

Video games

Similar technologies

A set of recent OpenGL 4.4 features, coupled with bindless texturing as an extension, can also substantially reduce driver overhead. This approach, termed by the Khronos Group as "AZDO" (Approaching Zero Driver Overhead) has been shown to achieve substantial performance improvements, approaching those stated for Mantle.[35][36] Nvidia has extended OpenGL with a number of features that further reduce driver overhead.[37]

After details about DirectX 12 were made public, AMD has stated that they fully intend to support DirectX 12, but at the same time they claimed that Mantle "will [still] do some things faster." They have also claimed that due to similarities in the design philosophy of the two APIs, porting games from Mantle to DirectX 12 will be relatively straightforward,[38] and easier than porting from DirectX 11 to 12.[22]

Comments

Much of the work that drivers used to do on an application’s behalf is now the responsibility of the game engine. ... It also means that this work, which must still be done, is done by someone with considerably more information. Because the engine knows exactly what it will do and how it will do it, it is able to make design decisions that drivers could not.
Firaxis on 2014-04-28, Why We Went With Mantle

Recording and FPS Overlay Software

PC gamers and professionals traditionally used programs such as Fraps and Bandicam to record gameplay, measure game FPS and display FPS overlay, but because Mantle is new, most traditional recording software does not work with new titles while using the new API.

In partnership with AMD, PC gaming community and game recording software maker Raptr have overhauled their client and have since re-branded it as the AMD Gaming Evolved client in conjunction with AMD's Gaming Evolved initiative in the PC gaming space. Out of the partnership, players who install and use the client while in-game can earn points to spend on digital items like games or computer hardware, chat with friends, keep their game library optimized, check for graphics card driver updates, stream their games to Twitch.tv and record gameplay of their own with a built-in GVR, a feature similar to Nvidia Shadowplay software in its own GeForce Experience software that allows users to define a custom buffer length in their game for retroactive game recording with the push of a button so no moment gets missed and users typically do not need expensive hard drive setups to record to. In late 2014, AMD updated the client to finally support the recording and streaming of titles using Mantle.[39] As of its initial update into the client, the Gaming Evolved software is still the only software to officially support the recording and streaming of Mantle enabled games.

Besides Raptr, D3DGear[40] is the only other commercial game recording software that supports Mantle API based games.

See also

External links

References

  1. 1 2 3 Altavilla, Dave (2013-09-30). "AMD and DICE To Co-Develop Console Style API For Radeon Graphics". forbes.com. Forbes. Retrieved 2014-07-14.
  2. "AMD wants to improve gaming in Linux and Steam boxes with its Mantle tools". 2014-06-18.
  3. "Linux support isn't ruled out completely". Phoronix. 2014-05-31.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "Mantle WhitePaper" (pdf). AMD.
  5. 1 2 Parrish, Kevin (Sep 25, 2013). "AMD's Mantle API Gives Devs Direct Hardware Control". tomshardware.com. Tom's Hardware. Retrieved Oct 1, 2013.
  6. "One of Mantle's Futures: Vulkan | AMD Blogs".
  7. "AMD Mantle API Programming Guide Available". Retrieved 2015-03-22.
  8. "Some Mantle benchmarks by AMD". AMD. 2014-02-01.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 "Mantle 101". AMD. 2014-05-28.
  10. "AMD Gaming". 2014-02-01.
  11. 1 2 3 4 "AMD Livestream at GPU 14 Tech Days". 2013. Archived from the original on September 27, 2013.
  12. Smith, Ryan (Sep 26, 2013). "Understanding AMD’s Mantle: A Low-Level Graphics API For GCN". anandtech.com. AnandTech. Retrieved Oct 1, 2013.
  13. "The Next Generation of Graphics APIs". Oxide Games. 2014-05-21.
  14. "The Race to the Metal". Josh Barczak. 2014-05-23.
  15. "The performance of Mantle". AMD. 2014-05-28.
  16. "AMD Mantle API Performance Analysis With Radeon R7 260X, R9 270X, R9 280X".
  17. "Tłumacz Google".
  18. "AMD claim performance boosts of up to 45% using Mantle over DirectX | PCGamesN".
  19. "AMD Mantle Powered Flagship Nitrous Engine "Star Swarm Benchmark" Released on Steam".
  20. "Page 2 - AMD’s Mantle benchmarked: The biggest innovation in gaming since DirectX 9 | ExtremeTech".
  21. "AMD releases Mantle, shares performance numbers".
  22. 1 2 3 "Mantle: the start of a low-overhead future". AMD. 2014-05-28.
  23. "Combining Efficient Engine Design with a modern API". 2014-03-20.
  24. "Mantle in the words of game developers". AMD. 2014-05-28.
  25. "How Mantle changes the game" (pdf). 2013-11-21.
  26. "Mantle for Developers (by Johan Andersson, DICE)". 2013-11-21.
  27. "Empowering 3D Graphics Innovation". 2013-11-21.
  28. "AMD Mantle support is headed to another game engine".
  29. "Mantle Renderer now available in Battlefield 4".
  30. "AMD’s Revolutionary Mantle Graphics API Adopted by Industry Leading Game Developers Cloud Imperium, Eidos-Montréal and Oxide". AMD. NYSE: AMD: AMD. November 4, 2013. Archived from the original on 22 November 2014. Retrieved November 5, 2013.
  31. "Star Citizen to Include Mantle Support". Transmission. Cloud Imperium Games. 5 November 2013. Retrieved 6 November 2013.
  32. "Mantle Takes to the Stars with Sid Meier’s Civilization: Beyond Earth".
  33. "Sniper Elite 3 to tap AMD's Mantle API".
  34. "Mantle to power 15 Frostbite games; DICE calls for multi-vendor support".
  35. "OpenGL Efficiency: AZDO | Khronos Group" (PDF).
  36. "Beyond Porting: How Modern OpenGL Can Radically Reduce Driver Overhead - YouTube".
  37. "OpenGL NVIDIA Command-List: Approaching Zero Driver Overhead".
  38. "A closer look at DirectX 12 - The Tech Report".
  39. "AMD Gaming Evolved Now Supports Mantle".
  40. "D3DGear Mantle Recording Software".
  41. Shilov, Anton. "AMD: Vulkan absorbed ‘best and brightest’ parts of Mantle". KitGuru.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Tuesday, April 05, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.