Yes, I'm glad they ported this AAA game even with the "translation layer". I bought the first two Redux games and am going to buy this too. I don't mind non-native ports as long as they run reasonably well.
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Apple GPUs speculation: TBDR, RT and the benefit of wide ALUs
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Yes, I'm glad they ported this AAA game even with the "translation layer". I bought the first two Redux games and am going to buy this too. I don't mind non-native ports as long as they run reasonably well.
Not really. It probably would not buy them a whole lot in term of shader throughput.
Vulkan isn't that semantically far from Metal in ability to express things. Metal shader language isn't either. They are about as equally a 'thin' API layer over the GPUs . There are lots of call prefix differences 'vk' versus "MTL" but saying just about the same stuff with the calls to the API.
This isn't like going from OpenGL to Metal. Or DirectX to Metal.
As pointed out some of this was "fixed" by flipping a compiler switch and re-running over the same code. How that is disappointing is a strech. Unless the primary point is how uniquely magical Metal is over any other possibility. it is a good thing. Means more high performance stuff ported to the new OS instance.
Or some kind of code writing contractor who is charging $$$/hour to hand write the port. Yeah, less money for them.
The interesting thing is (and the WWDC session confirms it) is that neither Larian nor 4A use Apple-specific APIs. But their games still get decent performance in M1.
there is still opportunity for more optimization.
Complexity from translating from Vulkan to Metal is rough the same as from translating DX to Metal. DX and Vulkan are very close, Metal is slightly more advanced in some ways and lacking some features in others.
Maybe Apple's approach can yield better results, but I don't expect wide adoption from developers. What if nVidia required explicit support for G-sync in game engines?
I anticipate VRR to be another under-utilised feature on Apple platforms. Yet it didn't have to be this way.
They could have made VRR support automatic, even if it yielded slightly less optimal results. I don't see gamers complaining about the quality of G-sync.Apple seems to forget that their platform is an afterthought when it comes to high-end games
Ok, it appears I was overly pessimistic. Monterey does appear to enable VRR automatically. At least it works with current (Feral) games. Metal offers further options to manually control frame pacing.Maybe Apple's approach can yield better results, but I don't expect wide adoption from developers. What if nVidia required explicit support for G-sync in game engines?
I anticipate VRR to be another under-utilised feature on Apple platforms. Yet it didn't have to be this way.
Apple seems to forget that their platform is an afterthought when it comes to high-end games
I wonder if Windows supports this as well.
Depends on the sponsor. If there is someone interested in this functionality, I think they can do it fairly quickly. it probably won't happen before Apple GPUs are capable of real-time RT on moderately complex scenes.
Wait, they can't do that now? I thought Apple added support for real time RT with Monterey.
Its the question of performance, not features. Macs still lack reasonably hardware-accelerated RT. The Api itself was usable since last autumn, and I think M1 is even fast enough to do some simpler stuff, but it's nowhere close to what you want for it to be useful in high-end games for example.
Oh, the good old "Gaming Mac" rumour again?There's hope?
"Apple sees big things ahead for Apple Silicon, both in terms of achieving new designs and perhaps appealing to the most demanding audience of all — gamers. After all, many of the engineers building Apple’s chips are gamers themselves. Apple is now setting a third goal for its M-series processors: Bringing gaming to the Mac.
“Of course, you can imagine the pride of some of the GPU folks and imagining, ‘Hey, wouldn't it be great if it hits a broader set of those really intense gamers,’” said Milet. “It's a natural place for us to be looking, to be working closely with our Metal team and our Developer team. We love the challenge.”"
Turning future Macs into gaming PCs? Apple says it ‘loves the challenge’
Intel, Nvidia, and AMD should be watching their backs -- Apple is gunning for the PC gaming market with a future M-series processor for the Mac.www.digitaltrends.com
Soooo you ordering a new MBP? (I am really just trying to keep HW RT hope alive at this point)Na, Im happy with my 11… don’t see much reason to get a new one yet
I think hardware RT will come to the AX cores before it comes to the Mac, or within a couple months of each other, so I lost hope when I saw the A15 not introducing it. Maybe next year? There are quite a few dev videos on RT so Apple sure looks interested in the topic.
From https://tellusim.com/rt-perf/ Metal supports Ray Queries though I'll be 100% honest and say I am not really sure what the difference is between Ray Tracing and Ray Query (even the Vulkan docs aren't super clear on why you would use one versus the other). @leman thoughts?
What is worse is if you believe the link I used Metal Ray Tracing is slower than using Compute Shaders on the same hardware.