AMD Chief game scientist Richard Huddy:directx 12 power consumption 5 times times

2015 is an exciting year for game enthusiasts.

Because in this year, with the release of Windows 10, a lot of game developers are criticized by the DirectX 11, will be a lot of benefits of DirectX 12 replaced;

Because in this year, VR (virtual Reality) fictitious reality technology is with incredible generation to feel, bring unprecedented shocking experience to the user;

Because in this year, the problem of the picture tearing that puzzles the game player for many years, can be solved under the premise that hardly need to increase cost.

But how did all of this happen? What changes will they bring to future games?

A few days ago, I was fortunate enough to have met Richard Huddy, AMD's chief game scientist, who will reveal the answers to these questions.

DirectX 12:5 times times more energy than lifting

As a forced PC gamer, if you don't even know the DirectX API, you're probably embarrassed to say hello to your little friends. However, over the past few years, Microsoft's DirectX 11 has been criticized by many game developers because the API does not allow a good match between the CPU and the GPU, making the system resources underutilized. From the standpoint of the game developer, it is of course hoped that the next generation of DirectX will enable more direct and efficient communication between software and hardware, but DirectX 11 does not do much better than the previous DirectX 9 and 10. So in the past few years, we have seen a lot of new games are still based on the old version of DirectX 9 development, which once made Microsoft very embarrassed.

However, as the exclusive Api,directx 12 of the Windows 10 operating system, Microsoft has received special attention. Compared to DirectX 11, DirectX 12 enables better communication between software and hardware, and therefore has a significant advantage in many ways. The first advantage is to be able to make more efficient use of the operational performance of multi-core CPUs; The second advantage is that users can see more detail on the screen; The third advantage is the increase in frame rate, allowing players to gain a better degree of game fluency; The fourth advantage is that they can be more energy efficient and further reduce energy consumption.

In the slide show by Richard Huddy, the author sees that in the DirectX 11 environment, only 6 cores are utilized in the 8 core CPU, and the task distribution is very uneven, and the other 2 idle core is completely nothing to do, which causes the system resources to be greatly wasted. In the DirectX 12 environment, the 8 cores of the CPU get more uniform task assignment, the number of frames has been multiplied, the overall energy consumption is increased by 469%, and the effect is amazing.

In view of this, Richard Huddy said that the latest version of DirectX 12 would be strongly recommended to game developers and Windows users, and that the new API would be able to develop more and better games in 2015.

LIQUIDVR: Make the virtual more real

Nowadays VR virtual reality is a hot topic in the world, whether it is game entertainment or a hard team. A year ago Facebook bought Oculusvr on a 2 billion dollar spree and was a hit in the industry.

In fact, in addition to the very familiar game entertainment, film and television animation, VR virtual reality technology in artificial intelligence, education and training, health care, digital tourism, Digital Interactive media, virtual community, Digital Earth, design and planning, real estate sales, water power, geological hazards and many other fields are also useful.

According to Richard Huddy, AMD, which has been paying close attention to the game market, has also contributed a lot to the VR virtual reality industry. Not long ago, for example, AMD launched the LIQUIDVR SDK to help programmers better develop games. LIQUIDVR a breakthrough in the three technical challenges of performance, latency, and compatibility before VR technology, through the latest data grabbing (Latest data latch), the asynchronous coloring engine (asynchronous shaders), Collaborative multi-GPU (Affinity Multi-gpu) and direct-attached displays (Direct-to-display) provide more excellent VR solutions for developers and users.

The aim of AMD's launch of the LIQUIDVR, says Richard Huddy, is to have three main aspects: comfort, compatibility and exciting content. Among them in the comfort aspect, the LIQUIDVR can through the newest data crawl, the asynchronous coloring engine, the collaboration multiple GPU and so on function, lets the user obtain the lower delay, the smoother picture at the same time, also obtains the more lifelike sense of existence and the generation to feel; in terms of compatibility, LIQUIDVR can be directly output by direct-attached display, Plug and Play, to avoid the desktop settings, such as irrelevant elements in the picture of the "random"; In terms of content, liquidvr let the game feedback faster, frame speed higher, can bring users more fluid shock, more immersive entertainment experience.

Freesync: Farewell picture Torn

Talking about the screen tearing phenomenon in the game, many players will not feel unfamiliar. In fact, including the author himself, are disgusted with it. In order to solve this problem, many manufacturers have also introduced a corresponding solution. For example, Nvidia prior to the introduction of G-sync technology, can not degrade the performance of the premise to solve the problem of screen tearing. However, because the G-sync technology needs to ensure that the display has more than 144Hz refresh rate, and to add G-sync chip to receive the GPU frame rate information, all kinds of factors led to the display costs need to increase hundreds of yuan, which also let many consumers discouraged.

Now AMD has launched a more populist solution to the problem, which is freesync. The principle is to let the display refresh rate is no longer locked in a fixed frequency, but become a variable. When the video card finishes rendering a picture, the display can be displayed on the screen. In this way, also completely avoid the game screen cotton and tearing phenomenon.

Richard Huddy praised the virtues of Freesync: "Freesync is a completely free open standard and has been accepted by the video Electronic Standards Association." It not only solves the problem of screen tearing, but also does not rely on proprietary hardware or licensing fees. Monitor vendors can design products based on this standard, and consumers do not have to pay extra for freesync. ”

Richard Huddy said that a number of display manufacturers, including LG, Acer and Samsung, have released products using Freesync technology, and that these new monitors, which support freesync technology, are almost flat or even cheaper in terms of price than normal displays on the market today. It also covers the low end of high school to meet the needs of different users. In the first half of this year, we will also see more new displays that support Freesync technology.

From DirectX 12, to LIQUIDVR, to Freesync, it's not hard to understand the efforts and effort that AMD has devoted to gaming. As a veteran of the game, I also sincerely look forward to the 2015 game world, because of these innovative technology to join and more exciting.