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The latest blog update from the Valve Linux team details how they managed to get Left 4 Dead 2 from an initial test of 6 frames per second on Linux, up to a far more optimized 315 frames per second.
With blazing fast hardware under the hood (Intel Core i7 3930k, GTX 680, and 32GB of RAM), Valve took baseline tests from Left 4 Dead 2 on both Windows 7 64-bit and on Ubuntu 12.04 32-bit. Baseline tests resulted in 270.6 FPS in Windows on Direct3D and 6FPS on their trial run under Linux.
Valve also notes how they have been working closely with Nvidia, AMD, and Intel to improve graphic driver performance under Linux. With on-site engineers from these company working at Valve, the turnaround time on data analysis and solutions has been "very rapid."
Be sure to read the full blog update to read a bit into how OpenGL and Direct3D compare on Windows 7.
(via Valve's Linux Blog)
With blazing fast hardware under the hood (Intel Core i7 3930k, GTX 680, and 32GB of RAM), Valve took baseline tests from Left 4 Dead 2 on both Windows 7 64-bit and on Ubuntu 12.04 32-bit. Baseline tests resulted in 270.6 FPS in Windows on Direct3D and 6FPS on their trial run under Linux.
When we started with Linux, the initial version we got up and running was at 6 FPS. This is typical of an initial successful port to a new platform.
Performance improvements fall into several categories:
An example of the first category would be changing our memory allocator to use more appropriate Linux functions. This was achieved by implementing the Source engine small block heap to work under Linux. The second category would include reducing overhead in calling OpenGL, and extending our renderer with new interfaces for better encapsulation of OpenGL and Direct3D.
The third category is especially interesting because it involves working with hardware manufacturers to identify issues in their drivers and, as a result, improving the public driver which benefits all games. Identifying driver stalls and adding multithreading support in the driver are two examples of changes that were the result of this teamwork.
After this work, Left 4 Dead 2 is running at 315 FPS on Linux. That the Linux version runs faster than the Windows version (270.6) seems a little counter-intuitive, given the greater amount of time we have spent on the Windows version. However, it does speak to the underlying efficiency of the kernel and OpenGL. Interestingly, in the process of working with hardware vendors we also sped up the OpenGL implementation on Windows. Left 4 Dead 2 is now running at 303.4 FPS with that configuration.
Performance improvements fall into several categories:
- Modifying our game to work better with the kernel
- Modifying our game to work better with OpenGL
- Optimizing the graphics driver
An example of the first category would be changing our memory allocator to use more appropriate Linux functions. This was achieved by implementing the Source engine small block heap to work under Linux. The second category would include reducing overhead in calling OpenGL, and extending our renderer with new interfaces for better encapsulation of OpenGL and Direct3D.
The third category is especially interesting because it involves working with hardware manufacturers to identify issues in their drivers and, as a result, improving the public driver which benefits all games. Identifying driver stalls and adding multithreading support in the driver are two examples of changes that were the result of this teamwork.
After this work, Left 4 Dead 2 is running at 315 FPS on Linux. That the Linux version runs faster than the Windows version (270.6) seems a little counter-intuitive, given the greater amount of time we have spent on the Windows version. However, it does speak to the underlying efficiency of the kernel and OpenGL. Interestingly, in the process of working with hardware vendors we also sped up the OpenGL implementation on Windows. Left 4 Dead 2 is now running at 303.4 FPS with that configuration.
Valve also notes how they have been working closely with Nvidia, AMD, and Intel to improve graphic driver performance under Linux. With on-site engineers from these company working at Valve, the turnaround time on data analysis and solutions has been "very rapid."
Be sure to read the full blog update to read a bit into how OpenGL and Direct3D compare on Windows 7.
(via Valve's Linux Blog)
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