Nvidia release GameWorks SDK 3.1, releasing code on github - Polidicks

[quote] Looks like Nvidia don't want to be outclassed by AMD and have released GameWorks SDK 3.1 with the intetion of releasing parts of it onto github. They have already released FaceWorks and some OpenGL samples, with more to come. The license isn't quite as simple as the one AMD use for GPUOpen, but it's a start. [quote]NVIDIA makes source code for select GameWorks libraries available to developers via GitHub. Source code for NVIDIA Volumetric Lighting and NVIDIA's FaceWorks demo is available today. Source code for NVIDIA HairWorks, NVIDIA HBAO+ and NVIDIA WaveWorks will be available soon.[/quote] Hopefully having more open code will allow AMD to inspect it more and not have so many issues with games using it like we have seen in the past. Not AMD's fault of course when a developer chooses Nvidia-only tech, but with it more open the possibility for AMD GPU drivers to work with them easier is there. Thanks for the info, Nel![/quote] [url]https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/nvidia-release-gameworks-sdk-31-releasing-code-on-github.6821[/url] [url]http://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-advances-real-time-game-rendering-and-simulation-with-launch-of-nvidia-gameworks-sdk-3-1[/url] [url]https://github.com/NVIDIAGameWorks/[/url]

Really the only thing that was restricted to Nvidia hardware was I think the Physx stuff, and IIRC that was because those required CUDA cores or something. Unless HBAO was an Nvidia only thing and I don't remember that. Oh and TXAA is Nvidia only (At least with W_D it was). The bigger issue is the fact that the GameWorks stuff runs like turd on AMD most of the time because GameWorks is closed so devs that don't have a deal with the big green don't get to optimize as well as they would if they did have one.

[QUOTE=ClarkWasHere;49946466]Really the only thing that was restricted to Nvidia hardware was I think the Physx stuff, and IIRC that was because those required CUDA cores or something.[/QUOTE] Yeah, exactly, which is why this is such a surprising move in my opinion. It seemed like their business strategy for a long time was to convince devs to use things like NVIDIA HairWorks, and then simply not let AMD look at the source code to make good drivers. This way all these games ran like shit on max settings on AMD hardware. Contrast to AMD's TressFX which is open source so Nvidia can make drivers around games with that, so the performance gap was minimal.

a lot of the reason gameworks tends to run bad on AMD HW is due in particular to how well maxwell handles tesselation, so aggressive tessellation in furworks/hairworks kills amd cards compared to nvidia maxwell. You could say nvidia does this on purpose to reflect poorly on amd HW-- but if it runs badly for you just turn it off, witcher 3 stock hair is fine. Nice to see nvidia moving towards a bit more open development nonetheless.

Is it actually open source, or are they just allowing people to view the source code?

[QUOTE=nintenman1;49946626]a lot of the reason gameworks tends to run bad on AMD HW is due in particular to how well maxwell handles tesselation, so aggressive tessellation in furworks/hairworks kills amd cards compared to nvidia maxwell. You could say nvidia does this on purpose to reflect poorly on amd HW-- but if it runs badly for you just turn it off, witcher 3 stock hair is fine. Nice to see nvidia moving towards a bit more open development nonetheless.[/QUOTE] It is true that Nvidia cards naturally handle tessellation better. But someone (and I'm having trouble finding the exact article now), ran the numbers and found that Nvidia does tessellation x% better than AMD across several games with proper tessellation support on both Nvidia and AMD. They then ran the same tests on a game that used HairWorks, in this case Witcher 3, and they found that the performance gap was much greater than x%, indicating that additional performance could have been gained through drivers had AMD had the code necessary to optimize. This is similar to a Lara Croft title that had TressFX, which is AMD's version of HairWorks. Initially, Nvidia didn't have access to the code, so they had a similar performance deficit. After they gained access to the code and made proper drivers, the gap went away.

Nvidia is realizing its a PR thing really, with AMD basically open-sourcing everything, it gets harder and harder for Nvidia to keep up its closed-source technology.

[QUOTE=ClarkWasHere;49946466]Really the only thing that was restricted to Nvidia hardware was I think the Physx stuff, and IIRC that was because those required CUDA cores or something. Unless HBAO was an Nvidia only thing and I don't remember that. Oh and TXAA is Nvidia only (At least with W_D it was). The bigger issue is the fact that the GameWorks stuff runs like turd on AMD most of the time because GameWorks is closed so devs that don't have a deal with the big green don't get to optimize as well as they would if they did have one.[/QUOTE] Nvidia has always licensed the source code for GameWorks to developers, [url]http://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonevangelho/2014/05/28/nvidia-fires-back-the-truth-about-gameworks-amd-optimization-and-watch-dogs/#2dffb359162e[/url] certainly indicates that developers would be free to work with AMD to improve performance in games. Additionally it makes a point that Nvidia optimises drivers for games without source source code, AMD can do that already. [QUOTE=Boilrig;49948348]Nvidia is realizing its a PR thing really, with AMD basically open-sourcing everything, it gets harder and harder for Nvidia to keep up its closed-source technology.[/QUOTE] Nvidia made the PhysX CPU solver source available early last year, before any of AMDs GPUOpen stuff.

[QUOTE=ben1066;49948825]Nvidia has always licensed the source code for GameWorks to developers, [url]http://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonevangelho/2014/05/28/nvidia-fires-back-the-truth-about-gameworks-amd-optimization-and-watch-dogs/#2dffb359162e[/url] certainly indicates that developers would be free to work with AMD to improve performance in games. Additionally it makes a point that Nvidia optimises drivers for games without source source code, AMD can do that already. Nvidia made the PhysX CPU solver source available early last year, before any of AMDs GPUOpen stuff.[/QUOTE] The CPU solver isn't used for the special effects that are pretty much GPU exclusive; AMD won't be able to port the PhysX GPU solver for their cards.

[QUOTE=Map in a box;49949732]The CPU solver isn't used for the special effects that are pretty much GPU exclusive; AMD won't be able to port the PhysX GPU solver for their cards.[/QUOTE] Anything to make my favorite brand Nvidia look good !!! These fanboys are retarded and have no idea what a monopoly will do to GPU market It's bullshit and still dodgey business practice from Nvidia. I hope all this open source AMD stuff catches on, so it's more even between to two and not just trying to make the competitor perform worse. It should be about advancement not how hard you can fuck the competition. (I know it's common business practice but it sucks being the consumer).

[QUOTE=Map in a box;49949732]The CPU solver isn't used for the special effects that are pretty much GPU exclusive; AMD won't be able to port the PhysX GPU solver for their cards.[/QUOTE] I'll take your word for that, but there is some source available for CPU particles, but I don't know if that would take place. Cloth, destruction and such I am pretty sure is available on non Nvidia hardware though.

[QUOTE=Lemmingston;49949748]Anything to make my favorite brand Nvidia look good !!! These fanboys are retarded and have no idea what a monopoly will do to GPU market It's bullshit and still dodgey business practice from Nvidia. I hope all this open source AMD stuff catches on, so it's more even between to two and not just trying to make the competitor perform worse. It should be about advancement not how hard you can fuck the competition. (I know it's common business practice but it sucks being the consumer).[/QUOTE] The reason why Nvidia has become such a monopoly is because of years of bad updates and shit crossfire performance. While this has got better over time, its still ingrained in a lot of people's minds. Until AMD come out with a killer card or a gameworks equivalent, it will be hard to challenge Nvidia. AMD is what you buy with a low budget, Nvidia is what you buy with a high budget, they've put themselves out there as premium and it shows.

This video basically covers how Nvidia has royally fucked over AMD. [media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcF36_qMd8M[/media] [editline]17th March 2016[/editline] [QUOTE=ben1066;49951296]I'll take your word for that, but there is some source available for CPU particles, but I don't know if that would take place. Cloth, destruction and such I am pretty sure is available on non Nvidia hardware though.[/QUOTE] Its not because you need an update to date version of PhysX, which you can't get without installing Nvidia Drivers.

[QUOTE=Ezhik;49946653]Is it actually open source, or are they just allowing people to view the source code?[/QUOTE] you just answered your own question also github's terms requires them to let people fork and submit pull requests to it, so basically they're as open source as anything else

Old GamesWorks code (which is broken mess) has been there since 2014-2015 [t]http://i.imgur.com/K9qL8qC.png[/t] FaceWorks has been added, that's all [t]http://i.imgur.com/bWxO1dY.png[/t] Is this even worth SH?

[QUOTE=Octopod;49952000]you just answered your own question also github's terms requires them to let people fork and submit pull requests to it, so basically they're as open source as anything else[/QUOTE] The accepted definition of open source implies that you can actually make changes and redistribute the code. The code's license is the question.

wait doesnt that mean that amd can finally optimize games

[QUOTE=Boilrig;49951693]The reason why Nvidia has become such a monopoly is because of years of bad updates and shit crossfire performance. While this has got better over time, its still ingrained in a lot of people's minds. Until AMD come out with a killer card or a gameworks equivalent, it will be hard to challenge Nvidia. AMD is what you buy with a low budget, Nvidia is what you buy with a high budget, they've put themselves out there as premium and it shows.[/QUOTE] No it's not. It's because Nvidia pays to fuck over AMD. Its lauaghable to even say AMD is inferior because shock horror, they're not. Unless of course they're artificially handicapped

[QUOTE=Ezhik;49952524]The accepted definition of open source implies that you can actually make changes and redistribute the code. The code's license is the question.[/QUOTE] i guess you're right. i was just using another definition of "open-source" which only refers to the fact that the source is a available to everyone

[QUOTE=Boilrig;49951693]The reason why Nvidia has become such a monopoly is because of years of bad updates and shit crossfire performance. While this has got better over time, its still ingrained in a lot of people's minds. Until AMD come out with a killer card or a gameworks equivalent, it will be hard to challenge Nvidia. AMD is what you buy with a low budget, Nvidia is what you buy with a high budget, they've put themselves out there as premium and it shows.[/QUOTE] There is so much wrong with this statement. AMD cards are not low budget, they can be just as expensive and as powerful as their nvidia equivalent. Plus I'm going to add, nvidia is aggressive with selling their closed proprietary software to developers, they literally [I]pay[/I] developers to use Gameworks for example. And Gameworks has been proven to have artifical handicaps actually written into it that cause it to run worse on non-nvidia enviroments, yes AMD isn't as good at doing tessellation and Gameworks abuses the fuck out of it, however compared to standard tessellation methods, which run pretty well on both environments, the implementation within Gameworks is absolutely abusive to non-nvidia environments and people have pulled it apart to see how it works, but theres only so far that reverse engineering can go. Nvidia isn't the premium, they've just pushed themselves aggressively into the market, given developers little choice because when it comes down to financial, if someone is going to physically pay the studio to use their development tools, you can pretty much guarantee that the department or whoever controls the money within that studio will push it upon the rest of the team. Why? Because it saves them money. AMD making a counter SDK that is entirely open and free has fucked up nvidia's strategies and they are trying to keep themselves relevant. I still don't think this is them releasing everything though, as pointed out its just a section of Gameworks they've put up on github, will the rest come? Maybe, but will it actually be usable or effective in improving performance for both sides? Likely not knowing nvidia. Also referring back to the budget bullshit, go look up the 295x2 and compare it against nvidia's flagship at the time, the Titan X. Both cost about the same, the 295x2 makes the Titan X look like a childs toy in most benchmarks. And its only going to get more fun when Gemini is released.