It's comments like this I don't get they just seem like wish full thinking.
Exactly what fixed function hardware would you add to a moden GPU to make it better?
Wii U hardware discussion and investigation *rename
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It's comments like this I don't get they just seem like wish full thinking.
Exactly what fixed function hardware would you add to a moden GPU to make it better?
french toast
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I havnt got a clue to be honest, but I was making reference to bg assassin and another member who mentioned something like that.
You don't need fixed-function hardware for that.
Yes, I am aware of that. My point was that if it is hardwired into the GPU, it will have significant performance gains. So, if that is the case it may be easier to implement these effects and still have enough juice left over for ones that are not hardwired.
Then what's the point of guessing? If you don't have a clue, maybe you should do more reading instead of blindly posting. Random guesses don't further the debate (in fact they detract from it because now we have to spend 5+ posts discussing why x random guess is total nonsense).
Not really.
Now day's GPU hardware is typically limited by bandwidth and how quickly it can shuffle data around - not so much the actual grunt work of doing calculations. So having fixed hardware designed to do calculations for a specific effect really doesn't make much sense - it'll just eat up silicon budget.
The best places for fixed function hardware are still in areas where a significant saving on data transfers can be made. Eg; texture fetch.
I guess...
bgassassin
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I also noted that the "dedicated" fixed functions are just one of many possibilities. ERP proposed something that's possible. If we are looking at a GPGPU, then those features may tie in with how the GPU handles computing tasks. Which in part may deal with how Nintendo will handle lighting in their games.
This other person has been asked questions regarding the hardware and he/she hasn't answered. Whether this person actually has the knowledge they are claiming they have or he/she is full of poopy poop remains to be seen. I'm personally curious to see what this fixed function(ality) will bring if it's actually present in the GPU.
And you can't go judge the performance solely based on those builds 'till the end
And you keep saying this, but the thing is we have seen videos and game actually being played on some type of hardware that is supposed to be Wii U. We haven't seen anything in real time that makes us go "wow this thing really can show up PS360". Instead all we have are a bunch of forum goers who are disappointed that that hasn't happened, and a bunch of others who are saying "wait til the games get released, no wait until 5 years after the Wii U is out to see its true capabilities". We're judging the game's graphics in the current state of the game's development whether you like it or not. I will reiterate that I find it sad that I'm not seeing games that make me go "wow this is a step ahead of PS360."
If it turns out that Nintendo didn't gimp their hardware and it truly does have some nice power to it then I'll be the opposite of disappointed. But let's make this clear, the tablet controller will only hold the Wii U over for so long. Sony and MS aren't stupid enough to not capitalize on tablet controllers if the thing takes off, and judging from those companies abilities while they may not have innovated it, they sure as hell can implement it in probably a better way than Nintendo can, all the while selling it as a standalone add-on and make a profit from it. So I hope Nintendo's system has some decent power to back it up, because I just don't see them selling by the truckloads like the Wii did. But hey, I can be wrong, and I am a lot of times.
The aim doesn't have to be to add new functionality. Rather, the purpose could be to perform common code faster, and/or at lower power draw. Those with experience writing current graphics code might be able to say what functionality has gained sufficient traction to warrant hardwiring.
That said, I don't believe AMD has added such functional blocks to their Nintendo product.
I just wanted to point out that you could argue in favour of such, particularly for consoles. Arguably their 3DS GPU choice traded flexibility for performance/cost/power.
french toast's post was specifically talking about enabling features not possible on Xenos. I guess one could argue that a possible effect that takes too much time could benefit from fixed-function, high speed silicon. The significant problem with fixed-function hardware is you tie yourself into an art-style. Programmable hardware that has ended up driving forward and deferred renderers, various lighting implementations, added SSAO and postFXAA, would have been lost to us if the hardware was locked in to fixed MSAA forward rendering or somesuch. Maybe a fast blur device would be very useful, as gaussian blurs have a lot of use, but I don't know if hardware can be designed to do that faster than a GPU. Per pixel blur radius is not a trivial probelm to solve AFAIK. And if Wuu has got hardwre blur, does it mean every game is giong to look miniature?!
That's always an option, but a think a good sync/fence implementation* and some batching discipline can largely address that (given the user has control of how many virtual contexts the gpu will see). I mean, yes, a context needs to be flushed before you can re-use it, but you don't have to sit there blocked waiting for the flush to occur.
* I'm saying a good sync/fence implementation as believe it or not, there are some "not so good" implementations out there.
Fixed functions? like 3DS?
itsmydamnation
Veteran
dedicated Voxel setup and hardware support for a voxel tree 
dedicated Voxel setup and hardware support for a voxel tree
But is it not a waste of transistors? what if only UE4 use voxel tree for lighting?
itsmydamnation
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carmack seems to be pretty hard for voxels as well.
If you put in fixed hardware for a feature, it'll get used. But it does mean tying dowen the look and feel of your games. eg. Imagine if PS1 had a hardwired lens-flare chip, because lens-flare was the fashion. Every game would have thrown in lens-flare just to make use of the hardware despite the artistic conflicts that would have in many titles.
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