Copyright 2005 Intel Corporation All Rights Reserved Reallife

Copyright © 2005 Intel Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Real-life Case Studies in Optimizing Games for Intel® GMA Graphics Larry Wickstrom Content: Adam Lake, Cody Northrop

Copyright © 2005 Intel Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Topics Intro to Intel® GMA 950 Developer highlights from 04/05 Things to catch before release Contacting Intel Call to Action -2 -

Copyright © 2005 Intel Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Recent Intel Graphics Intel Extreme Graphics – 2000: 815 G – 2002: 845 G – 2003: 865 G Intel Graphics Media Accelerator – 2004: 915 G GMA 900 – 2005: 945 G GMA 950 -3 -

Copyright © 2005 Intel Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Intel® GMA 950 vs. Intel® GMA 900 Improved Graphics Core – Increased core clock speed – – 333 MHz vs. 400 MHz (1. 6 GP/s) Improved Platform – Support Dual Core CPU – Up to 2 x faster vertex processing performance Improved Graphics Bandwidth – Faster memory support via DDR 2 -667 – From 8. 5 GB/s to 10. 6 GB/s * Other brands and names may be claimed as the property of others -4 -

Copyright © 2005 Intel Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Intel Confidential Intel® GMA 900 compared to discrete entry level solutions 512 MB DDR 2 533 System Memory 512 MB DDR 400 256 MB DDR 400 3 DMark 03 Benchmark 256 MB DDR 400 System Memory Intel® GMA 900 graphics provides excellent 3 D performance compared to ATI* 9200 SE 64 MB AGP card Intel GMA 900 graphics provides 3 D performance comparable to Nvidia* 5200 FX 128 MB AGP card with 256 MB system memory Lower potential system cost with Intel graphics Intel GMA 900 graphics performance scales with memory size and type to meet various price/performance targets Configurations and Disclaimers • Intel® GMA 900 platform: Shuttle XPC 81 P, Intel® Pentium® 4 processor 520 (3. 0 GHz), Intel® 915 G Express Chipset, 2 DDR 400 Memory sticks • ATI 9200 SE platform: Shuttle XB 61, Intel® Pentium® 4 processor with HT Technology 3. 0 GHz, Intel® 865 G Express Chipset, 2 DDR 400 Memory sticks ** Platform material differences contribute to the results described here – see configuration details below Source: Intel. Configuration: Intel® 915 G Express Chipset Platform – Intel® 915 G Express Chipset Board Shuttle SB 81, DDR 400 CL 3 -3 -3, Integrated Graphics with Intel ® Graphics Media Accelerator 900, Intel ® 915 G Express Integrated Graphics driver 6. 14. 10. 3865, Intel ® Chipset Software Installation Utility 6. 0. 1. 1002; Intel ® Pentium® 4 Processor with HT Technology 3 E GHz, Maxtor* Maxline III 250 GB SATA 150 Hard Drive – BANC 16 HO, Direct. X* 9. 0 b, Windows* XP Build 2600 SP 2 ATI* 9200 SE Platform/Nvidia 5200 FX Platform – Intel® 865 G Chipset Board, Shuttle SB 81, DDR 400 CL 3 -3 -3, ATI 9200 SE 64 MB AGP adapter or Nvidia 5200 FX 128 MB AGP card, ATI Catalyst 3. 6 driver or Nvidia 6. 14. 10. 6177 driver; Intel ® Pentium® 4 Processor with HT Technology 3 E GHz, Maxtor* Maxline III 250 GB SATA 150 Hard Drive – BANC 16 HO, Direct. X* 9. 0 b, Windows* XP Build 2600 SP 2 Performance tests and ratings are measured using specific computer systems and/or components and reflect the approximate performance of Intel products as measured by those tests. Any difference in system hardware or software design or configuration may affect actual performance. -5 -

Copyright © 2005 Intel Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Intel Graphics Specification Comparison Intel® Extreme Graphics Intel® GMA 900 Intel® GMA 950* Intel® 865 G Chipset Intel® 915 G Express Chipset Intel® 945 G Express Chipset Direct. X* 7. 1 Direct. X 9 Vertex Shader 3. 0 Pixel Shader 2. 0 1. 3 1. 4 with vertex buffer and EXT_Shadow extensions Pixel Rate 266 MP/s 1. 3 GP/s 1. 6 GP/s Core Clock 300 MHz 333 MHz 400 MHz Pixel Pipes 1 4 4 Single (dual clone only) Dual Independent Max Dynamic Video Memory 96 MB 224 MB 1 Max Fixed Video Memory 16 MB 128 MB 1 Max Memory Bandwidth 6. 4 GB/s 8. 5 GB/s 10. 6 GB/s QXGA 60 Hz (2048 x 1536) QXGA 75 Hz (2048 x 1536) Platform Direct. X* Hardware Open. GL* Version Support Display Support (through SDVO devices) Max Resolution *Features subject to change prior to product release 1 128 MB fixed and 224 MB dynamic of video memory only on systems with at least 512 MB of system memory -6 -

Copyright © 2005 Intel Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Next Generation of Graphics Performance normalized to Intel® 915 G Express Chipset Intel® 945 G Express Chipset 21% 20% 1. 00 3 DMark 03* performance increases by 20% PCMark*04 Graphics performance increases 21% Intel® 915 G Express chipset vs. upcoming Intel® 945 G Express Chipset brings outstanding graphics performance to the desktop PC* Configurations and Disclaimers * As measured by the benchmarks shown Source: Intel. Configuration: Intel ® Pentium® 4 processor 550 with HT Technology on Intel ® 915 G Chipset Platform – Intel ® D 915 GUX Desktop Board, 1 GB DDR 2 -533 at CL 4 -4 -4 -12, Integrated graphics with Intel ® GMA 900, Intel Graphics Media Accelerator Driver v 6. 14. 10. 3961, DVMT set to 128 MB, Seagate* 160 GB ST 3160023 AS Serial ATA Hard Drive, Intel ® Chipset Software Installation Utility 7. 0. 0. 1006; Intel ® 945 G Chipset Platform – pre-production 945 G chipset reference design , 1 GB DDR 2 -533 at CL 4 -4 -412, Integrated graphics with Intel® GMA 950, Intel Graphics Media Accelerator Driver v 6. 14. 10. 3961, DVMT set to 128 MB, Seagate* 160 GB ST 3160023 AS Serial ATA Hard Drive, Intel® Chipset Software Installation Utility 7. 0. 0. 1006 All Platforms – Direct. X* 9. 0 c, Windows* XP Build 2600 SP 2. Performance tests and ratings are measured using specific computer systems and/or components and reflect the approximate performance of Intel products as measured by those tests. Any difference in system -7 hardware or software design or configuration may affect actual performance.

Copyright © 2005 Intel Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Intel GMA 950 Advances Integrated 3 D Performance 3 DMark 05* Performance normalized to Intel® 915 G Express Chipset 3 DMark 05* 2 X 2. 01 3 DMark 05* – Full Direct. X* 9 support vertex and pixel processing shader models – Implements a new rendering engine 1. 00 GMA 950 graphics provides better 3 D responsiveness as measured by 3 DMark 05* – Faster Pixel/Texel Rates and Pixel Shader throughput – Faster memory support & FSB All performance data taken on Intel® Pentium® 4 processor 550 supporting HT Technology Intel® 945 G Express Chipset provides satisfying visual quality and responsive 3 D performance Configurations and Disclaimers Source: Intel. Configuration: Intel ® Pentium® 4 processor 550 with HT Technology on Intel ® 915 G Chipset Platform – Intel ® D 915 GUX Desktop Board, 1 GB DDR 2 -533 at CL 4 -4 -4 -12, Integrated graphics with Intel ® GMA 900, Intel Graphics Media Accelerator Driver v 6. 14. 10. 3961, DVMT set to 128 MB, Seagate* 160 GB ST 3160023 AS Serial ATA Hard Drive, Intel ® Chipset Software Installation Utility 7. 0. 0. 1006; Intel ® 945 G Chipset Platform – pre-production 945 G chipset reference design , 1 GB DDR 2 -533 at CL 4 -4 -412, Integrated graphics with Intel® GMA 950, Intel Graphics Media Accelerator Driver v 6. 14. 10. 3961, DVMT set to 128 MB, Seagate* 160 GB ST 3160023 AS Serial ATA Hard Drive, Intel® Chipset Software Installation Utility 7. 0. 0. 1006 All Platforms – Direct. X* 9. 0 c, Windows* XP Build 2600 SP 2. Performance tests and ratings are measured using specific computer systems and/or components and reflect the approximate performance of Intel products as measured by those tests. Any difference in system -8 hardware or software design or configuration may affect actual performance.

Copyright © 2005 Intel Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Did you know? “For the past two years the market has been defined by the growth of integrated chip sets, which in 2004 became the majority graphics solution in both desktop and portable systems. . . with Intel estimated to have captured 70% of the segment. ” Source: Mercury Research “PC Graphics 2005 4 Q 2004” Intel major supplier of desktop graphics * Other brands and names may be claimed as the property of others **Features subject to change prior to product release -9 -

Copyright © 2005 Intel Corporation. All Rights Reserved. 04/05 Developer Case Studies - 10 -

Copyright © 2005 Intel Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Relic - Warhammer 40000: Dawn of War* * Other brands and names may be claimed as the property of others **Features subject to change prior to product release - 11 -

Copyright © 2005 Intel Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Relic - Warhammer 40000: Dawn of War* Visual problem occurred between last beta drop and release Only seen when rotated camera could see into distance Occurred on any software device * Other brands and names may be claimed as the property of others **Features subject to change prior to product release - 12 -

Copyright © 2005 Intel Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Software device (BEFORE) * Other brands and names may be claimed as the property of others **Features subject to change prior to product release - 13 -

Copyright © 2005 Intel Corporation. All Rights Reserved. The Issue Software vertex pipeline was not obeying the disabling of texture transforms for a texture stage. – PSGP issue Texture was still being transformed and was using an un-initialized matrix. - 14 -

Copyright © 2005 Intel Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Fix Workaround avoids the transform disable problem by never disabling Instead, transform with the identity matrix Texture coordinates remain unchanged Future PSGP update to resolve this issue - 15 -

Copyright © 2005 Intel Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Software Device (AFTER) * Other brands and names may be claimed as the property of others **Features subject to change prior to product release - 16 -

Copyright © 2005 Intel Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Software/Hardware Results Can Differ Forcing software rendering during development can expose problems GMA 950 will experience same issues, primarily due to use of PSGP Rare, but should always be verified For More info, read Integrated Graphics Developer’s Guide: – http: //www. intel. com/cd/ids/developer /asmo-na/eng/168495. htm - 17 -

Copyright © 2005 Intel Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Ubisoft – Prince of Persia Warrior Within* * Other brands and names may be claimed as the property of others **Features subject to change prior to product release - 18 -

Copyright © 2005 Intel Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Ubisoft – Prince of Persia Warrior Within* Performance was very low at early engagement (Meltdown ~7 FPS) Changed DVMT settings in BIOS – DVMT (Dynamic Video Memory Technology) was initially set to 64 MB – Changed to 128 and framerate increase 25% (15 fps → 20 fps) Scaled effects appropriately Result: >30 FPS at 1024 x 768 Side-note – Driver fix for glow effect * Other brands and names may be claimed as the property of others **Features subject to change prior to product release - 19 -

Copyright © 2005 Intel Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Demo! Prince of Persia Warrior Within on Intel GMA 900 series - 20 -

Copyright © 2005 Intel Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Valve – Half Life 2* * Other brands and names may be claimed as the property of others **Features subject to change prior to product release - 21 -

Copyright © 2005 Intel Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Valve – Half Life 2* Issues we ran into: – Software device with hardware vertex buffers – Large vertex buffers with lots of untransformed polygons – Lack of support for DX 9 queries * Other brands and names may be claimed as the property of others **Features subject to change prior to product release - 22 -

Copyright © 2005 Intel Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Sparse Vertex Buffers The software pipe processes the entire vertex buffer range in the call to DP/DIP – Unlike hardware which process on demand – Try to minimize # of holes within the VB vertex buffer v 0 … v 96 Most hardware processes vertices on demand vertex buffer v 0 … v 96 Software pipe processes all vertices in VB range - 23 -

Copyright © 2005 Intel Corporation. All Rights Reserved. DX 9 Queries Optional in DX 9 Compute Intensive: – would require regenerating TNL of scene – our tiled architecture does not keep this information around Had to disable usage of this query - 24 -

Copyright © 2005 Intel Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Resolution SSG Engineers from Intel on-site to assist in investigation, root cause, and resolution of issues HL 2 now runs well on GMA 900 series hardware - 25 -

Copyright © 2005 Intel Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Other titles running on IIG Complete list available at: http: //support. intel. co m/support/graphics/sb/ CS-012643. htm Google: Intel Game Compatibility List 945 G - 26 -

Copyright © 2005 Intel Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Correctness Tips The next few slides are tips that encapsulate the majority of issues developers run into. They are in no particular order, but we run into them all the time. - 27 -

Copyright © 2005 Intel Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Retrieving correct caps Don’t check caps before device has been created IDirect 3 D 9 vs. IDirect 3 DDevice 9 Capability IDirect 3 D 9: : Get. Device. Caps() IDirect 3 DDevice 9: : Get. Device. Caps() Max. Active. Lights 0 0 xffff Max. User. Clip. Planes 0 6 Max. Vertex. Blend. Matrices 0 4 Max. Streams 1 16 0. 0 3. 0 Vertex. Shader. Version - 28 -

Copyright © 2005 Intel Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Z-Fighting on Intel® GMA series supports 16 -bit Z-bias, but emulates 32 -bit in software Alternative solutions – Increase Direct. X* 9 Depth Bias – Loading a new projection matrix – Loading a new viewport – For example code: – http: //www. intel. com/cd/ids/developer/asmo-na/eng/168495. htm * Other brands and names may be claimed as the property of others **Features subject to change prior to product release - 29 -

Copyright © 2005 Intel Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Floating Point Textures No support for floating point textures or render targets in GMA – Don’t require your apps to have float tex support just yet Alternative: – Emulate using integer formats and convert in shaders – See HDRFormats in DX 9 SDK for example using RGBE (8 bits per color channel, 8 bits for shared exponent) – High Dynamic Range Environment Mapping On Mainstream Graphics Hardware http: //www. gamedev. net/columns/hardcore/hdrenvmap/ - 30 -

Copyright © 2005 Intel Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Shader Compatibility GMA 900/950 supports –Up to VS 3. 0 and PS 2. 0 Specific third party extensions in baseline will limit audience Have a backup method for effects that will run on mainstream device - 31 -

Copyright © 2005 Intel Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Easy development steps Force software T&L during development – Excellent method for catching problems that will occur on integrated graphics – Can be done with third party tools, or through flags on device creation Specific configuration for Intel® GMA – VS 3. 0/2. 0 + PS 2. 0 path, lower poly count Engage early with Intel. . . - 32 -

Copyright © 2005 Intel Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Early Intel Engagement Systems are available for development through Intel® Early Access Program http: //www. intel. com/IDS/EAP We’re here to help work through issues Driver bugs can be identified early – And fixed! - 33 -

Copyright © 2005 Intel Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Call To Action Include Intel Graphics in your QA pipe Consider software rendering when finalizing your game If you see any problems, let us know If don’t have a system, contact us! - 34 -

Copyright © 2005 Intel Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Questions? cody. l. northrop@intel. com adam. t. lake@intel. com Intel Graphics – intelgraphics@intel. com Intel Developer Services – http: //developer. intel. com/graphics - 35 -