AMD Delays Battlefield 4 Mantle Patch
AMD hasn't offered a new release date beyond next month.
AMD has announced that its Mantle API has been delayed. The patch, originally set for release this month, is now expected in January of 2014. AMD has not offered a more specific release date than 'January 2014,' but it sounds as though the reason for the delay is on the side of BF4 dev, DICE. AMD released a statement on the delay of the Mantle patch for Battlefield 4, the first title to support Mantle. The statement reads as follows:
"After much consideration, the decision was made to delay the Mantle patch for Battlefield 4. AMD continues to support DICE on the public introduction of Mantle, and we are tremendously excited about the coming release for Battlefield 4! We are now targeting a January release and will have more information to share in the New Year."
AMD announced its low-level high performance graphics API back in September. The API allows developers to ‘speak the native language’ of AMD’s Graphics Core Next architecture, which is present in modern AMD GPUs and APUs.
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If the API were flawed you wouldn't have such a late change of dates, to one so close, since it's a building block, not an end product. If it wasn't working right, it would require the rework of the API, and then you'd have to test the engine and software that uses it. That's not a one month move.
BF4 is a mess right now, and you can't develop for it, because it's a moving target. If you're on the Mantle team, you're testing against release "A". But, they're constantly trying to fix all the issues, so by the time you get it to work on "A", it's no longer what they're sending to customers. It's now got to be tested on a different release, that may or may not break things you already tested for. So you test for that, except when it's ready, that's no longer the release you'll be shipping with, etc... You can't develop for that moving target effectively, until it slows down and stabilizes, and becomes manageable. Otherwise, it's a nightmare, and it never turns out right. They don't want to start the Mantle era with a product that works really poorly because of issues not related to Mantle. And that's what they'd be doing if they don't wait for BF4 to stabilize before trying to throw a Mantle release out there.
What is interesting is that it is an API to allow access directly to the GCN hardware, it is pretty much a emulation path to what it used to be like in games which used to directly access computer hardware instead of calling through APIs.
I just hope it is actually impressive enough to do more than when they did the 64bit patch for Far Cry that added a few more trees and birds at best but performance was the same.
A fully optimized game can be upwards of 10x faster. Probably not 10x the FPS, but a mix of more FPS and more complicated scenes with more stable FPS.
With such a high peak improvement, my guess is a system with AMD's newest GPU arch(R9 290), will probably get 30%+, but there are so many variables and BF4 has been a mess so far.
Best just to wait for benchmarks and periodically check after patches to BF4 and Mantle come out for several months after.
A fully optimized game can be upwards of 10x faster. Probably not 10x the FPS, but a mix of more FPS and more complicated scenes with more stable FPS.
With such a high peak improvement, my guess is a system with AMD's newest GPU arch(R9 290), will probably get 30%+, but there are so many variables and BF4 has been a mess so far.
Best just to wait for benchmarks and periodically check after patches to BF4 and Mantle come out for several months after.
Again I hope it is true and not like the Far Cry 64bit patch. There was so much hype about it that when it came out no one cared.
I can see the benefit of it but honestly to truly take advantage of hardware you need to bypass all APIs. That also in lies the main issue. The reason why apps and most basic drivers can crash without taking down Windows is due to those APIs. Since a game calls through DX for the GPU if it crashes that stops it from crashing the GPU driver and as well Windows.
Another benefit is that it increases compatibility. So long as the OS supports the API, the game will more than likely run. Most every DX9 game will run on XP, Vista, 7, 8 and 8.1 and as well any future versions of Windows that supports DX9.
I do hope it can improve performance but I think a better route would be for AMD and NVidia to work with Microsoft to add direct hardware access through DirectX that way it will be more compatible with more hardware and games.
Second, deadlines are necessary in order for a business to function. We don't live in a world where you can take as long as you want in order to finish something. Or as many gamers put it "ship it when ready" not when the deadline comes up. It's no different than your boss saying "I need that report by Friday". You need to get it done by Friday or else.
Well they are already on the back foot with both this and their driver fix phase thing, so...
Second, deadlines are necessary in order for a business to function. We don't live in a world where you can take as long as you want in order to finish something. Or as many gamers put it "ship it when ready" not when the deadline comes up. It's no different than your boss saying "I need that report by Friday". You need to get it done by Friday or else.
NOTHING rectifies BTF4.... so atleast we can aggree that its the managements fault. They should have delied, the costs for not delaying and reputation damage to the company are not to bo underestimated.