AMD has officially launched GPUOpen

[Bouzoo]

 

 

Today, AMD has oficially launched GPUOpen, their open source response to NV Gameworks. The idea behind it is to give everyone access to many tools that might help them in creating games, to give devs increased control if they need it. In that way, it is complete opposite to Gameworks, which is shut away from public, not available for everyone.

They have announced that they are gonna keep increasing available content over the next few months.

 

This gives number of advantages as you might imagine:

With GPUOpen now being officially live AMD developers now have the chance to integrate some AMD technologies into their games quickly and easily, offering developers full access to allow them to use AMD's tools in whatever way they desire, opening up a whole range of possibilities.

I'm sure we all can think of many more.

 

[spoiler=Here is the official announcement from their blog:]

Today is the day we launch GPUOpen.

 

GPUOpen is composed of two areas: Games & CGI for game graphics and content creation (which is the area I am involved with), and Professional Compute for high-performance GPU computing in professional applications.

 

GPUOpen is based on three principles:

 

The first is to provide code and documentation allowing PC developers to exert more control on the GPU. Current and upcoming GCN architectures (such as Polaris) include many features not exposed today in PC graphics APIs, and GPUOpen aims to empower developers with ways to leverage some of those features. In addition to generating quality or performance advantages such access will also enable easier porting from current-generation consoles (XBox One™ and PlayStation 4) to the PC platform.

 

The second is a commitment to open source software. The game and graphics development community is an active hub of enthusiastic individuals who believe in the value of sharing knowledge. Full and flexible access to the source of tools, libraries and effects is a key pillar of the GPUOpen philosophy. Only through open source access are developers able to modify, optimize, fix, port and learn from software. The goal? Encouraging innovation and the development of amazing graphics techniques and optimizations in PC games.

 

The third is a collaborative engagement with the developer community. GPUOpen software is hosted on public source code repositories such as GitHub as a way to enable sharing and collaboration. Engineers from different functions will also regularly write blog posts about various GPU-related topics, game technologies or industry news.

 

I really like the whole open source idea, think it's great, have to give them that. Honestly, can't wait to see what people come up with. I know, Gameworks is used in more titles by the day, but I hope this finds it's (not small) share of market. Especially when it's again, open source. What do you think? 

As always, AMD thread, please don't make this into a war, keep things civilized. 

 

Sources: 1, 2

GPUOpen official site

[SurvivorNVL]

"As always, please don't make this into a war, keep things civilized."

You've doomed us all.

On a serious note hopefully this takes off and actually gets somewhere.  I feel Gameworks will end up being the majority, though.

[Belgarathian]

Hopefully this combined with freesync will cripple Nvidia's grasp on the market and force them to support these technologies (if their hardware can support it?).

 

I like Nvidia, but I'm opposed to Gameworks and G-Sync as it creates significant costs to exit (yes, I am aware that this was likely a reason for it's developement) and Gameworks has been a constant mess for AMD on game release meaning that it's no longer just about raw power of the GPU, but what software and screen you're intending to own.

 

Nvidia is the new Apple from 2003

[Octagoncow]

This is great. I wish Nvidia would have done this with Gameworks.

[420istoday]

Now all we can hope for is that devs actually implement it instead of gameworks.

[CommandMan7]

This will only succeed if AMD provides extensive documentation and support. If they handle this anything like their past game libraries, this will be a complete flop. Nvidia provides a developer as well as plenty of documentation for Gameworks, making it a popular choice due to the simplicity to implement. AMD needs to put their full weight behind this - that means sending developers, answering questions on a timely basis (anyone remember the allegations about project cars?), and providing tutorials plus well written comprehensive documentation. If any of those are missing, this can be considered DOA. 

 

That said, 

 

I have looked at this in the past, and it seems to be a truly useful and well written library. I hope it gets the support it deserves.

[Prysin]

If AMD is willing to actively support those choosing to use their SDK, then i foresee a future for this.

If not, its doomed.

[dragosudeki]

I personally think AMD's support may be hard to get, due to the no revenue going back to them from any who decide to modify that stuff.

 

Though, I'd really like to see dedicated companies develop their own libraries and sell them to the market. There's gotta be a team out there that can do something better than Nvidia and AMD in terms of special effects and stuff.

[Starelementpoke]

I hope this works. 

[Coaxialgamer]

Now , let's just hope it succeeds and nvidia doesn't buy devs into not using gpuopen

[Slyhawk]

I think that this would be great for indie developers.

[Opask]

I'm more hyped to see where their linux drivers go in the coming months.

But anyways good post OP first news article I've read on this site in a while with actual info in the OP.

[Dabombinable]

I'd rather they release better open source drivers, but this is a step towards more even competition.

[Bouzoo]

I'd rather they release better open source drivers, but this is a step towards more even competition.

 

Well this is a step forward as well. Let's see how it turns out

[Doobeedoo]

Great thing, now for devs to embrace it widely and if it's supported well alongside it will surely be amazing.

[Dabombinable]

Well this is a step forward as well. Let's see how it turns out

That doesn't actually affect me-sitting here with dual AMD dGPU in this laptop that don't have driver support past Windows 7 due to "Ati PowerXpress". (That and support for the HD4250 ended quite a while ago while the HD5650 only saw support end a few months ago when AMD could no longer squeeze more performance out of it).

[Bouzoo]

That doesn't actually affect me-sitting here with dual AMD dGPU in this laptop that don't have driver support past Windows 7 due to "Ati PowerXpress". (That and support for the HD4250 ended quite a while ago while the HD5650 only saw support end a few months ago when AMD could no longer squeeze more performance out of it).

 

Did you try modded legacy drivers? Worked for me when I had Mobility HD4650.

[Dabombinable]

Did you try modded legacy drivers? Worked for me when I had Mobility HD4650.

The drivers need to support both the HD4250 and HD5650 at the same time or they won't work/will break Windows.

[Bouzoo]

The drivers need to support both the HD4250 and HD5650 at the same time or they won't work/will break Windows.

 

Yes, those modded drivers do support both. They are on Guru3D but my god I'll need up to dig them out. Haven't used them in year and a half, have to check when was the last time they got updated.

[Dabombinable]

Yes, those modded drivers do support both. They are on Guru3D but my god I'll need up to dig them out. Haven't used them in year and a half, have to check when was the last time they got updated.

I'll start looking then-because I really, really need to install Windows 10 on this particular laptop (its got the Pro version of windows 7 and I'm already seeing some programs not working properly under 7).

 

 

Edit: http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=387161 <those drivers?

[Bouzoo]

I'll start looking then-because I really, really need to install Windows 10 on this particular laptop (its got the Pro version of windows 7 and I'm already seeing some programs not working properly under 7).

 

 

Edit: <those drivers?

 

As in that specific driver, bad wording. 

 

Sadly, it wasn't updated since 2014, just after I upgraded to a new laptop. As I can see here, some people are using them on win 10 w/o issues.

Best I could find.   Hope it helps, even if a bit.

[Dabombinable]

As in that specific driver, bad wording. 

 

Sadly, it wasn't updated since 2014, just after I upgraded to new laptop. As I can see here, some people are using them on win 10 w/o issues.

Best I could find.   Hope it helps, even if a bit.

Trying it now, if it does work with this laptops weird config, you've really helped me out a lot. If not. Thanks for trying, I might have to mod the drivers myself to get them working correctly.

[Bouzoo]

Trying it now, if it does work with this laptops weird config, you've really helped me out a lot. If not. Thanks for trying, I might have to mod the drivers myself to get them working correctly.

 

Well you can always try FLEM.  :lol: Never used it but maybe that helps.

[Fetzie]

Hopefully this combined with freesync will cripple Nvidia's grasp on the market and force them to support these technologies (if their hardware can support it?).

 

I like Nvidia, but I'm opposed to Gameworks and G-Sync as it creates significant costs to exit (yes, I am aware that this was likely a reason for it's developement) and Gameworks has been a constant mess for AMD on game release meaning that it's no longer just about raw power of the GPU, but what software and screen you're intending to purchased or own.

 

Nvidia is the new Apple from 2003

To be fair, Gameworks titles have tended to be a mess on nVidia graphics cards too.

[azurezeed]

At least i think this will be a thing among indie developers