Battlefield 4 Patch 2/13/2014 with Mantle improvements

[krumme]

The random spikes I had under mantle are mostly gone. Now I have lesser spikes which may be caused by my old and broken HDD (smart errors).
I will try to benchmark my system:
Phenom II 965 3,4Ghz OC@3,5GHz
HD 7870 1000/1250MHz

Did test range shots:

Free performance
Looks like those spikes under mantle I was talking earlier were caused by background tasks - chrome was refreshing mining pools dashboard every 10 sec or so, which was not noticable under dx. And because mantle is taking every last bit of the available CPU, when background task kick in, it takes resources used by mantle to feed GPU. Resulting in a spike.

The update just shows the basic strenght of having a think layer driver. 2 weeks for major improvement/bug fixes that usually would take 2 months and a driver update. Really a huge benefit to consumers this way. It should always have been like this.

After a few iterations more on the driver i think its basically it and it will stay there while dx driver will need fixes and improvents constantly as it always has for good reasons. The improvement from then on in mantle will then come from the dev side.

 

[DominionSeraph]

The update just shows the basic strenght of having a think layer driver. 2 weeks for major improvement/bug fixes that usually would take 2 months and a driver update. Really a huge benefit to consumers this way. It should always have been like this.

CTD's in a game 4 months after launch is an improved model? Do you work for Obsidian?

 

[Z15CAM]

I'm new to BF4: Where and how do you down load this patch?

Other then play Single Shooter on your own platform what bandwidth do you need to play in an Online Arena?

 

[CropDuster]

I'm new to BF4: Where and how do you down load this patch?

Other then play Single Shooter on your own platform what bandwidth do you need to play in an Online Arena?

The game will update automatically when you start Origin. My DSL is often at a slow 2Mbps during the evening and I'm fine on 32 player servers, but I'll start getting some lag on the 64s.

 

[el etro]

CTD's in a game 4 months after launch is an improved model? Do you work for Obsidian?

He's talking about Mantle functionality....

 

[Z15CAM]

The game will update automatically when you start Origin.

[redacted]: I want to download that patch and Slipstream it into the Original BIN files. of the Digital Deluxe installation or at least run it as a secondary updated patch.

I paid for it I want the files on hand. Where can you directly download the Patch?

Another thing I would sooner have in the game armament options the CZ 58 7.62x39 mid range assault weapon and where's the Browning Belgium ACIER FN Shot Gun (particularly a the 16 gauge ) or to say the least a 308 C1 FAL or 30.06 Snipers Rifle or perhaps a 348 and the 9mm Hi-Power side arm - Just give me a Lee Infield SLME 303 - Doesn't mean I can't shoot a 556 or 223 but I just don't care for that round: I'm Canadian - LOL

 

[frozentundra123456]

Yea, saying you have a bug in a game, but that is a plus because it is easy to fix, is kind of like saying it is good you are sick because you have a great doctor.

 

[krumme]

Yea, saying you have a bug in a game, but that is a plus because it is easy to fix, is kind of like saying it is good you are sick because you have a great doctor.

What a sad comment. You know perfectly well what it is about and yet you choose the sour grapes.

Its the first game with a completely new api and new driver. Yet from day one it shows that major bugs can be fixed within 2 weeks. Something that always takes months with dx. And always will.

This is strawberry situations comming. And enthusiast and gamers should be happy.

 

[Erenhardt]

It is funny how the devs turned the situation against them. With mantle, they can no longer say: "Its DX/driver bug/fault - game code is ok!"
Now everything will be their fault and they will be blamed. Granted, they will have more control, and easy to use tools - claimed by devs in interview after APU13

 

[3DVagabond]

It is funny how the devs turned the situation against them. With mantle, they can no longer say: "Its DX/driver bug/fault - game code is ok!"
Now everything will be their fault and they will be blamed. Granted, they will have more control, and easy to use tools - claimed by devs in interview after APU13

Naw, the same people who always have will still blame AMD drivers. lol Old habits die hard.

 

[Silverforce11]

Hopefully all the experience Frostbite is getting with these bugs mean future titles will be a smoother launch with Mantle.

I think from reading around, BF4 is at a point where its finally playable and not the crap BETA that it was for months with a premature launch. Gonna go get it finally.

 

[krumme]

Think about what is actually fixed in this patch.
We knew the driver was thin, but who would have imagined beforehand, that memory leaks could be fixed without a driver update?
I can safely say i firmly expected a new driver for that to be fixed. I was wrong. And i didnt read anyone making the prediction that a driverupdate was not needed. Its damn incredible and i havnt seen anything like that in 20 years.

 

[bystander36]

Think about what is actually fixed in this patch.
We knew the driver was thin, but who would have imagined beforehand, that memory leaks could be fixed without a driver update?
I can safely say i firmly expected a new driver for that to be fixed. I was wrong. And i didnt read anyone making the prediction that a driverupdate was not needed. Its damn incredible and i havnt seen anything like that in 20 years.

Where did you get the idea that all memory leaks were driver related?

 

[krumme]

Where did you get the idea that all memory leaks were driver related?

One of the differences from Mantle to dx is it gives better/more memory management, but i just made the asumption it was still controlled somewhat controlled/limited in the driver anyway. That obviously was not the case.
Did you expect a fix within 2 weeks?

 

[bystander36]

Memory leaks are interesting. Some get fixed almost immediately, some never do (Original Crysis on the carrier).

It's good they found the leak is about all I can say.

 

[BrightCandle]

I can tell you memory leaks can be really hard to find. The sort of leak that takes 30 minutes to wreck your game is not something that happens every frame, so it can be quit difficult to find it in the profiler.

The memory leak intoduced with mantle isn't a surprise really, the lower level api has a lot more references to hardware pointers and part of the way they get the speed is they don't manage the life cycle for you so unless you explicitly free it then it will leak memory. Its much easier for devs to have a memory leak, a crash and concurrency bugs with Mantle than it is with opwnGL/DirectX based on the api design. We should expect a lot less stability in general with Mantle layers to begin with.

 

[Skurge]

The memory leak happened in DX as well.

 

[Teizo]

Do you know what tesselation is? I see nothing in those shots that indicate a difference other than the color grading. The slight differences in foliage are due to the fact that it is swaying and I took the shots at different times during the sway.

This comment makes me laugh. Call it color grading if you like, but looks to me the ground/floor has more:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tessellation

...in DX than Mantle. Could just be the driver, or the current implementation of the API. Not that Mantle can't match DX in this area, just doesn't look to me that is atm.


Is it possible to comment in this section without someone trying to insult your intelligence or make some smart aleck remark?

 

[3DVagabond]

This comment makes me laugh. Call it color grading if you like, but looks to me the ground/floor has more:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tessellation

...in DX than Mantle. Could just be the driver, or the current implementation of the API. Not that Mantle can't match DX in this area, just doesn't look to me that is atm.


Is it possible to comment in this section without someone trying to insult your intelligence or make some smart aleck remark?

Dice has already stated that it's a game bug that does not effect performance. Dice has taken responsibility. It's not the driver. It's not the API. It's not a performance advantage for Mantle. It's a game bug that the dev has already admitted responsibility for.

Still, people are going to see what they want to.

 

[krumme]

I can tell you memory leaks can be really hard to find. The sort of leak that takes 30 minutes to wreck your game is not something that happens every frame, so it can be quit difficult to find it in the profiler.

The memory leak intoduced with mantle isn't a surprise really, the lower level api has a lot more references to hardware pointers and part of the way they get the speed is they don't manage the life cycle for you so unless you explicitly free it then it will leak memory. Its much easier for devs to have a memory leak, a crash and concurrency bugs with Mantle than it is with opwnGL/DirectX based on the api design. We should expect a lot less stability in general with Mantle layers to begin with.

Thanx that explains it.

 

[bwat47]

I suspect if the IQ were equal, the Mantle gains would be substantially less.

Can we stop spreading this 'mantle has lower IQ to increase performance' FUD please?

DICE has already stated that the fog is a bug on their end, that will be fixed, and that it does not effect performance.

Its a gamma related bug, its nothing to do with draw distance or performance.

 

[UaVaj]

It is a shame the IQ difference is still high. Draw distance, fog, gamma etc. Obviously not as easy to fix, or the performance impact is too great

$$ says the latter.

 

[yulgrhet]

Its much easier for devs to have a memory leak, a crash and concurrency bugs with Mantle than it is with opwnGL/DirectX based on the api design. We should expect a lot less stability in general with Mantle layers to begin with.

How is you know Mantle API design and how operate?

 

[3DVagabond]

How is you know Mantle API design and how operate?

I assume he's basing that on the fact that devs are going to be coding more directly and the API is doing less. I'm not sure how that translates to less stability and more bugs though.

 

[bystander36]

I assume he's basing that on the fact that devs are going to be coding more directly and the API is doing less. I'm not sure how that translates to less stability and more bugs though.

He is basing it on low level versus high level principles and experience with DX and OpenGL. If he's worked on consoles, then he may have good examples of how low level stuff is done.

The general idea is DX is high level, and as a result, does a lot more for the developer per command. It handles more of the memory management behind the scenes than you'd get from low level programming. These functions have been fine tuned over the years and are generally pretty solid, with known problems.

With lower level coding, the developer must control a lot more, including a lot of the memory management. With more control, it is more likely the developer will make mistakes. There is just more that can go wrong.