http://www.worldsfactory.net/2013/10/11/ubisoft-amds-mantle-api-is-a-double-edged-sword
Speaking with DSOGaming, Luc Poirier, Lead Programmer at Ubisoft for Assassins Creed IV: Black Flag, explained that while Mantle can be beneficial, it is also a double-edged sword with its own fair share of issues.
Unfortunately, this has been my fear all along. While having Mantle or generally a low-level API could potentially bring performance gains, in order to truly exploit it this API should be the only one used by programmers.
Instead, we already have DirectX, OpenGL, not to mention Sonys libGCM. This can only mean more fragmentation and more problems for poor developers, who will have to maintain a multitude of renderers, meaning that most likely none of them will be truly optimized. Worse, the actual games might very well suffer for this. Coupled with the fact that Mantle requires more work than a higher level API, this doesnt bode well at all for Mantle.
Speaking with DSOGaming, Luc Poirier, Lead Programmer at Ubisoft for Assassins Creed IV: Black Flag, explained that while Mantle can be beneficial, it is also a double-edged sword with its own fair share of issues.
On one hand, we are very excited by the Mantle API. Since we are used to low-level API because of our work on consoles, it is not something that we are afraid of. We are confident that we could use it to deliver significant performance boost to our games.
On the other hand, we are a little bit wary about it, because it would mean another renderer to maintain. The more renderers we have, the more we have to split our time between each of them, the less time we have to improve the visual look and performance of our game. So, its really a double-edged sword: we will have to analyse the pros and cons before taking a decision.
Unfortunately, this has been my fear all along. While having Mantle or generally a low-level API could potentially bring performance gains, in order to truly exploit it this API should be the only one used by programmers.
Instead, we already have DirectX, OpenGL, not to mention Sonys libGCM. This can only mean more fragmentation and more problems for poor developers, who will have to maintain a multitude of renderers, meaning that most likely none of them will be truly optimized. Worse, the actual games might very well suffer for this. Coupled with the fact that Mantle requires more work than a higher level API, this doesnt bode well at all for Mantle.