Battlefield 4 and Frostbite 3 Will Support Both AMD Mantle and NVIDIA NVAPI APIs For PC Optimization

[Final8y]

AMD’s Mantle API is currently being integrated in Frostbite 3 based Battlefield 4 which is without a doubt the most biggest title coming out this year after GTA V. Such is its fame that AMD even bundled their latest and top new Radeon R9 290X graphic card with the new title and those of you lucky enough to pre-order the GPU now would be able to redeem the game at no additional cost. So back to the API talk, currently developers have to operate through DirectX and OpenGL APIs to make games work but this doesn’t fully unleash the hardware capabilities of a PC nor do they allow ease of development to developers.

The AMD Mantle API is being exclusively developed for GCN enabled Radeon graphic cards. This would allow developers to dig deep into the metal to bring console-level optimizations through ease of programming and faster optimizations over a coherent GCN chip architecture. This means that we would see better performance on the entire GCN architecture enabled AMD graphic card lineup ranging from the top Radeon R9 290X to the bottom R7 250X.

But Frostbite 3 is more than that as John Anderson, the lead guy behind the team at DICE in developing AMD’s Mantle API said on his twitter profile that Battlefield 4 would also feature NVIDIA’s NVAPI support as it did in Battlefield 3. While the optimizations many not be as great with NVIDIA’s API as with AMD’s Mantle, its still worth noting that atleast DICE is supporting both the Red and Green team graphic cards which means PC optimizations at both ends. In addition to this, you will have the option to select between using Mantle and DirectX 11 if you are using a GCN enabled GPU. Frostbite 3 is on the road to become one of the new mammoth tech engines in the gaming industry powering a portfolio of 15 AAA titles which include the upcoming:

Battlefield 4
Command and Conquer
Mirrors Edge
Plants Vs Zombies: Garden Warfare
Need For Speed: Rivals
Dragon Age: Inquisition
Star Wars: Battlefront
Mass Effect (New Title in the Franchise

http://wccftech.com/battlefield-4-frostbite-3-support-amd-mantle-nvidia-nvapi-apis-pc-optimizations/

 

[LtMatt]

Good find.

Good to see that Battlefield 4 will support both API's. Interesting to know that Battlefield 3 already supports Nvidia's API. Wonder if that's why Nvidia's 'out the door performance' on Battlefield 3 was above AMD's. Look how long it took for AMD to overtake or level the playing field in that title. (12.10 drivers)

 

[gpuerrilla]

Wonder if that's why Nvidia's 'out the door performance' on Battlefield 3 was above AMD's.

Hmm I think a few more of those will come out of the woodwork now that people are stop crying over mantle.

 

[humbug]

Good find.

Good to see that Battlefield 4 will support both API's. Interesting to know that Battlefield 3 already supports Nvidia's API. Wonder if that's why Nvidia's 'out the door performance' on Battlefield 3 was above AMD's. Look how long it took for AMD to overtake or level the playing field in that title. (12.10 drivers)

Interesting that AMD did manage to overtake Nvidia despite Nvidia using a developers API.

you will have the option to select between using Mantle and DirectX 11 if you are using a GCN enabled GPU

That might be fun

 

[Rroff]

Interesting that AMD did manage to overtake Nvidia despite Nvidia using a developers API.



That might be fun

nvapi isn't a performance API though (although it does provide faster methods for some features) its mainly a utility API giving access to low level features not exposed via DX/Open GL (i.e. fine tuning stereo 3D), paths for implementing features nVidia cards don't support through DX i.e. some DX10.1/11.1 features and some efficency improvements.

 

[Phixsator]

Interesting that AMD did manage to overtake Nvidia despite Nvidia using a developers API.

Thats what i thought. Wasnt there some guy called Lauf or layte or something that had major issues with AMD developing Mantle? yet never said anything about NVAPI?..fun stuff. I mean i didnt know until now that nvidia actually had a direct advantage thanks to an API in battlefield 3. I would say atleast AMD has been very open about the tech they want to make use of.

 

[Rroff]

Thats what i thought. Wasnt there some guy called Lauf or layte or something that had major issues with AMD developing Mantle? yet never said anything about NVAPI?..fun stuff. I mean i didnt know until now that nvidia actually had a direct advantage thanks to an API in battlefield 3. I would say atleast AMD has been very open about the tech they want to make use of.

nvapi isn't a replacement rendering device though which is what mantle aims to be. It supplements standard directx functionality when an nVidia card is present and requires no changes to the game engine's intrinsic functionality.

 

[LtMatt]

Its good to see both api's supported though, at least that's fair. If Nvidia want to better their API, that's down to them.

 

[Orangey]

Thats what i thought. Wasnt there some guy called Lauf or layte or something that had major issues with AMD developing Mantle? yet never said anything about NVAPI?..fun stuff. I mean i didnt know until now that nvidia actually had a direct advantage thanks to an API in battlefield 3. I would say atleast AMD has been very open about the tech they want to make use of.

 

[Rroff]

Its good to see both api's supported though, at least that's fair. If Nvidia want to better their API, that's down to them.

Mantle aims to rip out the currently used rendering pipeline to replace it with one of its own to get better results from AMD cards, nvapi supplements the renderer being used to get better results for nVidia cards its an important distinction if your comparing them. If nvidias reaction is to make nvapi into something like Mantle things could get very fragmented and cause all sorts of headaches for developers.

 

[Final8y]

Mantle aims to rip out the currently used rendering pipeline to replace it with one of its own to get better results from AMD cards, nvapi supplements the renderer being used to get better results for nVidia cards its an important distinction if your comparing them. If nvidias reaction is to make nvapi into something like Mantle things could get very fragmented and cause all sorts of headaches for developers.

Like Cuda.

 

[Rroff]

Yes in that way Mantle could be compared to CUDA.

 

[humbug]

Its good to see both api's supported though, at least that's fair. If Nvidia want to better their API, that's down to them.

Yup, +1

Old logo snip*

Thats the old logo, use this one

 

[LtMatt]

I prefer the new logo. I hope to see it in Battlefield 4.

 

[humbug]

I prefer the new logo. I hope to see it in Battlefield 4.

Very slick isn't it...

 

[Ferrari100]

Very slick isn't it...

I agree, grabbed my attention instantly.

 

[drunkenmaster]

Wow, AMD, very naughty...... locking out Nvidia, asking their Gaming Evolved partners to do absolutely nothing to help Nvidia..... oh wait. Nope.


Rroff, why would the market get fragmented if Nvidia got their own API, everyone would just have a AMD and Nvidia rendering path. AS it stands we can now have Mantle or DX, in the future we could just have Mantle or Nvidia... still two API's. AMD and Nvidia users get full value for what they spend, dev's get to push the boundaries with more performance at any given time and to get creative with what they can do without spending ages working around DX limitations. Likewise AMD/Nvidia can do what they want with hardware and adding new features because they don't have to work towards a future standard DX set of features, they can diverge and add what they want without it also having to be Nvidia compatible.

EDIT:- actually as it stands DIce have been working on Mantle, DX and Nvidia extensions, so removing DX and having a full Nvidia API would reduce the amount of work they need to do... well long term, we'll need DX support for current/previous gen cards, but it's something that can be phased out in a couple of years. Like I said previously we need a big group of game dev's to sit down, commit to wanting low level API's and get AMD/Nvidia to hash out an agreement to not block support for the other with any games they work on, with the threat that game dev's will pull support for either company that trys to block the other.

DX needs to die, low level API makes all the sense in the world.

 

[Rroff]

Developers would have to support Mantle, DirectX plus whatever setup nVidia went for and for smaller developers it would potentially be prohibitive to support all render paths.

Back in the day there were games that supported Glide, Mini GL, Open GL, Direct 3D renderers and only one would ever get properly supported and maintained.

AMD seem to be having a bit of a back to basics theme going at the moment which is good in some ways if properly supported things like TrueSound and the refinements in Steamroller could to a degree reboot areas of stagnation in the industry but Mantle I'm not convinved is the right way to go about this bit.

 

[drunkenmaster]

Developers would have to support Mantle, DirectX plus whatever setup nVidia went for and for smaller developers it would potentially be prohibitive to support all render paths.

Back in the day there were games that supported Glide, Mini GL, Open GL, Direct 3D renderers and only one would ever get properly supported and maintained.

AMD seem to be having a bit of a back to basics theme going at the moment which is good in some ways if properly supported things like TrueSound and the refinements in Steamroller could to a degree reboot stagnation in the industry but Mantle I'm not convinved is the right way to go about this bit.

Yes but back in the day this was a tiny industry and 3d acceleration was brand new with multiple players. Here we're talking about longer term, two API's and two api's only.

 

[gpuerrilla]

Yes but back in the day this was a tiny industry and 3d acceleration was brand new with multiple players. Here we're talking about longer term, two API's and two api's only.

Yeah he has a point.