Exclusive: AMD's Matt Skynner Interview

[LtMatt]

A good read from Jason Evangelho. Covering topics from AMD's new partnership with Crytek, Freesync, Mantle and more.

Mantle Momentum

When AMD announced that DICE would incorporate Mantle into Battlefield 4 and across their portfolio of Electronic Arts games powered by the Frostbite Engine, it was worthy of some applause but didn’t yet signal a revolution. Then came support from Eidos-Montreal (Thief), industry vets Oxide Games, and successful game designer Chris Roberts (Star Citizen). With Crytek on board, I can’t help but feel this is the influential spark AMD needed .

It’s a safe argument to make that DICE and Crytek power some of the most technically advanced video games out there between Battlefield 4 and Crysis 3. But Crytek’s Cryengine is also licensed out to more than 35 studios at last count, encompassing more than 50 games. How widely adopted Mantle becomes following this partnership is just speculation, but it’s a bright spot for a technology still in its infancy.

Open Source Versus The “Black Box”

We have our AMD Gaming Evolved program, and we make code like TressFX available to developers, so they get the source code,” Skynner explains. “It gives them the power in their hands to create experiences. Our competition has more of a ‘black box’ method of doing that. We think that open exchange between ourselves and ISVs [independent software vendors] helps us all learn and adapt and expand what we can do.”

“Another example is the variable refresh technology [G-Sync] that’s been announced. We have a different approach [that] doesn’t require proprietary hardware. It’s free of charge essentially.”

Full Article
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonev...tek-partnership-mantles-beacon-of-leadership/

 

[gpuerrilla]

In before negativity. Pretty much what we have been babbling on about in similar threads which means people are in touch with the news.

Nice scoop!

 

[humbug]

It's interesting that AMD not so long ago had been criticised for not doing anything for PC gaming.

But ... last year saw an explosion of them getting involved with it, picking up key developers and partnering up in bringing us a bunch of good AAA titles, bringing new Open Standard Technologies. It was a good year for AMD contributing to the PC Gaming industry.

This year has started with another bang, more AAA titles, but also something very significant that sets the stage for the future -- Mantle, a revolution in graphics API the likes of which have not been seen for a very long time, if ever. It will change the face of gaming, even if not in itself, it has changed the direction of PC gaming to a course it desperately needed to take.

And not forgetting Free-Sync, the benefits of G-Sync but without the need for expensive add-on hardware, it's coming, and it's another great innovation.

While it's perhaps not possible to make Mantle a standard with the whole gaming industry I am glad it's leading to something better than we currently have. IMO, if it wasn't for Mantle, MS would not have bothered with something like DX12. My opinion.

And yet there are a bunch of other AMD technologies that are shared with everyone in the industry, including their own rivals. It's this (not proprietary lock-outs) which drives that industry forward.

Well done, AMD. I'm looking forward to another year with you at the forefront in driving the PC gaming Industry forward.

Thank you.

Now, back to Battlefield 4 with Mantle.