When there are performance problems with the game on some hardware configurations what kind of testing is done with AMD to sort those problems pre-launch?
When an engineer gets assigned to a title, they will regularly test the latest builds and investigate any new performance issue encountered.
On top of that, we have several QA labs that regularly perform smoke tests and full compatibility reports on builds we obtain throughout a game’s development cycle, including regular performance tests and regression testing. If the performance issue comes from a suboptimal way to use the graphics API or the GPU, then we’ll work with the ISV to find a better way to implement this particular feature. In some rare occasions performance issues can exist in our graphics drivers. In this case the ISV engineer will interface with our driver performance team to ensure the problem is investigated and ironed out as soon as possible.
Are there individuals or teams that work with specific developers or is it a pool of tech support so that you might get a different person each time round?
We try to assign titles to engineers based on geographic locations, to make visits easier and help build long-term relationships. It allows the engineer to keep working with the same studio, which is beneficial as we get to know better the people we work with and the technologies they develop.
In the previous interview we mentioned that AMD consultants won’t do coding, but what kind of things do they do if they’re interfacing with a developer? How deep can they generally dive into a project?
Actually, our engineering support team does do coding. We have the ability to go as deep into a project as we need. Shader development and engine optimizations are regular tasks that we carry out. Our work also includes on-site coding when the need arises.
That said, we try not to have too much of an influence on how the code looks, to help keep things consistent with the game studio’s particular experience, code style and optimizations—an approach the studios tend to prefer. In all cases, it is essential that the game studios retain full ownership and responsibility of the code they ship and we always stress this point with them.
What kind of tools and APIs are available to help devs get the best out of AMD technology?
Tons! You can find the full list of our public tools and APIs on our developer website, at www.amd.com/developer.
As far as game development is concerned, some of the more common tools and APIs the most used are:
- GPUPerfStudio 2 and gDebugger (GPU performance analysis and debugging tools)
- AMD CodeAnalyst (CPU performance analysis tool)
- GPU ShaderAnalyzer and APP KernelAnalyzer (shader analysis tools)
- The ATI GPU Services library (for Eyefinity and Crossfire support)
- The Quad-Buffer SDK (for HD3D stereo implementation)
- The ATI Compress library (for texture compression)
As you’ll see on our developer site, there are many, many more tools available, and we encourage any interested developers to give it a look.
