Version 0.2: Methane Asteroids sample is feature complete with parallel rendering and many performance optimisations supported by Core API, Extensions and Helpers libraries; Linux build enabled with Vulkan implementation stubs; Gitpod cloud-IDE supported

[egorodet]

• Asteroids sample demonstrating multi-threaded rendering
  • Many rendering optimisations implemented:
  • Multi-threaded rendering with ParallelRenderCommandList was implemented to reduce CPU frame time.
  • Dynamic asteroid mesh LOD selection implemented with estimation of visible asteroid screen-size. This resolved main GPU performance bottleneck. Visualisation of asteroid LODs with coloring as well as dynamic changing LODs distribution are available by hot-keys.
  • 16-bit index buffers are used instead of 32-bit index buffers for all meshes.
  • Asteroids array uniforms buffer update on CPU was significantly accelerated by reducing number of matrix multiplications and using SSE-accelerated implementation of CML matrix multiplication operator.
  • Minimised pixel overdraw with near-to-far rendering order and inverted depth buffer.
  • Minimised texture binding calls with binding whole textures array to program argument at once and selecting asteroid texture with texture index uniform.
  • Application controller added for hot-keys handling:
  • change scene complexity;
  • switch parallel rendering;
  • switch mesh LOD coloring;
  • change mesh LOD complexity;
  • show simulation parameters in message box.
  • Sample is instrumented with scope timers for fast low-overhead profiling.
  • Methane logo badge rendering added.
  • Numerous bug fixes.
• Graphics Core API new features
  • RenderPass on Windows now uses native D3D12 render-pass feature whenever possible (closed #47).
  • ParallelRenderCommandList was added for multi-threaded rendering with an array of internally managed RenderCommandLists into single RenderPass (closed #9).
  • RenderCommandList now can be reset without RenderState setup.
  • RenderState was extended:
  • Depth::write_enabled state was added.
  • Blending state settings were added.
  • Incremental state applying was implemented to eliminate repeated state setup in command list.
  • Program::ResourceBindings improvements:
  • Resources array binding to program arguments is supported.
  • Apply behaviour flags added for optimisation purposes.
  • Parallel initialisation of resource bindings with copying descriptors to GPU.
  • Context improvements:
  • clear_color and clear_depth_stencil settings are now optional (closed #40).
  • Metal frame capture in Xcode is fixed with explicit specification of capture-scope.
  • Getter of content scaling ratio was added (DPI factor on Windows, Retina factor on MacOS).
  • Vulkan API implementation stubs added.
• Graphics Extensions and Helpers new features
  • ScreenQuad graphics extension was added.
  • LogoBadge convenience primitive was added and used for drawing Methane watermark in samples and tutorials (closed #46)
  • Mesh generators now use 16-bit indices instead of 32-bit for lower memory overhead.
  • FpsCounter calculates CPU work percent additionally to frame time (displayed in window header HUD), allowing easily detect CPU/GPU-bound scenario.
• Platform abstraction and Data modules features
  • ScopeTimer is implemented for low-overhead profiling.
  • ParallelFor implementation was updated to use Parallel Primitives Library (PPL) on Windows and home-brewed std::async-based implementation on other platforms.
  • Graphics::App rendering is suspended when window is minimized (closed #48).
  • LinuxApp stub implementation added.
• External libraries
  • CML library extended with SSE-accelerated implementation of matrix multiplication operator.
• Build infrastructure
  • Shaders compilation improvements:
  • Metal Shading Language 2.0 is now used instead of 1.0 on MacOS.
  • Fixed HLSL shaders compilation with different macro-definition values in build-time.
  • HLSL shader optimisation compiler flags applied in Release builds.
  • Build scripts were improved:
  • CMake build parameters added to script variables.
  • Build/Posix/Build.sh can be used both on MacOS and Linux.
  • Build version is now correctly added in application files metadata.
  • Linux build is now supported both by Build/Posix/Build.sh script, Visual Studio and Azure Pipelines CI.
  • Gitpod cloud-IDE is now supported:
  • Gitpod configuration added to repository
  • Open in Gitpod button added on ReadMe page.
  • VS Code workspace configuration added.
  • Resharper C++ configuration was added back to repository.
  • Sonar Cube binaries updated to latest version, unfortunately static code analysis is still broken.