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Graphics are nuts. I did a lot of research months ago into how to build my own CPU, RAM, OS etc. from the ground up. I was able to figure out how a bunch of thi

Graphics are nuts. I did a lot of research months ago into how to build my own CPU, RAM, OS etc. from the ground up. I was able to figure out how a bunch of things worked that I didn't know before, and overall feel pretty confident in understanding at least a high level overview of a modern x86 computer. I never figured out graphics cards. They are absurdly powerful and absurdly complex. The lack of documentation and open source drivers also does not help. As featured on HN a bit ago, AMD's drivers for Linux make up 10+% of the entire kernel codebase now! I have no idea how the developers at Unity or Unreal stay sane. The amount of work that has gone into these base platforms we all take advantage of is...unreal.

thechao 5y ago
A well-written GPU driver is a complete copy of an entire OS stack — inverted around the kernel driver. It's going to have at least one Unix-like OS (FW driver), a compiler, a driver-stack, network protocols, etc. I think of a GPU (and its SW stack) like Quade.
LeftTriangle 5y ago
> I have no idea how the developers at Unity or Unreal stay sane. Isn't game dev famous for burning people out?
MarkSweep 5y ago
I don’t know about 3D graphics, but this article shows how to a graphics accelerator for 2D sprites. https://andybrown.me.uk/wk/2014/06/01/ase/ https://andybrown.me.uk/wk/2014/06/01/ase/ At a high level it showcases the idea of offloading expensive graphics computations to a separate chip. A modern window manager uses the graphics device in a similar way to avoid redrawing the contents of windows as you move them around the screen.
danybittel 5y ago
This is also a good series of articles to understand how a GPU works: https://fgiesen.wordpress.com/2011/07/09/a-trip-through-the-graphics-pipeline-2011-index/ https://fgiesen.wordpress.com/2011/07/09/a-trip-through-the-... I think at this point a GPU card is more like a second computer inside your computer. I wonder if we could get rid of the regular computer and use a GPU only... are there any OS for a GPUs?
dannyw 5y ago
Yet AMD's driver support is hilariously awful. I spent four hours yesterday trying to install the Pro drivers for a 6700xt on ubuntu 20.04 using the official drivers. No luck. Nvidia drivers may be closed source, but it just works.

thechao 5y ago

A well-written GPU driver is a complete copy of an entire OS stack — inverted around the kernel driver. It's going to have at least one Unix-like OS (FW driver), a compiler, a driver-stack, network protocols, etc. I think of a GPU (and its SW stack) like Quade.

LeftTriangle 5y ago

> I have no idea how the developers at Unity or Unreal stay sane. Isn't game dev famous for burning people out?

MarkSweep 5y ago

I don’t know about 3D graphics, but this article shows how to a graphics accelerator for 2D sprites. https://andybrown.me.uk/wk/2014/06/01/ase/ https://andybrown.me.uk/wk/2014/06/01/ase/ At a high level it showcases the idea of offloading expensive graphics computations to a separate chip. A modern window manager uses the graphics device in a similar way to avoid redrawing the contents of windows as you move them around the screen.

danybittel 5y ago

This is also a good series of articles to understand how a GPU works: https://fgiesen.wordpress.com/2011/07/09/a-trip-through-the-graphics-pipeline-2011-index/ https://fgiesen.wordpress.com/2011/07/09/a-trip-through-the-... I think at this point a GPU card is more like a second computer inside your computer. I wonder if we could get rid of the regular computer and use a GPU only... are there any OS for a GPUs?

dannyw 5y ago

Yet AMD's driver support is hilariously awful. I spent four hours yesterday trying to install the Pro drivers for a 6700xt on ubuntu 20.04 using the official drivers. No luck. Nvidia drivers may be closed source, but it just works.