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by chris_wot 3811 days ago
This probably won't happen, but it seems that games programmers are a large cause of problems for driver writers. Having to workaround bugs in games is bad for everyone.

Games Studios, IMO, should be made to fix their bugs themselves. They all have patching mechanisms these days, so it's not like it isn't impossible, or even unfeasible.
2 comments
doikor 3811 days ago
Not having this much problems fixed in the API is being currently worked on with DX12 and Vulcan. The point being removing a huge bunch of the abstraction provided by dx/opengl and thus forcing the dev to write more sensible code.

Currently the engine developer in graphics programming writes something and in reality he has no way of knowing what actually happens on the hardware (the API is just too high level to able to really know much). From there it is the hardware providers job to take out their own debugging tools and make sure correct things happen by having a custom code path in the driver.

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washadjeffmad 3811 days ago
It's a bit of the opposite, actually. There was a great article posted here (titled "Why I'm excited for Vulkan") where they explain how proprietary "tricks" GPU vendors use account for much of the necessity for game specific driver updates and optimizations. Game patches are to game bugs what driver updates (or "game profiles") are to what?

Lower level APIs like DX12 and Vulkan remove the competitive advantage vendor dependent performance creates, so well-coded games can perform consistently with lower overhead across ranges of hardware without having to rely on vendors to patch in the shortcuts through their drivers.

Currently, it's like filming a movie with IMAX specifications, then finding out that at different cinema chains it played with quality aberrations because their projectors didn't truly follow IMAX spec. The chains can fix it, but you're already getting blamed for the movie's issues. However, for a little money, on your next film they offer to work closely with you to ensure it shows the way you intended in their theaters. And no, they can't just tell you how to fix it-- their projection technology is a trade secret.

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