how funcom increased play time in lego minifigures by 40%

Copyright © 2015, Intel Corporat ion. Al l r ights reserv ed. *Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.

Antoine Cohade - Intel Sergio de los Santos - Funcom

March 04, 2015

Power Efficient Programming: How Funcom increased play time in Lego

Minifigures by 40%. 80%


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Legal

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Why power matters

General power overview

Lego Minifigures: Power overview

How and what to measure

Best practices

Lego Minifigures: Power saving mode features

Agenda

3


Why power matters




Best practices


Agenda

4

Copyright © 2015, Intel Corporat ion. Al l r ights reserv ed. *Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others. Copyright © 2015, Intel Corporat ion. Al l r ights reserv ed. *Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.

User reviews: “Kills the battery.”

“Drain way too much battery life.”

“It simply DESTROYS battery life on my sgs2.”

“Kills battery and limits where one can play.”

“Can kill your battery in a blink of an eye.”

“This app is a huge battery drain.”

Why power matters

5


Why power matters

140 77 100

47 47 15

500

170

40

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

Extreme Gaming Desktop( HSW-E w/ Radeon R9

295x2)

Gaming Desktop(Core i7 3rd gen w/ Nvidia

GTX 760)

Xbox One* Gaming Laptop(Core i7 Mobile 4th gen w/

Nvidia GTX 850M)

Gaming laptop(Core i7 w/ Iris Pro

Graphics)

Mainstream Laptop(Core i5 w/ Intel HD

Graphics 4400)

Po

wer

(W

)

GPU + CPU TDP: From high-end to mainstream

CPU TDP GPU TDP

6

Source : See backup


Integrated CPU and GPU share the same power envelope: Even if a game is 100% GPU limited, CPU workload can impact performance

Case study: Synthetic workload

GPU limited

Running some heavy kernels on the CPU

Why power matters

30

35

40

45

50

55

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

FPS

CPU Threads

Impact of CPU utilization/power on Graphics Performance

4 cores 8 Threads system with Integrated Graphics

4 cores 8 Threads system with Discrete Graphics

7

Source : Internal test results


Devices have varying power behaviors

Why power matters

8

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 27 30 33 36 39 42 45 48 51 54 57 60 63 66 69 72 75 78 81 84 87 90 93 96 99 102 105 108

Po

wer

(W

)

Time (s)

Maximum power variation : clamshell vs. tablet mode

Power-Info-IA Core Power(Watts) Power-Info-Integrated Graphics Power(Watts)

Power-Info-Rest of Package Power(Watts) Power-Info-Package Power(Watts)Source : Internal test using a Lenovo® ThinkPad Yoga


The user cares

Battery life (Lower use time)

User experience

Fan-less / Low TDP design

Power optimized titles will run on lower TDP platforms

Increases total available market

Why power matters

9


Why power matters




Best practices


Agenda

10


General power overview: ACPI in a nutshell

SoC components (each core, graphics) have sleep states

The deeper the component sleeps, the more power is saved

When active, components have Performance States

Each P-State has a given voltage and frequency

Package C-State is determined by the higher of the cores

Any awake component will keep the package awake

11


General power overview: C-States

C0 (active)

C0 (active)

C0 (active)

Cn

Frame n

CPU C-States

Gfx C-States

Package C-States

C0 (active)

C0 (active)

C0 (active)

Cn

Frame n+1

C0 (active)

C0 (active)

C0 (active)

Cn

Frame n+2

C0 (active)

C0 (active)

C0 (active)

Cn

Frame n

12



C0 (active)

C0 (active) C0 (active)

RC..

C0 (act …

Cn

RC6 RC6

Frame n Frame n+1 Frame n+...

CPU C-States

Gfx C-States

Package C-States

C0 (active) C0 (active) Cn

RC0 (active) RC6 RC0 (active)

13



CPU C-States

Gfx C-States

Package C-States

C0

RC0

C0 (active)

RC6

Frame n Frame n+1

Cn

Cn

RC6 RC0 RC0 RC6

C0 Cn C0

C0 (active) Cn C0 (active)

Package deep C-States -> Max Power Saving

Frame n+...

14


Why power matters


Lego Minifigures : Power overview


Best practices

Lego Minifigures : Power saving mode features

Agenda

15



16

Frames

GPU queue

CPU threads

Other metrics


Why power matters




Best practices


Agenda

17


Come and meet us at the Intel Hangout: 4pm today

There are multiple tools for power and perf. analysis:

Intel® INDE for graphics Analysis

Intel® VTune™ Amplifier for in-depth CPU analysis

Intel® SoC Watch (Intel® System Studio) for power states

How and Watt to measure

18


Why power matters




Best practices

Lego Minifigures: Power saving mode optimizations

Agenda

19


Numerous processors and platforms Differences can impact performance

Take these factors into account and build performance bins

Profile the platform at install time GPU detect / Run some short game snippet

Select the optimal tradeoff performance/settings

Best practices: Adapt to your platform

20


Easiest way to save power, and also most efficient – DirectX - HRESULT IDXGISwapChain::Present(SyncInterval, Flags);

– OpenGL ES - EGLBoolean eglSwapInterval(EGLDisplay display, EGLint interval);

2x less work

Cap frame rates for menus/static scenes even lower

Best practices: Cap the frame rate

Interval = 2 Interval = 1

FPS FPS Battery Life increase

Cut The Rope 2 30.2 40.3 111%

Epic Citadel 31.1 50.7 179%

Intel Fast Blur 31.0 63.0 133%

Zombie Tsunami 30.1 60.4 136%

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Source : Internal Intel test results on a Intel® Atom™ Processor Z3745 reference design


Best practices: Find a reasonable resolution

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

800x600 1024*768 1152*864 1280*768 1360*768 1440*900 1600*900

Ener

gy/F

ram

e (m

J/Fr

ame)

Resolution

mJoules / frame as a function of resolution

800*600

22


2560x1600x60 fps => 1GB/sec

Design points for some of the

tablets in the marketplace is 2-3W

Changing RT format can

help save 15-20% power

Best practices: Keep bandwidth under control

[CELLRANGE]

[CELLRANGE]

[CELLRANGE]

0.40

0.45

0.50

0.55

0.60

0.65

0.70

0.75

0.80

0.85

2.87 4.01 5.12

Po

wer

(W

)

Bandwidth (GB/s)

HDR Rendering : Memory Power as a function of Bandwidth

23

Source : Internal Intel® test results on a core i7-4610Y w/ 2x2GB LPDDR3 1600


Best practices: Be careful with spin loops

Widely used: Reduce input latency

Thread pools

Prevents CPU from sleeping Avoid using them as much as possible

If really necessary, use the pause instruction

https://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/benefitting-power-and-performance-sleep-loops

24
















Handle loss of focus

Color buffer clears

2D game optimizations using depth

Reduce CPU activity

Use of next gen APIs

Best practices: A lot more…

25


Why power matters




Best practices


Agenda

26


Funcom previous games…

Both Age of Conan and The Secret World were designed for a mature hardcore audience, with high end PCs.

We aimed big, at the time, with the latest visual features… but the price was to require high end PCs to play. Mobile was never a target…


Lego Minifigures is aimed for kids (PEGI 7)

Kids play on many devices, mostly low end PCs and tablets.

We implemented a new render engine, designed to run in low power devices.

We still like high end features, but we need to be able to scale up and down

Lego Minifigures:


Cap the framerate to 30Hz

Lower quality lighting and shadows

No anisotropic filtering

Disable post process FXs

Disable antialiasing

Lego Minifigures: Power saving mode optimizations

29


Vsync vs. Sleep

Results:

Before After Power Saved (%)

System Power (W) 16.7 12.3 26%

Soc Power (W) 10.1 6.6 35%

Memory Power (W) 1.4 1.1 25%

Lego Minifigures: Frame capping

30



Optimization performed: Lower resolution shadow-maps

Simple filtering

Disabled AVSM

Results: Before After Power Saved (%)


SoC Power (W) 6.6 6.1 8%


Lego Minifigures: Low quality shadows

31



Lego Minifigures: Low quality shadows

32


Optimizations performed: Still deferred – but simplified – lighting

Render only dynamic objects to shadow map

Disable HBAO

Results:

Lego Minifigures: Simple lighting and shadows



SoC Power (W) 6.1 5.1 16%


33



Lego Minifigures: Simple lighting and shadows

34


We disable all post process (DoF, GodRays, CMAA)

Results :



SoC Power (W) 5.1 4.8 5%


Lego Minifigures: Disable post process effects

35



Lego Minifigures: Disable post process effects

36


Lego Minifigures: Final overview

Power Saving Mode Battery life Battery life Increase

Asus TP 300LD (NVidia GT820M)

OFF 01:53:01 79%

ON 03:22:04

System with HD Graphics 5300

OFF 01:53:02 103%

ON 03:49:04

37

Source : Internal Intel® battery rundown tests


Users care about battery life: let them choose!

Power optimization is performance optimization

Focused optimizations can bring you terrific battery gain

Come and meet us at the Intel Hangout for more info

[email protected] / [email protected]

Conclusion

38

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

C o p y r i g h t © 2 0 1 5 , I n t e l C o r p o r a t i o n . A l l r i g h t s r e s e r v e d . * O t h e r n a me s a n d b r a n d s ma y b e c l a i me d a s t h e p r o p e r t y o f o t h e r s .


GPU Detect : https://software.intel.com/en-us/vcsource/samples/gpu-detect

Loops with Pause : https://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/benefitting-power-and-

performance-sleep-loops

Intel® System Studio 2015: https://software.intel.com/en-us/intel-system-studio

Intel® GPA : https://software.intel.com/en-us/gpa

Power Explorer: https://software.intel.com/en-us/blogs/2013/10/29/power-explorer

Intel® Power Gadget: https://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/intel-power-gadget-20

DX12 Siggraph Demo: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/directx/archive/2014/08/13/directx-12-

high-performance-and-high-power-savings.aspxt

Useful links

40

https://software.intel.com/en-us/vcsource/samples/gpu-detect



















https://software.intel.com/en-us/intel-system-studio








https://software.intel.com/en-us/gpa




https://software.intel.com/en-us/blogs/2013/10/29/power-explorer






https://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/intel-power-gadget-20










http://blogs.msdn.com/b/directx/archive/2014/08/13/directx-12-high-performance-and-high-power-savings.aspxt

















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Slide 6: Extreme Gaming Desktop :

http://ark.intel.com/products/82930/Intel-Core-i7-5960X-Processor-Extreme-Edition-20M-Cache-up-to-3_50-GHz

http://www.extremetech.com/computing/180043-amd-r9-295x2-review-500-watts-of-cool-running-4k-gaming-goodness-with-a-price-tag-to-match

Gaming Desktop : http://ark.intel.com/products/65719/Intel-Core-i7-3770-Processor-8M-Cache-up-to-3_90-GHz http://www.anandtech.com/show/7103/nvidia-geforce-gtx-760-review

Xbox One: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/21/hands-on-with-xbox-one/

Gaming Laptop: http://ark.intel.com/products/78937/Intel-Core-i7-4810MQ-Processor-6M-Cache-up-to-3_80-GHz http://www.techpowerup.com/gpudb/2538/geforce-gtx-850m.html

Gaming Laptop: http://ark.intel.com/products/83503/Intel-Core-i7-4980HQ-Processor-6M-Cache-up-to-4_00-GHz

Mainstream Laptop: http://ark.intel.com/products/80343/Intel-Core-i5-4310U-Processor-3M-Cache-up-to-3_00-GHz

Sources:































































http://ark.intel.com/products/65719/Intel-Core-i7-3770-Processor-8M-Cache-up-to-3_90-GHz





















http://www.anandtech.com/show/7103/nvidia-geforce-gtx-760-review









http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/21/hands-on-with-xbox-one/









http://ark.intel.com/products/78937/Intel-Core-i7-4810MQ-Processor-6M-Cache-up-to-3_80-GHz





















http://www.techpowerup.com/gpudb/2538/geforce-gtx-850m.html





http://ark.intel.com/products/83503/Intel-Core-i7-4980HQ-Processor-6M-Cache-up-to-4_00-GHz





















http://mark.intel.com/products/80343/Intel-Core-i5-4310U-Processor-3M-Cache-up-to-3_00-GHz






















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