Intel® Graphics Performance Analyzers (Intel® GPA)
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When will GPA support OpenGL?

vrennert
Beginner
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Can someone from intel give me an estimation of when GPA will support OpenGL?
I've searched the forums but haven't found any statement on this matter.
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Neal_Pierman
Valued Contributor I
380 Views

Hi,

Thanks for your interest in having Intel GPA support the OpenGL* API. I'm assuming that you are specifically talking about OpenGL support on the Windows* OS, as we already support OpenGL on Android*.

In any case, I've forwarded your request to the Development Team for consideration in a future release.

Regards,

Neal

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jsantos
Beginner
380 Views

Please, OpenGL support!

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Neal_Pierman
Valued Contributor I
380 Views

Hello,

Thanks for your request about OpenGL* support by the Intel GPA product -- can you provide more information about your intended use? For example, what platform (I'm assuming you mean Windows*, but which version), what level(s) of the OpenGL* API, and are you developing games or media applications? Are you trying to analyze and optimize performance, and/or do you want to debug an application during it's development? And which tools do you need: Intel GPA System Analyzer, Intel GPA Frame Analyzer, Intel GPA Platform Analyzer?

And please add anything else that you can think of that would help us raise the priority of this request -- we're trying to juggle requests from different customers with limited development resources, and want to add features that maximize the benefit to the Intel GPA user community.

Regards,

Neal

 

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Paul_S_5
Beginner
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Hey guys,

On the odd change that I can make a difference (I fully understand that your resources are limited), I would just like to add my vote for this feature.

Details:

I am an independent game developer, and to support multiple platforms our in-house engine runs directly on OpenGL. We do not do anything terribly out of the ordinary with it, mostly drawing (lots of) sprites with anything from simple to fairly complex (multiple texture lookups and heavy calculations) shaders. We also make heavy use of post processing for a number of effects.

I must say I was surprised to see how well the new generations of Intel HD Graphics chips perform, but especially since I got my HD Graphics 4600, I have been using that a lot when developing on the road. Given that at least the more higher end chips are very capable of running our games, and there seems to be a trend for more and more computers (especially smaller laptops) to not have any dedicated graphics chip at all, we of course want to support these.

Now, while as I just said that our games run fine at the moment, we would of course like to optimise them as much as possible, so that we can deliver the best possible visual fidelity without crashing our framerates. For this it would be extremely useful to us, if GPA supported at least the forward compatible feature set of OpenGL 3.0, or the core profile of OpenGL 3.2 (due to cross-platform, and compatibility with Sandy Bridge, we only use 3.0 features).

In terms of platforms, we mostly develop on Windows 7/8, so being able to use GPA there would be most important for us. But being able to also check out OSX and Linux builds before releases would certainly be a plus. Also, as is probably clear from the above, the Frame Analyzer would be the tool we are missing most at the moment. Profiling and measuring CPU time is fairly easy, while the nature of OpenGL makes it difficult to understand what draw calls have what performance cost under what circumstances.

Alright, enough from me. Thanks for hearing me out!

Paul

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Neal_Pierman
Valued Contributor I
380 Views

Hello,

Thanks for the detailed description of how OpenGL is important for you, and what you need to be successful.

The reason you haven't seen anything published about OpenGL on Windows is because it's Intel's policy to not discuss what features will be or will not be included in future products. We understand your needs (and you are not the first to request this), but we are constantly trying to determine the best "bang per buck" -- the benefit to our customers of adding a specific feature versus the resources required to implement it.

So at this time, the only support that Intel GPA provides for OpenGL is for OpenGL-ES on Android phones and tablets. Check out the Android versions of both Intel GPA Frame Analyzer and Intel Frame Debugger.

Thanks for your use of Intel GPA, and sorry that the product doesn't currently support OpenGL on Windows.

Regards,

Neal

 

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Pedro_Kayatt
Innovator
380 Views

Just to let you guys know that more plp are interested into the OpenGL Profiler for Windows...

 

Would be even better if we could integrated it with VS.

 

Thanks,

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Neal_Pierman
Valued Contributor I
380 Views

Hello,

Thanks for the feedback on what we can do to help improve the GPA product.

So a follow-up question for you -- when you talk about an OpenGL Profiler, I'm assuming that this means that you're mostly interested in the Platform Analyzer tool -- is this correct, or do you need some or all of the other tools as well?

Thanks!

Neal

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