GPU Delay - A delay plugin running on a graphics card

[dalor]

I'm definately on Aleksey's side, plugins running on GPU's sounds to me like a temporary hype, which is A) not compatible with every computer setup - graphics card, and B) its future and lifetime is very questionable.

I must admit that the effort of using a GPU for audio processing is groundbreaking - well done!

Pure CPU plugin's will still run in 10 years time (or just in 2 years time), i won't bet you'll keep your graphics card that long - and would you bet the next generation of graphic cards are still pixel shader 2.0 compatible?

If anyone really considers using a GPU for their plugin - please offer an alternative CPU version too - and everyone is happy.

[Tony Ostinato]

interesting contradiction there, if cpus are so powerful why do games need graphics cards?

and if they do are you saying video is more important than audio? (certainly most people can spot quality differences in video more easily than audio).

fact is when i bought my first uad-1 card in '01 people were saying theyd be obsolete when 2 ghz cpu's came along.

then they said 3ghz

then they said dual core

and still theres no good native plugins (IMHO).

[dalor]

interesting contradiction there, if cpus are so powerful why do games need graphics cards?)

Because graphic cards are designed for what they can do best: calculating 3D graphics - the same way your UAD is designed to do what it can do best: calculating sound.

What would you think if someone would code some crazy 3D Demo using your UAD to calculate 3D?

A CPU can do all of that as well but not at the same speed - it's for all of us people out there who don't want hardware - otherwise we'd be all talking in a Receptor/UAD forum.

and if they do are you saying video is more important than audio?

Video is not compareable to audio, they're simply different tasks which require different skills and knowledge - some Artists can do both because their creative mind works that way - but still they're different tasks. I work in Animation/Graphic design and TV Commercials and like doing audio for hobby, it amazes me that some of my graphic design colleques have no clue about audio and music whatsoever. Everyone is unique in his very own way, there is simply no rule.

fact is when i bought my first uad-1 card in '01 people were saying theyd be obsolete when 2 ghz cpu's came along.

And there we go again: It was Hype. I heard the same thing years ago: 2GHZ - WOW - that's double of what we have now! And is it really _that_ much faster? No. Intel certainly knows how to sell their stuff, with a Microsoft helping out in developing the next generation windows version which needs MORE cpu power and MORE this and MORE that - MORE is better. Is it really?

I remember the "Pentium" hype early 90's - jeeeezes, ever been to the Cebit in germany? Pentium was this big next thing which every one wanted to have - great marketing.

I'm going way to off topic here. What i am saying is, at this stage, this GPU thing is amazing technology, but it sounds like temporary (max 12 months time) hype to me. I'll keep an eye on that one and i might be suprised - or not.

[munchkin]

I dispute the idea that GPU plugins are a flash in the pan due to inevitable changes in technology. I think that if a GPU plugin is able to run on PS2 then it'll run on PS3. Otherwise older games would not be compatible with newer cards.

The first PS2 enabled cards came out in Q3 2002. Therefore, unless GPU design changes radically a PS3 GPU plugin made today will still run on a card in 4 years time.

[todd_r]

...Because graphic cards are designed for what they can do best: calculating 3D graphics - the same way your UAD is designed to do what it can do best: calculating sound.

What would you think if someone would code some crazy 3D Demo using your UAD to calculate 3D?...

The UAD-1 is an old graphics card they bought, if you can find it (the graphics card, which looks identical to the UAD-1)and install the drivers apparently you can run the plug-ins on it

[VitaminD]

...if you can find it (the graphics card, which looks identical to the UAD-1)and install the drivers apparently you can run the plu-ins on it

has this actually been confirmed??

[dalor]

The UAD-1 is an old graphics card they bought, if you can find it (the graphics card, which looks identical to the UAD-1)and install the drivers apparently you can run the plu-ins on it

Interesting Well, let's see what happens in future.

[akisd28]

...if you can find it (the graphics card, which looks identical to the UAD-1)and install the drivers apparently you can run the plu-ins on it

has this actually been confirmed??

You could do that up to a specific version of the driver; not any more.

[Tony Ostinato]

well i wouldnt be suprised, but mpact2 is not a "graphics card" , a popular misconception, its a multimedia card with built in support for audio processing.

obviously there is raging interest, just look at this thread.

[VitaminD]

...if you can find it (the graphics card, which looks identical to the UAD-1)and install the drivers apparently you can run the plu-ins on it

has this actually been confirmed??

You could do that up to a specific version of the driver; not any more.

so you've actually converted an old mpact2 card into a UAD card?

[dalor]

obviously there is raging interest, just look at this thread.

Really true! I guess that's because everyone is seeing suddenly the option of having a hardware accelerator at no extra cost (for the user, not the developer) - fair enough.

Therefore, should a plugin with GPU support be more expensive considering it's more time to develope it? I'm sure you can't simply compile a C++ code to GPU code?!?

[munchkin]

obviously there is raging interest, just look at this thread.

Really true! I guess that's because everyone is seeing suddenly the option of having a hardware accelerator at no extra cost (for the user, not the developer) - fair enough.

Therefore, should a plugin with GPU support be more expensive considering it's more time to develope it? I'm sure you can't simply compile a C++ code to GPU code?!?

Nils has already developed a working GPU delay and a chorus for free so it depends on the dev and the development time/costs I should think.

I can use the delay on my system but my video card is PS2 so the chorus won't work. An upgrade to a PS3 card will cost me about £30 so it's not an expensive outlay compared to a new DSP card or cpu.

Cost effectiveness is a very good incentive to buy into this technology. Even if GPU plugins cost more because they take more time to code than native ones (which I seriously doubt) then it's still a very inexpensive option for most of us.

[dalor]

We can talk about it all day long - but what are all the developer's out there saying about supporting GPU code in their plugins? It's them in the end who have to do it.

[mistertoast]

There's a grand history of using graphics processors as calculation devices. Blitter Life on the Amiga comes to mind.

I think if there were a nice standardized library (with CPU fallback), it'd be wonderful.

[todd_r]

well i wouldnt be suprised, but mpact2 is not a "graphics card" , a popular misconception, its a multimedia card with built in support for audio processing...

True, but i've got a feeling that it's the graphic processing side of the card that gave it it's DSP power, afterall it's nearly ten years old now and I can't imagine the audio capability being all that impressive, anyway, ten years on and the graphics procesors we're usin now are a heck of a lot more powerfull (Chromatic research, who made the mpact2 were bought out by ATI) and I for one wouldn't mind being able to utilize them for audio, and UA really need to do something about upping their processing power soon