[z64555]

Besides stuff like SSE, what are some other hardware related features that we can look at?

Hyperthreading comes to my mind, oddly.

[LHN91]

Hyperthreading is essentially make a single core look like 2 to the OS. Completely useless to us at the moment as the engine is entirely single-threaded.

[mjn.mixael]

I'm gonna go out on a limb here... I realize that many of you think that you can figure out how to get more FPS by "simply adding some new hardware support"...

My bet is that the coders know the solutions out there, have looked at most of them, and have added what they consider to be worth the work. I doubt we are going to come up with something that they hadn't thought of and/or already dismissed.

[Valathil]

what mjn said. Also if u use linux and dont manage to compile something WITH instructions i suggest you buy a mac or become an hero.

[jr2]

what mjn said. Also if u use linux and dont manage to compile something WITH instructions i suggest you buy a mac or become an hero.

Become a hero.  Because heroes are FTW.



Stay with Linux.  Get it if you don't have it.  Because Linux is 1337 and 4w350m3.  But retain dual-boot with M$ WinDOwS.  For nostalgia's sake, and because WINE doesn't run all winDOwS programs yet.

[z64555]

I'm gonna go out on a limb here... I realize that many of you think that you can figure out how to get more FPS by "simply adding some new hardware support"...

My bet is that the coders know the solutions out there, have looked at most of them, and have added what they consider to be worth the work. I doubt we are going to come up with something that they hadn't thought of and/or already dismissed.

No fun. 

[jr2]

Yeah... I (and maybe others) keep hoping to see something in the forest that the coders may perhaps have missed in the trees of coding.  Heh.  Reality isn't that easy, hmm? 

[Nuke]

Besides stuff like SSE, what are some other hardware related features that we can look at?

Hyperthreading comes to my mind, oddly.

if i were to name anything:
x64 builds.
if anything to allow the use of bigger datatypes and 64-bit instructions. you could double the precision in things like the physics maths, allowing for more range in velocity, and more available space in which to have a mission. not sure what the broader implications are of such a thing or how much work that would entail. but its probibly the single thing you could do to give 64 bit users more go. still you wouldn't get this under 32 bit, and it would be so radical that noone would really want to do it. especially when you still got people running 32 bit because they think that support for more memory is the only reason to run a 64 bit os.

[The E]

Hyperthreading comes to my mind, oddly.

Which is not something we as developers need to be aware of. Implementing multithreading support is one thing, but we're not going to add code to cater to the peculiarities of a hyperthreading setup.

[jr2]

I thought once multithreading support was added, hyperthreading users would automatically see a boost; the CPU takes care of the rest?

[z64555]

Hyper-threading requires not only that the operating system support multiple processors, but also that it be specifically optimized for HTT[1], and Intel recommends disabling HTT when using operating systems that have not been optimized for this chip feature

 

Hyper-threading works by duplicating certain sections of the processor—those that store the architectural state—but not duplicating the main execution resources

  

Hmm. Yeah. I don't think I want to touch that topic again for awhile.