Optimised, high-performance, multi-threaded rendering pipeline

Mon Nov 28 07:51:48 UTC 2016

Great - good to see interest growing.

Especially given that you work for Oracle, right?

> On 28 Nov. 2016, at 18:10, Michael Paus <mp at jugs.org> wrote:
> 
> I am interested too although I have only been listening quietly so far due to lack of time.
> Cheers
> Michael
> 
>> Am 28.11.16 um 06:54 schrieb Felix Bembrick:
>> Sorry Gerrit - you did indeed.
>> 
>> Maybe you'd also like to participate in the offline discussion (especially now that you don't work for Oracle)?
>> 
>>> On 28 Nov. 2016, at 16:07, han.solo at icloud.com wrote:
>>> 
>>> Well I mentioned before that I'm interested too :)
>>> 
>>> Cheers,
>>> 
>>> Gerrit
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Am 27. Nov. 2016, 22:58 +0100 schrieb Felix Bembrick <felix.bembrick at gmail.com>:
>>>> Well, given that you and Benjamin seem to be the only people interested in it, perhaps we should discuss it offline (so as not to bother Oracle or spam list this)...
>>>> 
>>>>> On 28 Nov. 2016, at 06:57, Tobias Bley <bley at jpro.io> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>> Where can we read more about your HPR renderer?
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>>> Am 25.11.2016 um 16:45 schrieb Felix Bembrick <felix.bembrick at gmail.com>:
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Short answer? Maybe.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> But exactly one more word than any from Oracle ;-)
>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> On 26 Nov. 2016, at 00:07, Tobias Bley <bley at jpro.io> wrote:
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> A very short answer ;) ….
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Do you have any URL?
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> Am 25.11.2016 um 12:19 schrieb Felix Bembrick <felix.bembrick at gmail.com>:
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> Yes.
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>> On 25 Nov. 2016, at 21:45, Tobias Bley <bley at jpro.io> wrote:
>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>> Hi,
>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>> @Felix: Is there any Github project, demo video or trial to test HPR with JavaFX?
>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>> Best regards,
>>>>>>>>> Tobi
>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>> Am 11.11.2016 um 12:08 schrieb Felix Bembrick <felix.bembrick at gmail.com>:
>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>> Thanks Laurent,
>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>> That's another thing we discovered: using Java itself in the most performant way can help a lot.
>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>> It can be tricky, but profiling can often highlight various patterns of object instantiation that show-up red flags and can lead you directly to regions of the code that can be refactored to be significantly more efficient.
>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>> Also, the often overlooked GC log analysis can lead to similar discoveries and remedies.
>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>> Blessings,
>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>> Felix
>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>> On 11 Nov. 2016, at 21:55, Laurent Bourgès <bourges.laurent at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>> Hi,
>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>> To optimize Pisces that became the Marlin rasterizer, I carefully avoided any both array allocation (byte/int/float pools) and also reduced array copies or clean up ie only clear dirty parts.
>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>> This approach is generic and could be applied in other critical places of the rendering pipelines.
>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>> FYI here are my fosdem 2016 slides on the Marlin renderer:
>>>>>>>>>>> https://bourgesl.github.io/fosdem-2016/slides/fosdem-2016-Marlin.pdf
>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>> Of course I would be happy to share my experience and work with a tiger team on optimizing JavaFX graphics.
>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>> However I would like getting sort of sponsoring for my potential contributions...
>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>> Cheers,
>>>>>>>>>>> Laurent
>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>> Le 11 nov. 2016 11:29, "Tobi" <tobi at ultramixer.com> a écrit :
>>>>>>>>>>>> Hi,
>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>> thanks Felix, Laurent and Chris for sharing your stuff with the community!
>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>> I am happy to see starting a discussion about boosting up the JavaFX rendering performance. I can confirm that the performance of JavaFX scene graph is not there where it should be. So multithreading would be an excellent, but difficult approach.
>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>> Felix, concerning your research of other toolkits: Do they all use multithreading or are there any toolkits which use single threading but are faster than JavaFX?
>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>> So maybe there are other points than multithreading where we can boost the performance?
>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>> 2) your HPR sounds great. Did you already try DemoFX (part 3) benchmark with your HPR?
>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>> Best regards,
>>>>>>>>>>>> Tobi
>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>> Am 10.11.2016 um 19:11 schrieb Felix Bembrick <felix.bembrick at gmail.com>:
>>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>> (Thanks to Kevin for lifting my "awaiting moderation" impasse).
>>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>> So, with all the recent discussions regarding the great contribution by
>>>>>>>>>>>>> Laurent Bourgès of MarlinFX, it was suggested that a separate thread be
>>>>>>>>>>>>> started to discuss parallelisation of the JavaFX rendering pipeline in
>>>>>>>>>>>>> general.
>>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>> As has been correctly pointed-out, converting or modifying the existing
>>>>>>>>>>>>> rendering pipeline into a fully multi-threaded and performant beast is
>>>>>>>>>>>>> indeed quite a complex task.
>>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>> But, that's exactly what myself and my colleagues have been working on for
>>>>>>>>>>>>> about 2 years.
>>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>> The result is what we call the Hyper Rendering Pipeline (HPR).
>>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>> Work on HPR started when we developed FXMark and were (bitterly)
>>>>>>>>>>>>> disappointed with the performance of the JavaFX scene graph. Many JavaFX
>>>>>>>>>>>>> developers have blogged about the need to dramatically minimise the number
>>>>>>>>>>>>> of nodes (especially on embedded devices) in order to achieve even
>>>>>>>>>>>>> "acceptable" performance. Often it is the case that most (if not all
>>>>>>>>>>>>> rendering) is eventually done in a single Canvas node.
>>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>> Now, as well already know, the JavaFX Canvas does perform very well and the
>>>>>>>>>>>>> recent awesome work (DemoFX) by Chris Newland, just for example, shows what
>>>>>>>>>>>>> can be done with this one node.
>>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>> But, the majority of the animation plumbing in JavaFX is related to the
>>>>>>>>>>>>> scene graph itself and is designed to make use of multiple nodes and node
>>>>>>>>>>>>> types. At the moment, the performance of this scene graph is the Achilles
>>>>>>>>>>>>> Heel of JavaFX (or at least one of them).
>>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>> Enter HPR.
>>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>> I personally have worked with a number of hardware-accelerated toolkits
>>>>>>>>>>>>> over the years and am astounded by just how sluggish the rendering pipeline
>>>>>>>>>>>>> for JavaFX is. When I am animating just a couple of hundred nodes using
>>>>>>>>>>>>> JavaFX and transitions, I am lucky to get more than about 30 FPS, but on
>>>>>>>>>>>>> the same (very powerful) machine, I can use other toolkits to render
>>>>>>>>>>>>> thousands of "objects" and achieve frame rates well over 1000 FPS.
>>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>> So, we refactored the entire scene graph rendering pipeline with the
>>>>>>>>>>>>> following goals and principles:
>>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>> 1. It is written using JavaFX 9 and Java 9 (but could theoretically be
>>>>>>>>>>>>> back-ported to JavaFX 8 though I see no reason to).
>>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>> 2. We analysed how other toolkits had optimised their own rendering
>>>>>>>>>>>>> pipelines (especially Qt which has made some significant advances in this
>>>>>>>>>>>>> area in recent years). We also analysed recent examples of multi-threaded
>>>>>>>>>>>>> rendering using the new Vulkan API.
>>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>> 3. We carefully analysed and determined which parts of the pipeline should
>>>>>>>>>>>>> best utilise the CPU and which parts should best utilise the GPU.
>>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>> 4. For those parts most suited to the CPU, we use the advanced concurrency
>>>>>>>>>>>>> features of Java 8/9 to maximise parallelisation and throughput by
>>>>>>>>>>>>> utilising multiple cores & threads in as an efficient manner as possible.
>>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>> 5. We devoted a large amount of time to optimising the "communication"
>>>>>>>>>>>>> between the CPU and GPU to be far less "chatty" and this alone led to some
>>>>>>>>>>>>> huge performance gains.
>>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>> 6. We also looked at the structure of the scene graph itself and after
>>>>>>>>>>>>> studying products such as OpenSceneGraph, we refactored the JavaFX scene
>>>>>>>>>>>>> graph in such a way that it lends itself to optimised rendering much more
>>>>>>>>>>>>> easily.
>>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>> 7. This is clearly not a "small" patch. In fact to refer to it as a
>>>>>>>>>>>>> "patch" is probably rather inappropriate.
>>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>> The end result is that we now have a fully-functional prototype of HPR and,
>>>>>>>>>>>>> already, we are seeing very significant performance improvements.
>>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>> At the minimum, scene graph rendering performance has improved by 500% and,
>>>>>>>>>>>>> with judicious and sometimes "tricky" use of caching, we have seen
>>>>>>>>>>>>> improvements in performance of 10x or more.
>>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>> And... we are only just *starting* with the performance optimisation phase.
>>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>> The potential for HPR is massive as it opens-up the possibility for the
>>>>>>>>>>>>> JavaFX scene graph and the animation/transition infrastructure to be used
>>>>>>>>>>>>> for a whole new class of applications including games, advanced
>>>>>>>>>>>>> visualisations etc., without having to rely on imperative programming of a
>>>>>>>>>>>>> single Canvas node.
>>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>> I believe that HPR, along with tremendous recent developments like JPro and
>>>>>>>>>>>>> the outstanding work by Gluon on mobiles and embedded devices, could
>>>>>>>>>>>>> position JavaFX to be the best graphics toolkit of any kind in any language
>>>>>>>>>>>>> and, be the ONLY *truly* cross-platform graphics technology available.
>>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>> WORA for graphics and UIs is finally within reach!
>>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>> Blessings,
>>>>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>>>>> Felix
> 
> 