Optimised, high-performance, multi-threaded rendering pipeline

Mon Nov 28 08:08:28 UTC 2016

Am 28.11.16 um 08:51 schrieb Felix Bembrick:
> Great - good to see interest growing.
>
> Especially given that you work for Oracle, right?
Sorry, if I have to disappoint you on that but I do not work for Oracle.
I run my own little company and are the head of the Java User Group 
Stuttgart.
<http://www.jugs.de/>
>
>> 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
>>