Rebellion today announced that summer chart-topper Sniper Elite 3 is the latest in a small but growing list of high-profile games to include support for AMD’s advanced Mantle API. Released today as a free Steam update timed to coincide with AMD’s recent Catalyst 14.9 WHQL driver release, the Sniper Elite 3 update also includes a new Benchmark mode for both Mantle and DX11.
Rebellion’s Head of Programming, Kevin Floyer-Lea explained why the team was so keen to support the API from the beginning:
“This brings the PC closer to console programming, where developers are used to having direct control over available resources and squeezing the most out the hardware.” said Floyer-Lea and continued:
“Whatever else may happen with Mantle in the future, it’s most definitely kick-started a move to more lightweight APIs.”
Like most Rebellion games, Sniper Elite 3 was developed using the studio’s in-house Asura engine, and Floyer-Lea’s analysis highlights immediate improvements seen since Mantle’s implementation, including reduced CPU drain despite frame rate increases, even with real-world GPU heavy test cases.
However it’s Mantle’s future that most excites the studio, with the potential of “completely new approaches” to previously thorny development hurdles including multiple GPU support, and the potential for leveraging Asynchronous Compute.
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John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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