[L4D2 Beta - Linux] Can´t disable Multicore Rendering

[Lord-Avallon]

I can´t disable Multicore Rendering, if I go to menu and change to disabled, when I come back, it´s enabled.

My specs: https://gist.github.com/Lord-Avallon/4521727

[AsciiWolf]

Same problem here.
My specs: http://pastebin.com/JunYbg9E

[mattyy1hp]

Me too.

Processor Information:
Vendor: AuthenticAMD
Speed: 1400 Mhz
4 logical processors
4 physical processors
HyperThreading: Unsupported
FCMOV: Supported
SSE2: Supported
SSE3: Supported
SSSE3: Unsupported
SSE4a: Supported
SSE41: Unsupported
SSE42: Unsupported

Network Information:
Network Speed:

Operating System Version:
Debian GNU/Linux 7.0 (wheezy) (64 bit)
Kernel Name: Linux
Kernel Version: 3.2.0-4-amd64
X Server Vendor: The X.Org Foundation
X Server Release: 11204000
X Window Manager: Mutter
Steam Runtime Version: steam-runtime-release-i386_2013-04-16

Video Card:
Driver: ATI Technologies Inc. AMD Radeon HD 6520G

Driver Version:  4.2.12173 Compatibility Profile Context 12.10.17
Desktop Color Depth: 24 bits per pixel
Monitor Refresh Rate: 59 Hz
VendorID:  0x1002
DeviceID:  0x9647
Number of Monitors:  1
Number of Logical Video Cards:  1
Primary Display Resolution:  1366 x 768
Desktop Resolution: 1366 x 768
Primary Display Size: 13.54" x 7.60"  (15.51" diag)
                                        34.4cm x 19.3cm  (39.4cm diag)
Primary VRAM Not Detected

Sound card:
Audio device: ATI R6xx HDMI

Memory:
RAM: 3430 Mb

Miscellaneous:
UI Language: English
LANG: en_US.utf8
Microphone: Not set
Total Hard Disk Space Available: 581188 Mb
Largest Free Hard Disk Block: 133429 Mb

Installed software:

Recent Failure Reports:

[ghost]

Confirmed as stated in Issue #465

[ghost]

Affecting me as well. Specs here: http://pastebin.com/Ynmx2p5m

[ghost]

Same here, causing major performance issues.

[neptoess]

Use development console
mat_queue_mode 0 will disable multicore rendering
mat_queue_mode -1 will enable multicore rendering

[Lord-Avallon]

Indeed, it´s possible to enable and disable it on the console, thanks, but not yet by using the menu option (it´s not working yet), I didn´t notice any gain in performance, the game still stutters.

[Plagman]

Can you try the LD_PRELOAD hack from this issue?

#765 (comment)

If it turns out to be related we can integrate the gl_finish workaround from the other games.

[Lord-Avallon]

I contacted volca02 about an error message while I was trying to compile the hack, as soon as I can set everything up I post the result here.

[ghost]

Any progress on this? I see no one assigned for over a month.

[iiv3]

@Plagman, L4D2 is definitely affected by #765 . You can see that I mention it in my initial post there. I've also tried the gl_finish hack with it and it seems to solve the issue for L4D2 too.
I do recommend that you add the gl_finish cvar in all titles.

[ghost]

@iiv3 can you explain how to do that for people who've never done it. Why can't people make it work without any fuss! On Windoze you don't need to insert any commands anywhere, you can simply turn the damn thing off, the same way it should work on all platforms, period.

[Plagman]

Doesn't the new Catalyst beta solve the throttling issue?

On Thu, Aug 1, 2013 at 11:14 AM, Inoki Sakaeru notifications@github.comwrote:

@iiv3 https://github.com/iiv3 can you explain how to do that for people
who've never done it. Why can't people make it work without any fuss! On
Windoze you don't need to insert any commands anywhere, you can simply turn
the damn thing off, the same way it should work on all platforms, period.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com//issues/457#issuecomment-21957959
.

[jwcalla]

I can't speak for Catalyst but w/ my GTX 570 I have crazy lag in all Source games when the "Multicore Rendering" option is enabled. Disabling the option fixes the problem. But since it can't be disabled in L4D2, the game is unplayable.

[savalaserg]

I am using 13.8 driver and the lag in l4d2 is still there. When I face a wall I get no problems at all or a corner the frame rate goes through the roof. When I face a open terrain it is almost unplayable lag.

[iiv3]

@Inoki, I'm talking about the glsync hack from #765, but modified to use just gl_finish() instead.

[nortexoid]

@liv3, How exactly did you set gl_finish 1 in L4D2? The console tells me it's an unknown command. It works just fine in HL2 though, and fixes all my lag issues.

[ghost]

Still a present bug.

Running Catalyst 13.8 on Archlinux 64Bit with a Radeon 6950HD.

[ghost]

This issue is still present. Running Xubuntu 13.10 x64 with all packages up-to-date, cannot disable multicore rendering and because of that encounter significant FPS drops.

Am not using the oibaf PPA anymore, just regular Ubuntu drivers.

@iiv3 what exactly do you have in mind? I've tried the "gl_finish" command in the console, but L4D2 doesn't recognize it.

[MrSchism]

@Plagman It seems this issue is still hindering players. Any word on progress?

[Plagman]

To be clear the current scope of the issue is the AMD driver bug that causes it to get too far ahead of the command stream, producing too much latency, correct? Eg. setting mat_queue_mode to 0 to force disable multicore rendering doesn't actually help, and the gl_finish workaround that was pushed in TF2 is what would fix this issue?

[ghost]

@Plagman as an Intel HD Graphics user I must add the "gl_finish" thing doesn't work in L4D2, command is not recognized.

[ghost]

@Plagman my settings:

Processor Information:
Vendor: GenuineIntel
CPU Family: 0x6
CPU Model: 0x25
CPU Stepping: 0x2
CPU Type: 0x0
Speed: 2133 Mhz
4 logical processors
2 physical processors
HyperThreading: Supported
FCMOV: Supported
SSE2: Supported
SSE3: Supported
SSSE3: Supported
SSE4a: Unsupported
SSE41: Supported
SSE42: Supported

Network Information:
Network Speed:

Operating System Version:
Ubuntu 13.10 (64 bit)
Kernel Name: Linux
Kernel Version: 3.11.0-19-generic
X Server Vendor: The X.Org Foundation
X Server Release: 11405000
X Window Manager: Xfwm4
Steam Runtime Version: steam-runtime-release_2014-04-15

Video Card:
Driver: Intel Open Source Technology Center Mesa DRI Intel(R) Ironlake Mobile x86/MMX/SSE2

Driver Version:  2.1 Mesa 9.2.1
OpenGL Version: 2.1
Desktop Color Depth: 24 bits per pixel
Monitor Refresh Rate: 59 Hz
VendorID:  0x8086
DeviceID:  0x46
Number of Monitors:  1
Number of Logical Video Cards:  1
Primary Display Resolution:  1366 x 768
Desktop Resolution: 1366 x 768
Primary Display Size: 13,54" x 7,64"  (15,51" diag)
                                        34,4cm x 19,4cm  (39,4cm diag)
Primary VRAM Not Detected

Sound card:
Audio device: Intel IbexPeak HDMI

Memory:
RAM: 3754 Mb

Miscellaneous:
UI Language: English
LANG: sk_SK.UTF-8
Microphone: Not set
Total Hard Disk Space Available: 145950 Mb
Largest Free Hard Disk Block: 41538 Mb

None of the above mentioned commands work.

[NothingMuchHereToSay]

I had problems with gl_finish in L4D2, which is why I'm stuck with the radeon driver.

[ghost]

I hate to bring this up, but how long do we have to wait for a fix of a game that is even so old enough? This issue has been opened a year ago yet there is nothing even close to a fix and it's unplayable on Linux and we all paid for it, so what's the proposal?

Either hire more people or issue a refund, but this waiting seems endless.

[ghost]

Actually it works fine with the Open Source Drivers. (At least for me) Just the proprietary Catalyst ones give me these kind of problems. I have a much higher framerate in all Source games as well, using the open source drivers.

[Tele42]

It also works fine with Nvidia hardware / closed source drivers, the issue the need for gl_finish is limited to fglrx.

[jwcalla]

When you say "works fine", what exactly do you mean? I have a Fermi card.

There are two issues as I experience them:

1. The reported issue is simply that multicore rendering cannot be disabled. Is anyone able to contradict this? If I turn it off in the options, go back to the main menu and return to the options, it's clearly re-enabled again. Multicore rendering can not be disabled without using a console command.

2. When multicore rendering is enabled (which is the default and can't be changed through the menu), and EIST is enabled in the BIOS for my Nehalem processor, the performance in the game is absolutely horrific. This is with an nvidia card.

The only workarounds are to 1) disable multicore rendering through the console, or 2) use the cpufreq utility to set the CPU governor to max performance level, to maintain highest CPU clocks.

I'm not sure exactly what the root solution should be for my case, but clearly issue 1 is a bug.

[Tele42]

@jwcalla sorry for the ambiguity, I was only responding to the gl_finish component of the discussion, My box has an AMD FX-8150 / nVidia GTX460 and it has not exhibited the symptoms mentioned above. I use the on-demand governer.

[ghost]

@thedancingbard I am using the Open Source driver, yet it's not working, the game is unplayable but on the same laptop using Win7 Ultimate x64 works like a charm because MR can be disabled.

To VALVe: This should be working out of the box. If it can work on Windows, I see no reason why Linux should be any different.

We pay, we have the right to receive a fully functioning product, not some workarounds. It is so convenient for some developers to suggest a workaround instead of pushing a fix while they forget that people using Linux aren't necessarily computer literates, especially those migrating from other platforms who have never used a command line before and I see no reason why they should.

Learning something new is nice, but a computer should serve the user, not the user be subject to constant maintenance of their own workspace.

End of story.

[ghost]

@Inoki No need to be aggressive (at least that's how I read it, the problem may be one my side though ;)). I've never encountered any problem with the open source amd drivers in any source engine game, while the catalyst ones often fail to deliver. Hence I said "at least for me" ;)

[ghost]

@thedancingbard well I am mad about this, not against anybody in particular, especially not here on the forum against any user, but against the company developing this product and providing a malfunctioning version while they encourage people to migrate to Linux since their whole business is about to run on it.

We all have the right to enjoy for what we paid, be it Windows, Mac or Linux, it should work the same on all.

[jwcalla]

I have to admit I share some of Inoki's frustration. I really, really, really and immensely love Valve, but sometimes I feel like an abused spouse.

I play L4D2 about every day, and about every day I reboot into Win7 so I can play it. It's not just this bug, it's the whole lot of them. Some are very small and nitpicky (like no music, no scroll arrows, etc.). Others make the game fundamentally broken and unplayable. I'm not sure how they can sell this game on Linux in its current state, and I haven't seen an update release in ages.

I'm also not sure where the breakdown is here. Is Valve just so understaffed (btw I'm available) and burdened with higher priorities that these things have fallen to the wayside? Are we (the users) not communicating our issues effectively? Is there something more we can do? I post here and I post in the nvidia forums; are my concerns known as confirmed bugs? Or have they not even reached a developer for investigation?

I feel like if we really want this thing to work out, we need to have a better conversation. Especially now before Valve attempts to really go public with Steam Machines.

[Plagman]

Inoki, have you tried starting the game with "+mat_queue_mode 0" to confirm that your performance issues are really caused by multicore rendering?

jwcalla, it looks like you did try that and it fixes the performance issue you're seeing. What does the BIOS setting you're talking about do exactly? Are you having performance issues with other Source games as well when multicore rendering is enabled?

[ghost]

@Plagman yup, the game didn't even launch when I added the command as a launch parameter. Enabling it via the console in-game didn't help either, though it showed that MR is disabled, performance issues persist.

I used the same settings as on Windows, exact same, to no avail.

I recently upgraded to the latest Ubuntu (default desktop with Unity), see specs below:

Processor Information:
Vendor: GenuineIntel
CPU Family: 0x6
CPU Model: 0x25
CPU Stepping: 0x2
CPU Type: 0x0
Speed: 2133 Mhz
4 logical processors
2 physical processors
HyperThreading: Supported
FCMOV: Supported
SSE2: Supported
SSE3: Supported
SSSE3: Supported
SSE4a: Unsupported
SSE41: Supported
SSE42: Supported

Operating System Version:
Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (64 bit)
Kernel Name: Linux
Kernel Version: 3.13.0-24-generic
X Server Vendor: The X.Org Foundation
X Server Release: 11501000
X Window Manager: Compiz
Steam Runtime Version: steam-runtime-release_2014-04-15

Video Card:
Driver: Intel Open Source Technology Center Mesa DRI Intel(R) Ironlake Mobile x86/MMX/SSE2

Driver Version:  2.1 Mesa 10.1.0
OpenGL Version: 2.1
Desktop Color Depth: 24 bits per pixel
Monitor Refresh Rate: 59 Hz
VendorID:  0x8086
DeviceID:  0x46
Number of Monitors:  1
Number of Logical Video Cards:  1
Primary Display Resolution:  1366 x 768
Desktop Resolution: 1366 x 768
Primary Display Size: 13,54" x 7,64"  (15,51" diag)
                                        34,4cm x 19,4cm  (39,4cm diag)
Primary VRAM Not Detected

Sound card:
Audio device: Intel IbexPeak HDMI

Memory:
RAM: 3754 Mb

Miscellaneous:
UI Language: English
LANG: sk_SK.UTF-8
Microphone: Not set
Total Hard Disk Space Available: 246291 Mb
Largest Free Hard Disk Block: 128757 Mb

Installed software:

Recent Failure Reports:
Mon May 5 17:04:18 2014 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/crash_20140505190417_6.dmp'', upload no: ''Failure when receiving data from the peer''
Mon May 5 17:04:24 2014 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/crash_20140505190417_4.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-543aa250-48db-46c2-a4f6-b1d9a2140505''
Mon May 5 17:04:37 2014 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/crash_20140505190424_6.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-e856dbd2-38c3-42ef-8e25-405d72140505''
Mon May 5 17:04:40 2014 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/crash_20140505190424_4.dmp'', upload no: ''Failure when receiving data from the peer''
Mon May 5 17:05:23 2014 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/crash_20140505190440_6.dmp'', upload no: ''Failed sending data to the peer''
Mon May 5 17:05:49 2014 GMT: file ''/tmp/dumps/crash_20140505190440_4.dmp'', upload yes: ''CrashID=bp-74a7edf5-9978-4da8-a0d4-7f2202140505''

[jwcalla]

@Plagman IIRC there was a time when multicore rendering gave me stuttering in HL2. I think it was fixed though. Currently HL2 and Portal play perfectly with multicore rendering enabled. I have to download the Portal2 beta and give that I try.

The thing with EIST... it allows the Intel CPU to downclock when the processor is not active. There was some talk about a year ago that there might be a bug in the cpufreq driver / utility for Intel chips, and that it might not clock up aggressively enough. When multicore rendering is enabled, the workload appears to be spread over the 4 cores / 8 threads and the CPU clock remains at 1.2 GHz, and I get framerate stutters. When multicore rendering is disabled, all the workload is concentrated on one core, and the CPU clock goes up to 2.93 GHz, and things are smooth.

So the workaround is to turn off multicore rendering in the console since the menu option doesn't work, or manually force the CPU clock to 2.93 GHz.

[Plagman]

Is that BIOS toggle what enables the INTEL_PSTATE driver in the kernel to manage CPU frequencies? If so I recommend re-configuring your kernel with INTEL_PSTATE=n as we observed several similar issues in the past showing performance problems in various use cases. This driver has tuning problems and indeed fails to provide the proper CPU frequencies for some work loads.

Does "+mat_queue_mode 0" in the command-line options work for you, as opposed to setting it in the console?

[jwcalla]

Well Plagman after trying it again it appears that multicore rendering enabled works fine on my machine. I don't know what has changed -- OS update, video driver update, etc. -- but I don't see any stuttering. Therefore, I give you full permission to beat me profusely with a crowbar.

Thanks for all your hard work.

[ghost]

I just hope we won't get another response another year later, again with a workaround only. (Sceptic about it and got a reason to be.)

If there's something I can contribute with would be happy about it, but I already posted my specs, tried about everything that has been suggested, am running the latest version of the system (Ubuntu) with everything up-to-date, to no avail.

[Plagman]

The severe performance issue you're running into doesn't appear related to multicore rendering, if setting mat_queue_mode to 0 does not solve it. Not being able to disable threaded rendering from the game UI is a very minor issue in comparison. Can you file a separate issue? A lot of people have piled up on this one issue assuming it was related to their problem.