[Intel-gfx] An apparent large performance regression of 3D display over the network

[Alan W. Irwin]

I would really appreciate on of the Intel developers taking a quick
shot at answering these general question.  To summarize: do you
confirm bad results (typically 1 frame per second) for running remote
3D apps over the network while displaying them locally?  If so, is a
fix for this performance regression relative to the X Intel stack of
several years ago on the agenda?

On 2011-01-19 01:01-0800 Alan W. Irwin wrote:

> Three years ago on a Debian testing system that was to become Debian
> lenny, I made a test of running low-end 3D games (tuxracer and
> foobillard) on a remote box on my 100Mbit LAN while displaying them on
> my local Debian testing box X server with g33 chipset.  The games were
> quite playable (in fact indistinguishable from playing the games
> locally if I recall correctly).
>
> Fast forward to today, when I once again tried the foobillard part of
> the test (I didn't bother with tuxracer) with the same local (g33)
> hardware but this time with Debian testing (squeeze) installed on that
> locally displaying box.  foobillard has become completely unplayable
> over the network with the former smooth movement reduced to what looks
> like a series of snapshots with large gaps in between.  The LAN
> network I have now is 1 gigabit as opposed to the older 100Megabit LAN
> network I had when the remote 3D games worked well.  I can play
> foobillard and tuxracer just fine locally on that machine so it
> appears local 3D is in reasonable shape.
>
> foobillard and tuxracer are just subjective tests of whether 3D
> rendering works reasonably efficiently over the network, but my
> impression is the regression in that regard is at least one or two
> orders of magnitude in speed in order to reduce smooth effects to a
> series of snapshots.  Thus, objective tests of remote 3D efficiency of
> the old Intel stack from three years ago versus the current one should
> pick up this performance regression easily.
>
> I recently bought another computer (ASUS Eee Box with 945GME chipset)
> that shows foobillard is unplayable over the network in the same way
> while local running of that game is fine on that box.  I have now
> configured that box to be an X-terminal (a configuration I far prefer
> because it reduces sysadmin issues a lot).  The 2D KDE desktop
> displays well for that configuration, but I have extreme doubts
> (haven't tried them yet) about whether remote 3D desktop effects will
> work at all considering this huge slowdown I get with remote running
> of foobillard over the local 1 Gigabit LAN with that X-terminal.
>
> One possibility is there may be something extra I have to do now to
> make remote 3D display efficient over an ssh connection.  Advice in
> that regard would be helpful.  (Currently, I just set ForwardX11 yes
> and ForwardAgent yes for the host in question in .ssh/config for
> the local computer.)
>
> But if ssh configuration is not the issue, then it appears there has
> been an efficiency regression for remote 3D at least for the 945GME
> (GMA 950) and g33 (GMA 3100) chipsets. Has anyone here found
> foobillard or similar low-end 3D games to be playable or 3D desktop
> effects to work reasonably efficiently over fast LAN networks with
> today's Intel graphics driver?
>
> Of course, if this really turns out to be a general regression in
> remote 3D display efficiency, then that regression obviously
> corresponds with the X stack reorganization by Intel that has occurred
> over the last 3 years. I expect making local 3D display efficient for
> that newly organized stack is still one of the top priorities for
> Intel developers, but I hope dealing with this efficiency regression
> for remote 3D (if that is what it is) is at least on the agenda. After
> all, with 3D desktop effects becoming more and more important and with
> low-end 3D games as a "would be nice", reasonably efficient X network
> transparency for 3D display is an important issue for those using X
> terminals.
>
> Let me know if there are more quantitative tests of efficiency you
> would like me to run between local and remote display of 3D on either
> the 945GME or g33 boxes.
>
> Alan
> __________________________
> Alan W. Irwin
>
> Astronomical research affiliation with Department of Physics and Astronomy,
> University of Victoria (astrowww.phys.uvic.ca).
>
> Programming affiliations with the FreeEOS equation-of-state implementation
> for stellar interiors (freeeos.sf.net); PLplot scientific plotting software
> package (plplot.org); the libLASi project (unifont.org/lasi); the Loads of
> Linux Links project (loll.sf.net); and the Linux Brochure Project
> (lbproject.sf.net).
> __________________________
>
> Linux-powered Science
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__________________________
Alan W. Irwin

Astronomical research affiliation with Department of Physics and Astronomy,
University of Victoria (astrowww.phys.uvic.ca).

Programming affiliations with the FreeEOS equation-of-state implementation
for stellar interiors (freeeos.sf.net); PLplot scientific plotting software
package (plplot.org); the libLASi project (unifont.org/lasi); the Loads of
Linux Links project (loll.sf.net); and the Linux Brochure Project
(lbproject.sf.net).
__________________________

Linux-powered Science
__________________________