[Mesa-dev] [PATCH 0/3] Implement DRI_PRIME support for Wayland

[Kristian Høgsberg]

On Thu, Nov 07, 2013 at 05:13:35PM +0100, Axel Davy wrote:
> These patches enable using DRI_PRIME to use a different card
> than the compositor card (with render-nodes).
> 
> At the time of writing, Mesa Wayland egl backend doesn't
> support render-nodes, because it uses the dri2 backend, which
> require using GEM names (render-nodes aren't allowed to use GEM
> names). But I'm confident this week or next week, the __DRIimage
> remplacement will be ready, thanks to Keith Packard, Kristian Hosberg
> and Christopher James Halse Rogers.
> That's why I'm publishing these patches now, so they have the time
> to be reviewed.
> 
> Initially, I wanted to use driconf too, as a complement of DRI_PRIME,
> but driconf doesn't support string parameters yet, so it'll come later.
> 
> To choose a specific device, the user has to specify the id_path_tag of
> the device he wants to use. We get the id_path_tag with udev. Systemd
> didn't fill this field for render-nodes, so it has to be set as an additional
> rule. David Herrmann has sent a patch for that for Systemd, but I don't know if
> it is already pushed.
> 
> The choice to use id_path_tag comes to the fact that the id_path is stable,
> and that it describes non-pci graphic devices too (usb devices, etc). 
> 
> An alternative to choose the device to use is to set DRI_PRIME to "1",
> which means "choose any other card than the one used by the compositor".
> 
> If Mesa doesn't find the device asked by the user, it will use the same
> card than the Wayland compositor.
> 
> The Wayland Prime support implemented with these patches is different
> from X Prime support.
> 
> A client using an other card than the compositor will allocate buffers
> with no-tiling to render to, and share them with the compositor, unlike
> on X, where it would render to a tiled buffer, not shared with the other card,
> and a copy mechanism will make the main card receive an untiled buffer.
> 
> That means that these (Wayland) clients will perform slowly, compared to
> if they weren't using Prime.
> In fact it is not how the user is supposed to run a game, for example,
> on its dedicated card.
> 
> Using a shared, untiled-buffer, but avoiding any copy, is better for 
> application which wouldn't do much rendering.
> 
> An example of such an application is an embedded Wayland compositor.
> 
> To use an heavy application, the user is supposed to launch an
> embedded Wayland compositor on the dedicated card, and run the game
> inside. The compositor will render into the shared, untiled buffer,
> and will copy the content of the game buffers.
> 
> Note that the game know it is using the same cards than its compositor,
> that's why it enables tiling.
> 
> I'm planning to write a Weston shell, designed to run embedded fullscreen games,
> that would make Weston resize to the game size, and close when it closes.

I'm not sold on the nested compositor for this use case.  It
introduces another context switch between the game and the main
compositor and more input and output lag.  Instead I think we need to
consider whether we want a new __DRIimage entry point like:

  (*blitImage)(__DRIcontext *ctx, __DRIimage *src, __DRIimage *ctx)

and then do the copy in platform_wayland.c when we have non-matching
tile-formats.

Kristian

> Pros:
> .If you launch a fullscreen Wayland compositor on the dedicated card,
> inside a compositor supporting composite bypass, you'll render the whole
> desktop on the dedicated card. The integrated card would only display
> the buffer generated, without doing any copy.
> .More flexibility
> 
> 
> Cons: 
> .The user has to use a script to launch a game on the dedicated card.
> 
> Pros over X dri2 Prime support:
> .Vsync works, whatever the cards used by the client 
> .You can understand easily how prime support works
> 
> 
> As a last note, this Prime support suffers too from the
> lack of dma-buf fences (glitches when the client is still writing
> on the buffer when the compositor's card reads it).
> Using an embedded compositor suppress all the glitches when
> it doesn't take (1/refresh_rate) seconds for it to render a frame,
> that is when you don't have an input lag.
> 
> 
> 
> Axel Davy (3):
>   Move the code to open the graphic device.     Support for
>     render-nodes.
>   Create untiled buffers in get_back_bo when needed.
>   Implement choosing the device to use with DRI_PRIME
> 
>  src/egl/drivers/dri2/egl_dri2.h         |   1 +
>  src/egl/drivers/dri2/platform_wayland.c | 262 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++-----
>  2 files changed, 226 insertions(+), 37 deletions(-)
> 
> -- 
> 1.8.1.2
> 
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