It seems Valve have been busy. GPUVis is a Linux GPU profiler similar to GPUView on Windows. It's supposed to help track down Linux gpu and application performance issues.
While Valve announced it and did a presentation on it, it's mostly developed by Michael Sartain. Valve developer Pierre-Loup Griffais said he's a "consumer of it". It's largely written for VR and as a front-end for Ftrace, but it could be useful for other things. Right now, it's limited to AMDGPU and they're looking into Intel too. They say it's easy to add support for a GPU driver, so it will be interesting to see if NVIDIA look to make it work with their drivers.
It was introduced at the 2017 X.Org Developer's Conference (XDC 2017). You can see a video about it below, you need to watch from 8:10:40 onwards:
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The source can be found on GitHub, under the MIT license. Great to see more open source tools coming out, especially nice to see Valve getting their hands dirty on more projects. Considering Valve are the ones to announced it, I imagine they're working closely and possibly even contracting the developer to do it.
Thanks for the tip from our Telegram Group, Andrew!
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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appetrosyan 21 Sep 2017
So should we expect less crappy ports?
3 Likes, Who?
inlinuxdude 21 Sep 2017
It gives one hope that their Linux/SteamOS push may indeed not be over yet!
4 Likes, Who?
Comandante Ñoñardo 21 Sep 2017
I would like to see something like GPU-Z and CPU-Z..
and something like EVGA tool.
and something like EVGA tool.
1 Likes, Who?
Not sure if I'm more excited to see
1) Valve caring about Linux
2) AMD GPUs getting more needed attention
3) The potential for Linux to get better performing AAA games
1) Valve caring about Linux
2) AMD GPUs getting more needed attention
3) The potential for Linux to get better performing AAA games
7 Likes, Who?
charliebrownau 21 Sep 2017
I still havent found an easy way to get my R9 380 video card to work correctly in mint or ubuntu or debian
Why does drivers have to be such a chore in linux
Why does drivers have to be such a chore in linux
0 Likes
charliebrownau 21 Sep 2017
I still havent found an easy way to get my R9 380 video card to work correctly in mint or ubuntu or debian
Why does drivers have to be such a chore in linux
While I know how you feel, these days it is pretty easy on Ubuntu/Mint:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:paulo-miguel-dias/pkppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
reboot
I tired 5 different messa drivers and 3 different kernals on ubunutu mate , none gave the same performance as AMD GPU PRO
I am now using Debian 9.1 Mate , it lacks PPA support
Also Ubuntu Mate 17.04 had issues working with my audio interface correctly
it seemed when i was messing around with mesa drivers it resulted in screwing up pulse audio
The only solution I could see to fix pulse audio was to install debian
0 Likes
ElectricPrism 21 Sep 2017
@charliebrownau -- I suspect that the latest mesa will perform the best. I get good enough frames on RX 480 to tackle anything at 1080p / 60hz.
You'll need the latest xorg-amdgpu driver and mesa driver. It also doesn't hurt to use the amd-staging kernel. In my experience Arch has been the best. If you have a spare drive and some time to give it a check I would download Manjaro and the related packages and give it a ago to confirm or deny this.
https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/linux-amd-staging-git/
https://www.archlinux.org/packages/extra/x86_64/mesa/
https://www.archlinux.org/packages/extra/x86_64/xf86-video-amdgpu/
You'll need the latest xorg-amdgpu driver and mesa driver. It also doesn't hurt to use the amd-staging kernel. In my experience Arch has been the best. If you have a spare drive and some time to give it a check I would download Manjaro and the related packages and give it a ago to confirm or deny this.
https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/linux-amd-staging-git/
https://www.archlinux.org/packages/extra/x86_64/mesa/
https://www.archlinux.org/packages/extra/x86_64/xf86-video-amdgpu/
1 Likes, Who?
TheRiddick 22 Sep 2017
I thought PPA worked on debian releases?
0 Likes
I still havent found an easy way to get my R9 380 video card to work correctly in mint or ubuntu or debian
Why does drivers have to be such a chore in linux
While I know how you feel, these days it is pretty easy on Ubuntu/Mint:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:paulo-miguel-dias/pkppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
reboot
I tired 5 different messa drivers and 3 different kernals on ubunutu mate , none gave the same performance as AMD GPU PRO
I am now using Debian 9.1 Mate , it lacks PPA support
Also Ubuntu Mate 17.04 had issues working with my audio interface correctly
it seemed when i was messing around with mesa drivers it resulted in screwing up pulse audio
The only solution I could see to fix pulse audio was to install debian
If you are running debian 9.1 and running an AMD GPU, I would highly recommend updating to Debian Sid/Unstable (unstable is not crashing, just in reference to update frequency) It has been solid for me and gives me the latest Mesa (17.2.1) and Kernel (4.12.3). Much safer than trying to add ubuntu PPA's to your installation.
1 Likes, Who?
It gives one hope that their Linux/SteamOS push may indeed not be over yet!If you only subscribe to the bugtracking of steam on linux you know they are working hard...
And I mean very hard.
And you can find the valve people communicating on irc with linux vive developers.
Valve really is involved with linux. You just have to approach the developer side, not the consumer side.
I think just like Samsung, the R&D budget of valve >>> PR budget. Any cut they take from a sale, a part of it is going to linux development.
But to be clear: their goal is to get the ultimate free gaming platform. Not make it run on linux because it is cool. The fact that they choose linux is because you can develop and shape it's future. Make it work. Not like other platforms that you have to fix all your incompatibilities because some ass decided to close down some api's to hide bugs in other software they create.
(I am not going to mention UNC paths and word...)
Last edited by Ardje on 22 Sep 2017 at 9:00 am UTC
4 Likes, Who?
somebody1121 22 Sep 2017
You have tried kernel 4.8? For me is the last kernel that perform well on my 380x. Beyond that i have 4 - 12 fps on life is strage...I still havent found an easy way to get my R9 380 video card to work correctly in mint or ubuntu or debian
Why does drivers have to be such a chore in linux
While I know how you feel, these days it is pretty easy on Ubuntu/Mint:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:paulo-miguel-dias/pkppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
reboot
I tired 5 different messa drivers and 3 different kernals on ubunutu mate , none gave the same performance as AMD GPU PRO
I am now using Debian 9.1 Mate , it lacks PPA support
Also Ubuntu Mate 17.04 had issues working with my audio interface correctly
it seemed when i was messing around with mesa drivers it resulted in screwing up pulse audio
The only solution I could see to fix pulse audio was to install debian
0 Likes
Just hope it doesnt go the same way as VOGL, which turned out to be uselessWhat's the problem with it, too limited/buggy/etc or the lack of maintenance?
0 Likes
charliebrownau 22 Sep 2017
@charliebrownau -- I suspect that the latest mesa will perform the best. I get good enough frames on RX 480 to tackle anything at 1080p / 60hz.
You'll need the latest xorg-amdgpu driver and mesa driver. It also doesn't hurt to use the amd-staging kernel. In my experience Arch has been the best. If you have a spare drive and some time to give it a check I would download Manjaro and the related packages and give it a ago to confirm or deny this.
https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/linux-amd-staging-git/
https://www.archlinux.org/packages/extra/x86_64/mesa/
https://www.archlinux.org/packages/extra/x86_64/xf86-video-amdgpu/
Thanks
If possible I would like to stay on the Debian/Ubuntu eco system
Can you use xorg-amdgpu/AMDGPU (opensource driver from AMD???) and MESA at the same time ???
Do I need a third driver to get vulkan working aswell ???
0 Likes
Disappointing then, I had hopes for it (for developers use that is) since it was presented at Steam dev days and developed IIRC by Rich Geldreich. Too bad it went nowhere...Just hope it doesnt go the same way as VOGL, which turned out to be uselessWhat's the problem with it, too limited/buggy/etc or the lack of maintenance?
All of the above, not to mention it was nigh-on impossible to build. We had to get Valve to send us binaries. Most of the time any traces we tried to get either became too large, or simply crashed VOGL/the driver when attempting to play them back.
0 Likes
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