Hey,
Right, Im now starting to get a good idea of code within Blender and cycles to be dangerous, It’s taken months in spare time but it’s starting to click with me.
Cycles is going through a sponsored update for split kernel which benefits Cuda users and Opencl users. But OpenCL 2.0 is STILL being ignored (even in code comment’s there are statements about this is really the wrong way to go about this but when we move to Opencl 2.0 this will change).
Cuda in Cycles has had the blessing of Blender devs to provide different capability based on cards and supported shader models for ages, Yet Opencl is bottle necked into 1 for all platforms. This needs to change, Old Opencl cards dont even get recognized within the user settings in Blender so why cant NEWER opencl capable cards be given the ability to utilize the benefits of such a compute platform update as Opencl 2.0 Over older OpenCL which is a nightmare to use and compete with recent changes.
OpenCL 2.0 as a basic setup within Cycles should now support Shared Virtual Memory, This will also help with the new split kernel that was aimed at allowing CPU and GPU in opencl cycles to work together in a beneficial manner. If NEW split kernel work is being done, ALL the best Opencl 2.0 best features should be included in that change if need be by assigning features by card (Cypress, Tahiti, Haiwai etc etc etc) Just like cuda cards have been given through cycles in the past.
People Constantly moan about Opencl support in Blender, Well let Opencl Hardware that can do Opencl 2.0 DO opencl 2.0 things. All you have to do is look through what Opencl 2.0 can do and your soon realize it can do everything CUDA can, That was the whole point of opencl 2.0.
As the WHOLE kernel is being updated with Mai’s Split Branch, Do it right for gods sake and use the update as a means to update the Opencl support. 2.0 is far easier to deal with than trying to make Opencl 1.2 Do things it was never designed to do, Hence why Opencl in Blender lags so much right now.
For me more important than Mai’s new split kernel for opencl users is , Shared Virtual Memory Support, and decent CPU GPU Opencl interop. Get it sorted, your Crippling OpenCL users, Not the hardware vendors like people like to try to push the blame to, Your lack of Modern OpenCL inclusion is the issue. This needs sorting.