AMD announced on Wednesday that Crytek is adding native Mantle graphics API support to the developer’s latest gaming engine, CRYENGINE. Crytek now joins a number of other developers and publishers using this “closer to the metal” API including Electronic Arts (Battlefield 4), Square Enix (THIEF), Roberts Space Industries (Star Citizen), Oxide (Nitros engine) and Rebellion Developments (Sniper Elite 3).
“AMD is delighted to bring Mantle support to the enormous audience of gamers and game developers reached by Crytek’s CRYENGINE,” said Ritche Corpus, director of ISV gaming and alliances, AMD. “Together, AMD and Crytek are forging a path for the graphics industry that better utilizes gamers’ advanced AMD GPUs through ‘closer-to-the-metal’ API design.”
For the uninitiated, Mantle is the “harmony” of three essential ingredients: a thin driver within the AMD Catalyst software suite that lets applications speak directly to AMD’s Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture; a GPU or APU based on the GCN; and an application or game engine that is written to utilize the Mantle SDK.
“Mantle reduces the CPU’s workload by giving developers a way to talk to the GPU directly with much less translation,” the company’s website explains. “With less work for the CPU to do, programmers can squeeze much more performance from a system, delivering the greatest benefits in gaming systems where the CPU can be the bottleneck.”
With the CPU freed up, developers may be able to squeeze extra performance from mid-range and older CPUs; they no longer have the same “handicap.” That’s good news for gamers on a strict budget.
“Crytek prides itself on enabling CRYENGINE with the latest and most impressive rendering capabilities,” said Cevat Yerli, Founder, CEO & President of Crytek. “By integrating AMD’s new Mantle API, CRYENGINE will gain a dimension of ‘lower level’ hardware access that enables extraordinary efficiency, performance and hardware control.”
For more information about Mantle, check out AMD’s “Four Core Principles of AMD’s Mantle” article here.
