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#1 2007-10-11 03:11:56

skottish
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From: Here
Registered: 2006-06-16
Posts: 7,942

Blender renders slightly faster with 2.6.23 kernel

I'm showing a slight performance increase with Blender using the vanilla 2.6.23 kernel over the 2.6.22-ck kernel (which was slightly faster than 2.6.22 vanilla). I used two of the most common benchmarks with threads set to two to match my processor:

http://www.eofw.org/bench/
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthr … =benchmark

In both cases I'm showing a roughly 1.5 second improvement in render times. The first test was averaging around 1:04.60, and it's now down to 1:02.96. The second test was averaging around 0:55.53 and now is down to 0:53.04. Of course I'd have to do tons of renders with more complete tests to show how much of an improvement, but it is definitely promising.

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#2 2007-10-12 08:51:24

Fackamato
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Registered: 2006-03-31
Posts: 579

Re: Blender renders slightly faster with 2.6.23 kernel

Great! Did you just do a make oldconfig with the Archlinux config, or is 2.6.23 in the repos? Or is there a PKGBUILD smile

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#3 2007-10-12 10:01:43

klixon
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From: Nederland
Registered: 2007-01-17
Posts: 525

Re: Blender renders slightly faster with 2.6.23 kernel

How is the interactivity whilst doing those benchmarks?
Are you still able to work reasonably well?
Audio stuttering, etc?


Stand back, intruder, or i'll blast you out of space! I am Klixon and I don't want any dealings with you human lifeforms. I'm a cyborg!

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#4 2007-10-12 11:28:10

lumiwa
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Registered: 2005-12-26
Posts: 712

Re: Blender renders slightly faster with 2.6.23 kernel

Blender 2.45 (32 bits) is out and maybe works better?

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#5 2007-10-12 12:15:02

skottish
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From: Here
Registered: 2006-06-16
Posts: 7,942

Re: Blender renders slightly faster with 2.6.23 kernel

Fackamato wrote:

Great! Did you just do a make oldconfig with the Archlinux config, or is 2.6.23 in the repos? Or is there a PKGBUILD smile

It's in testing. I simply installed it, the proper nVidia driver, and the few supporting packages.

klixon wrote:

How is the interactivity whilst doing those benchmarks?
Are you still able to work reasonably well?
Audio stuttering, etc?

During the benchmarks I left the system alone. It's easy to do when your test files render in a minute! I'm probably not the best person to ask this kind of question because I do my artwork in silence with the absolute minimum of applications running.

lumiwa wrote:

Blender 2.45 (32 bits) is out and maybe works better?

I've been using 2.45 on x86_64 since the day it came out, built with the Arch package from ABS. I only changed the pkgver and md5sum lines. It's been running great, but then again, I had no problems with 2.44 either with mrunion's subversion builds.

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#6 2007-10-13 12:10:44

Jacek Poplawski
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From: Poland
Registered: 2006-01-10
Posts: 736
Website

Re: Blender renders slightly faster with 2.6.23 kernel

Is there any way to convince TU to update Blender version in [extra]?

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#7 2007-10-13 15:53:27

tardo
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Registered: 2006-07-15
Posts: 526

Re: Blender renders slightly faster with 2.6.23 kernel

TUs dont have access to extra. Contact the dev for that.

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#8 2007-10-13 18:45:02

skottish
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From: Here
Registered: 2006-06-16
Posts: 7,942

Re: Blender renders slightly faster with 2.6.23 kernel

I tried to convince mrunion to adopt the official Blender package. Don't know if that's going to happen though.

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#9 2007-10-14 01:22:18

mrunion
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From: Jonesborough, TN
Registered: 2007-01-26
Posts: 1,938
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Re: Blender renders slightly faster with 2.6.23 kernel

I'll see what I can do....


Matt

"It is very difficult to educate the educated."

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#10 2007-10-14 01:55:58

mrunion
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From: Jonesborough, TN
Registered: 2007-01-26
Posts: 1,938
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Re: Blender renders slightly faster with 2.6.23 kernel

OK, here's the stuff I use for building blender.  It's a "package" that contains the PKGBUILD and other stuff I'd upload to AUR if I were to do that.  Keep in mind that as of just after the 2.45 release, ffmpeg was rolled into Blender.  I had to download the ffmpeg-svn package and compile it with a custom option added to the PKGBUILD (the option was "--enable-swscaler").  Attached is a COPY of my modified PKGBUILD for ffmpeg-svn and a link to the Blender package I use to always build the latest and greatest from Blender's SVN.  does this help you guys out?

My Blender package:  http://www.bigpony.com/aurpkgs/blender-svn.tar.gz

My modified ffmpeg-svn PKGBUILD:

# Contributor: niQo

pkgname=ffmpeg-svn
pkgver=10595
pkgrel=1
pkgdesc="FFMpeg is a complete and free Internet live audio and video broadcasting solution for Linux/Unix"
depends=('lame' 'sdl' 'libvorbis' 'a52dec' 'faad2' 'faac' 'xvidcore' 'zlib' 'imlib2')
makedepends=('subversion')
arch=(i686 x86_64)
conflicts=('ffmpeg')
provides=('ffmpeg')
replaces=('ffmpeg-cvs')
url="http://ffmpeg.mplayerhq.hu/"
license="GPL"
source=()
md5sums=()

_svntrunk=svn://svn.mplayerhq.hu/ffmpeg/trunk
_svnmod=ffmpeg

build() {
    cd $startdir/src
    svn co $_svntrunk/ $_svnmod --config-dir ./ -r $pkgver
    #svn co $_svntrunk/ $_svnmod --config-dir ./

        cp -r $_svnmod/* $_svnmod-build
    cd $_svnmod-build

     ./configure \
          --prefix=/usr \
          --enable-gpl \
      --enable-libmp3lame \
          --enable-libogg \
          --enable-libvorbis \
          --enable-libfaac \
          --enable-libfaad \
          --enable-liba52 \
          --enable-libxvid \
      --enable-pp \
          --enable-shared \
          --enable-pthreads \
          --enable-swscaler
     make -j 2 || return 1 

     mkdir -p $startdir/pkg/usr/{bin,include,lib} || return 1
     make DESTDIR=$startdir/pkg install || return 1

}

Last edited by mrunion (2007-10-14 01:56:51)


Matt

"It is very difficult to educate the educated."

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#11 2007-10-14 02:06:44

skottish
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From: Here
Registered: 2006-06-16
Posts: 7,942

Re: Blender renders slightly faster with 2.6.23 kernel

I believe that -swscaler was added to the FFMPEG version in testing. Be forwarned though: unless the Arch devs found a patch that I didn't know about, swscaler will break VLC < 9.0.

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#12 2007-10-14 02:09:24

mrunion
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From: Jonesborough, TN
Registered: 2007-01-26
Posts: 1,938
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Re: Blender renders slightly faster with 2.6.23 kernel

I have VLC 0.8.6c and haven't noticed any breakage.  That doesn't mean I've "tested" everything, but it seems fine so far.  What breaks?  Maybe I can test that?

Last edited by mrunion (2007-10-14 02:09:56)


Matt

"It is very difficult to educate the educated."

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#13 2007-10-14 03:54:13

markc
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From: Gold Coast, Australia
Registered: 2007-05-15
Posts: 502
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Re: Blender renders slightly faster with 2.6.23 kernel

FWIW the ffmpeg build also affects kdenlive-svn so I've resorted to using the kdenlive_builder.sh script which builds and installs a separate self contained version of kdenlive, mlt and ffmpeg. The ffmpeg PKGBUILD above is missing a few compile options like --enable-x11grab and I notice the latest testing includes --enable-swscaler so hopefully we won't have to have multiple copies of ffmpeg for blender, vlc and kdenlive. Is this going to work with blender and vlc ? testing/ffmpeg 20071009-1...

configuration: --prefix=/usr --enable-gpl --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libogg \
 --enable-libvorbis --enable-pp --enable-libfaac --enable-libfaad --enable-liba52 \
 --enable-libxvid --enable-libx264 --enable-libtheora --disable-libamr-nb --enable-pp \
 --enable-shared --enable-pthreads --enable-x11grab --enable-swscaler

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#14 2007-10-14 04:21:25

mrunion
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From: Jonesborough, TN
Registered: 2007-01-26
Posts: 1,938
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Re: Blender renders slightly faster with 2.6.23 kernel

Well, I don't know exactly.  I rebuilt ffmpeg with the additional config stuff you had that I didn't and all still seemed well with blender at least.


Matt

"It is very difficult to educate the educated."

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#15 2007-10-14 08:55:35

skottish
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From: Here
Registered: 2006-06-16
Posts: 7,942

Re: Blender renders slightly faster with 2.6.23 kernel

mrunion wrote:

I have VLC 0.8.6c and haven't noticed any breakage.  That doesn't mean I've "tested" everything, but it seems fine so far.  What breaks?  Maybe I can test that?

Hopefully that means that there is a patch somewhere and the Arch devs grabbed it. Search for "vlc swscaler" and you'll see what I meant.

Last edited by skottish (2007-10-14 08:56:45)

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#16 2007-10-14 12:34:23

mrunion
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From: Jonesborough, TN
Registered: 2007-01-26
Posts: 1,938
Website

Re: Blender renders slightly faster with 2.6.23 kernel

@skottish:  Yup!  I just didn;t test enough.  I was only looking for a "crash" and VLC didn't crash playing mp3s.  I don't see any video with it, though.  I'll wait until next week before upgrading though, since they are suppose to have things fixed AND I can use another player for now.


Matt

"It is very difficult to educate the educated."

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#17 2007-10-14 15:05:34

skottish
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From: Here
Registered: 2006-06-16
Posts: 7,942

Re: Blender renders slightly faster with 2.6.23 kernel

Without trying to detract too much from this thread, swscaler in FFMPEG is becoming something that a lot of people need. As markc pointed out, Kdenlive won't even run without it. VLC from subversion works fine with swscaler, but it's only around 95% complete.

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#18 2007-10-22 11:30:28

Jacek Poplawski
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From: Poland
Registered: 2006-01-10
Posts: 736
Website

Re: Blender renders slightly faster with 2.6.23 kernel

mrunion any progress? sad

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#19 2007-10-22 13:02:37

mrunion
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From: Jonesborough, TN
Registered: 2007-01-26
Posts: 1,938
Website

Re: Blender renders slightly faster with 2.6.23 kernel

Nope, none since the last update.  Blender works just fine in it's latest builds but it seems VLC doesn't "like" video now.  I just use mplayer or totem or something else.  I still like VLC but will work around it to keep Blender updated.

If there's something in particular you'd like me to try and test I will see what I can do.  Just keep in mind that while I'm a software developer, all that experience is on the M$ platform.  I'm just learning this Linux stuff.  I decided a few months agi that I'd had enough M$ stuff and now my full-time job is working for a place being their sys admin, DBA and web developer -- all while using Linux.


Matt

"It is very difficult to educate the educated."

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#20 2007-10-23 09:57:12

Jacek Poplawski
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From: Poland
Registered: 2006-01-10
Posts: 736
Website

Re: Blender renders slightly faster with 2.6.23 kernel

The progress I mean is update of Blender 2.44 to Blender 2.45 in [extra].

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#21 2007-10-23 14:32:01

mrunion
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From: Jonesborough, TN
Registered: 2007-01-26
Posts: 1,938
Website

Re: Blender renders slightly faster with 2.6.23 kernel

Oh.  I don't work with that.  Someone else (I don't know who) maintains the package "officially".  I just supplied the custom PKGBUILD I used up in post 10.  How does one go about becoming the "maintainer" of the package in EXTRA?

Skottish mentioned trying to "convince" me to be the maintainer, but I honestly don't remember that conversation.  Anyway, if you are anyone could give me the info on what I need to do, etc., I'll look into it.


Matt

"It is very difficult to educate the educated."

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#22 2007-10-23 14:59:18

skottish
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From: Here
Registered: 2006-06-16
Posts: 7,942

Re: Blender renders slightly faster with 2.6.23 kernel

mrunion wrote:

Skottish mentioned trying to "convince" me to be the maintainer, but I honestly don't remember that conversation.  Anyway, if you are anyone could give me the info on what I need to do, etc., I'll look into it.

It was just more of a remark over at Blender Artists. I do think that you would be a great maintainer for the package. You actually use the software for one. And your PKGBUILD are very high quality.

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#23 2007-10-23 19:51:13

mrunion
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From: Jonesborough, TN
Registered: 2007-01-26
Posts: 1,938
Website

Re: Blender renders slightly faster with 2.6.23 kernel

I musta missed that over there.  But, hey, if it's something I can do and it doesn't cause me to lose my day job with the time required, I'd consider it.


Matt

"It is very difficult to educate the educated."

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#24 2007-10-23 20:59:27

Jacek Poplawski
Member
From: Poland
Registered: 2006-01-10
Posts: 736
Website

Re: Blender renders slightly faster with 2.6.23 kernel

Please just do something to make Blender package more current than it is now. I don't understand what is so big deal here, just update the PKGBUILD. Maybe Blender is not so popular in Arch community? sad

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#25 2007-10-24 07:41:15

Navi_
Member
Registered: 2007-07-21
Posts: 17

Re: Blender renders slightly faster with 2.6.23 kernel

Nice, a few seconds faster.

Sarcasm aside, to me, it doesn't really matter if I can tell the difference when the two are compared side-to-side, it matters if I can tell just by itself.

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