Abstract
Game engines are at the heart of the design of modern video games. One of their functions is to keep a high frame rate by scheduling the tasks required to generate each frame (image). These tasks are organized in a soft real-time, parallel task graph, which is a scenario very few works have focused on, or adapted scheduling algorithms to. In this paper, we study the scheduling problem of game engines. We model the tasks and the scheduling problem by profiling a commercial game engine, adapt and compare different scheduling algorithms, and propose two additional optimizations regarding the micro-scheduler and the parallelization of targeted tasks.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
Some frame duration changes fall outside the illustrated range.
References
Acun, B., et al.: Power, reliability, and performance: one system to rule them all. Computer 49(10), 30–37 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1109/MC.2016.310
Adam, T.L., Chandy, K.M., Dickson, J.R.: A comparison of list schedules for parallel processing systems. Commun. ACM 17(12), 685–690 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1145/361604.361619
Alfieri, B.: Intel games task scheduler, January 2019. https://github.com/GameTechDev/GTS-GamesTaskScheduler. Accessed 04 Jan 2022
Beaumont, O., Eyraud-Dubois, L., Gao, Y.: Influence of tasks duration variability on task-based runtime schedulers. In: 2019 IEEE International Parallel and Distributed Processing Symposium Workshops (IPDPSW), pp. 16–25 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1109/IPDPSW.2019.00013
Benoit, A., Canon, L.-C., Elghazi, R., Héam, P.-C.: Update on the asymptotic optimality of LPT. In: Sousa, L., Roma, N., Tomás, P. (eds.) Euro-Par 2021. LNCS, vol. 12820, pp. 55–69. Springer, Cham (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-85665-6_4
Cai, Xiaoqiang, Wu, Xianyi, Zhou, Xian: Optimal Stochastic Scheduling. ISORMS, vol. 207. Springer, Boston (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-7405-1
Chaminade, C., Martin, R., McKeever, J.: When regional meets global: exploring the nature of global innovation networks in the video game industry in southern Sweden. Entrepreneurs. Reg. Deve. 33(1-2), 131–146 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1080/08985626.2020.1736184
Coffman, E.G., Graham, R.L.: Optimal scheduling for two-processor systems. Acta inform. 1(3), 200–213 (1972). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00288685
Dai, G., Mohaqeqi, M., Yi, W.: Timing-anomaly free dynamic scheduling of periodic DAG tasks with non-preemptive nodes. In: 2021 IEEE 27th International Conference on Embedded and Real-Time Computing Systems and Applications (RTCSA), pp. 119–128 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1109/RTCSA52859.2021.00022
Graham, R.L.: Bounds on multiprocessing timing anomalies. SIAM J. Appl. Math. 17(2), 416–429 (1969). https://doi.org/10.1137/0117039
Graham, R., Lawler, E., Lenstra, J., Kan, A.: Optimization and approximation in deterministic sequencing and scheduling: a survey. In: Discrete Optimization II, Annals of Discrete Mathematics, vol. 5, pp. 287–326. Elsevier (1979). https://doi.org/10.1016/S0167-5060(08)70356-X
Gregory, J.: Game Engine Architecture, 3rd edn. Taylor and Francis Ltd., Milton Park (2018)
Horn, W.A.: Technical note-minimizing average flow time with parallel machines. Oper. Res. 21(3), 846–847 (1973). https://doi.org/10.1287/opre.21.3.846
Hu, T.C.: Parallel sequencing and assembly line problems. Oper. Res. 9(6), 841–848 (1961). https://doi.org/10.1287/opre.9.6.841
Intelligence, M.: Global Gaming Market - Growth, Trends, Covid-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022–2027). https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/global-gaming-market. Accessed 26 Jan 2022
Leung, J.Y.: Handbook of Scheduling: Algorithms, Models, and Performance Analysis. CRC Press, Boca Raton (2004)
Nascimento, F.M.S., Lima, G.: Effectively scheduling hard and soft real-time tasks on multiprocessors. In: 2021 IEEE 27th Real-Time and Embedded Technology and Applications Symposium (RTAS), pp. 210–222 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1109/RTAS52030.2021.00025
Regragui, M., Coye, B., Lima Pilla, L., Namyst, R., Barthou, D.: Artifact and instructions to generate experimental results for the Euro-Par 2022 paper "Exploring scheduling algorithms for parallel task graphs: a modern game engine case study", June 2022. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.19961210
Regragui, M., Coye, B., Pilla, L.L., Namyst, R., Barthou, D.: Performance results of different scheduling algorithms used in the simulation of a modern game engine (2022). https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6532252
Trietsch, D., Mazmanyan, L., Gevorgyan, L., Baker, K.R.: Modeling activity times by the Parkinson distribution with a lognormal core: theory and validation. Eur. J. Oper. Res. 216(2), 386–396 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2011.07.054
Unity User Manual 2020.3 (LTS). https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/UnityManual.html. Accessed 26 Jan 2022
Unreal Engine 4 Documentation. https://docs.unrealengine.com/4.27/en-US/. Accessed 26 Jan 2022
Zhao, Z., Liang, P.: Data partition for wavefront parallelization of h.264 video encoder. In: 2006 IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS), pp. 4, 2672 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1109/ISCAS.2006.1693173
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Regragui, M., Coye, B., Pilla, L.L., Namyst, R., Barthou, D. (2022). Exploring Scheduling Algorithms for Parallel Task Graphs: A Modern Game Engine Case Study. In: Cano, J., Trinder, P. (eds) Euro-Par 2022: Parallel Processing. Euro-Par 2022. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 13440. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12597-3_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12597-3_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-12596-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-12597-3
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)