glfwSwapBuffers slow (>3s) - c++

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Paul Aner is looking for a canonical answer:
I think the reason for this question is clear: I want the main-loop to NOT lock while a compute shader is processing larger amounts of data. I could try and seperate the data into smaller snippets, but if the computations were done on CPU, I would simply start a thread and everything would run nice and smoothly. Altough I of course would have to wait until the calculation-thread delivers new data to update the screen - the GUI (ImGUI) would not lock up...
I have written a program that does some calculations on a compute shader and the returned data is then being displayed. This works perfectly, except that the program execution is blocked while the shader is running (see code below) and depending on the parameters, this can take a while:
void CalculateSomething(GLfloat* Result)
{
// load some uniform variables
glDispatchCompute(X, Y, 1);
glMemoryBarrier(GL_SHADER_STORAGE_BARRIER_BIT);
GLfloat* mapped = (GLfloat*)(glMapBuffer(GL_SHADER_STORAGE_BUFFER, GL_READ_ONLY));
memcpy(Result, mapped, sizeof(GLfloat) * X * Y);
glUnmapBuffer(GL_SHADER_STORAGE_BUFFER);
}
void main
{
// Initialization stuff
// ...
while (glfwWindowShouldClose(Window) == 0)
{
glClear(GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT | GL_DEPTH_BUFFER_BIT);
glfwPollEvents();
glfwSwapInterval(2); // Doesn't matter what I put here
CalculatateSomething(Result);
Render(Result);
glfwSwapBuffers(Window.WindowHandle);
}
}
To keep the main loop running while the compute shader is calculating, I changed CalculateSomething to something like this:
void CalculateSomething(GLfloat* Result)
{
// load some uniform variables
glDispatchCompute(X, Y, 1);
GPU_sync = glFenceSync(GL_SYNC_GPU_COMMANDS_COMPLETE, 0);
}
bool GPU_busy()
{
GLint GPU_status;
if (GPU_sync == NULL)
return false;
else
{
glGetSynciv(GPU_sync, GL_SYNC_STATUS, 1, nullptr, &GPU_status);
return GPU_status == GL_UNSIGNALED;
}
}
These two functions are part of a class and it would get a little messy and complicated if I had to post all that here (if more code is needed, tell me). So every loop when the class is told to do the computation, it first checks, if the GPU is busy. If it's done, the result is copied to CPU-memory (or a calculation is started), else it returns to main without doing anything else. Anyway, this approach works in that it produces the right result. But my main loop is still blocked.
Doing some timing revealed that CalculateSomething, Render (and everything else) runs fast (as I would expect them to do). But now glfwSwapBuffers takes >3000ms (depending on how long the calculations of the compute shader take).
Shouldn't it be possible to switch buffers while a compute shader is running? Rendering the result seems to work fine and without delay (as long as the compute shader is not done yet, the old result should get rendered). Or am I missing something here (queued OpenGL calls get processed before glfwSwapBuffers does something?)?
Edit:
I'm not sure why this question got closed and what additional information is needed (maybe other than the OS, which would be Windows). As for "desired behavior": Well - I'd like the glfwSwapBuffers-call not to block my main loop. For additional information, please ask...
As pointed out by Erdal Küçük an implicit call of glFlush might cause latency. I did put this call before glfwSwapBuffer for testing purposes and timed it - no latency here...
I'm sure, I can't be the only one who ever ran into this problem. Maybe someone could try and reproduce it? Simply put a compute shader in the main-loop that takes a few seconds to do it's calculations. I have read somewhere that similar problems occur escpecially when calling glMapBuffer. This seems to be an issue with the GPU-driver (mine would be an integrated Intel-GPU). But nowhere have I read about latencies above 200ms...

Answer 1

Solved a similar issue with GL_PIXEL_PACK_BUFFER effectively used as an offscreen compute shader. The approach with fences is correct, but you then need to have a separate function that checks the status of the fence using glGetSynciv to read the GL_SYNC_STATUS. The solution (admittedly in Java) can be found here.
An explanation for why this is necessary can be found in: in #Nick Clark's comment answer:
Every call in OpenGL is asynchronous, except for the frame buffer swap, which stalls the calling thread until all submitted functions have been executed. Thus, the reason why glfwSwapBuffers seems to take so long.
The relevant portion from the solution is:
public void finishHMRead( int pboIndex ){
int[] length = new int[1];
int[] status = new int[1];
GLES30.glGetSynciv( hmReadFences[ pboIndex ], GLES30.GL_SYNC_STATUS, 1, length, 0, status, 0 );
int signalStatus = status[0];
int glSignaled = GLES30.GL_SIGNALED;
if( signalStatus == glSignaled ){
// Ready a temporary ByteBuffer for mapping (we'll unmap the pixel buffer and lose this) and a permanent ByteBuffer
ByteBuffer pixelBuffer;
texLayerByteBuffers[ pboIndex ] = ByteBuffer.allocate( texWH * texWH );
// map data to a bytebuffer
GLES30.glBindBuffer( GLES30.GL_PIXEL_PACK_BUFFER, pbos[ pboIndex ] );
pixelBuffer = ( ByteBuffer ) GLES30.glMapBufferRange( GLES30.GL_PIXEL_PACK_BUFFER, 0, texWH * texWH * 1, GLES30.GL_MAP_READ_BIT );
// Copy to the long term ByteBuffer
pixelBuffer.rewind(); //copy from the beginning
texLayerByteBuffers[ pboIndex ].put( pixelBuffer );
// Unmap and unbind the currently bound pixel buffer
GLES30.glUnmapBuffer( GLES30.GL_PIXEL_PACK_BUFFER );
GLES30.glBindBuffer( GLES30.GL_PIXEL_PACK_BUFFER, 0 );
Log.i( "myTag", "Finished copy for pbo data for " + pboIndex + " at: " + (System.currentTimeMillis() - initSphereStart) );
acknowledgeHMReadComplete();
} else {
// If it wasn't done, resubmit for another check in the next render update cycle
RefMethodwArgs finishHmRead = new RefMethodwArgs( this, "finishHMRead", new Object[]{ pboIndex } );
UpdateList.getRef().addRenderUpdate( finishHmRead );
}
}
Basically, fire off the computer shader, then wait for the glGetSynciv check of GL_SYNC_STATUS to equal GL_SIGNALED, then rebind the GL_SHADER_STORAGE_BUFFER and perform the glMapBuffer operation.