[ODE] Ideas for threading ODE...

[Jon Watte (ODE)]

> Has some else tried this? Is my assumption about CPU possible idle during
> rendering wrong?

Yes. "rendering" just means queuing data in a big FIFO memory area for 
the graphics card to pick up. If that FIFO gets full (i e, you push more 
data at the card than it can handle) then the graphics driver will 
likely spin-wait for the queue to drain enough to put in the next command.

Why wouldn't the driver use an event/semaphore like a good process is 
supposed to? Because the scheduling jitter for events/semaphores is 
astronomical compared to typical graphics benchmark frame rates. They 
get better frame rates (and thus reviwer scores) by spinning. In fact, 
if they were using kernel primitives to suspend the thread, the 
resulting jerkiness in frame rate might actually be noticeable by mere 
mortals (not just benchmarking programs) so I can understand their decision.

Cheers,

			/ h+