Testers wanted for GPU-accelerated encoding in DCP-o-matic

[carl]

Hi all,

Test versions of DCP-o-matic have recently gained support for "Grok", a GPU-accelerated JPEG2000 encoder written by Aaron Boxer.

This offers very significant speed-ups to the DCP-making process. A recent AMD laptop with a single nvidia RTX 3060 card reaches around 80fps on the Sintel test clip, while a 2-year old 24-core desktop with a 2080 Ti card reaches around 180fps.

Though DCP-o-matic remains free and open-source (and can still be used, just as always, with the CPU and network encoders) the Grok encoder is paid-for closed-source software that will be available on a subscription model for around $200/year (with a release discount).

The initial release of Grok will support only the Ubuntu 22.04 operating system, and nvidia 900, 1000, 2000, 3000 and 4000-series GPUs.

At this stage we would like to find beta testers who have access to the following:

• Required: a computer running Ubuntu 22.04 fitted with a nvidia 900, 1000, 2000, 3000 or 4000 series GPU.
• Very helpful: access to a DCI cinema to test the resulting DCPs.

as we're most interested in checking the validity of the J2K bitstream and the quality of the resulting image.

Let me know either in the thread or by email if you are interested in being a tester. Questions and comments are also welcome.

Carl

[Kewl]

• Can it be already possible to mix CPU-based encode servers and GPU-based encode servers?
• Can the same encode server offers both CPU and GPU for encoding?
• Will AMD FirePro GPU be eventually supported?

In any case, I'm interested in testing.

[boxerab]

Kewl,

GPU-enabled DoM will behave exactly the same as the current version when it comes to managing encode servers,
but it will run in either GPU or CPU mode, not a mixture of both. Since GPU mode also uses significant CPU resources,
there wouldn't be an advantage to mixing the two modes. As for AMD cards, there will be a future release that runs on
Polaris generation and newer - unfortunately FirePro will not be supported.

Aaron

[Kewl]

Thanks Aaron.

So I found an old Alienware laptop with a series 900 GPU. Installed Ubuntu 22.04, installed DOM 2.17.8.

The GPU preference tab is asking for a License and a License Server. I imagine you will send that info to me. As for the GPU selection, should I already see the GPU in that list?

[Kewl]

Is it a question of using a Nvidia driver? By default, Ubuntu won't use a proprietary driver.

I have a choice of Nvidia drivers to install: 535, 525, 470, 390 and some other "server" drivers. In any case, 535 is now installed, but the GPU is still not available in DOM.

[boxerab]

Hi Kewl,
Thanks for offering to test - I will PM you with the details.
Aaron

[cx890y]

Hi im happy to do some testing. I can spin up a VM with any os needed and i have an a4000. I aslo have access to a dolby server to do testing if needed.

Sam

[boxerab]

Thanks, Sam. Please dm me if you're still interested.

[cx890y]

Hi ive tried to respond to you dms but it looks like my account is not enabled as it is too new. I am happy to help test and yes our vm's do have direct pcie passthough of the gpu.

[carl]

Hey @cx890y I think you now made enough posts for DMs to work - let me know if not!