z-sorting versus z-buffering

[Riven]

I've got a bigger better faster multi-threaded merger now.

It does something like this:

• It concurrently sorts 4 chunks of the input
• It samples the chunks at a fixed interval, to see how it's best to split each chunk into 8 smaller parts
• It takes the average of the previous step and actually splits each chunk into 8 parts
• • chunks[n].parts[0] holds all smallest values,
  • chunks[n].parts[7] holds all largest values
• It concurrently merges the all chunks[n].parts[k] into temporary array temps[k]
• • temps[0] holds all (ordered) smallest values
  • temps[7] holds all (ordered) largest values
• It concatenates temps[n] into input

Time: 11.4s


31.4s -> 11.4s = 2.75x

[Riven]

--err.

Going to post new results 'soon' !

[xsvenson]

I bow before Thee, OH Great Sorting God !

*bows*

Very interesting thread, now I just have to do something that requires sorting :/

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[Roquen]

Signed shifting will give you -1 & 0, then the multiplies can be converted into ANDs.

[Riven]

Signed shifting will give you -1 & 0, then the multiplies can be converted into ANDs.

I already changed it to be like that, but there was a serious bug, so I removed the code temporarily.