Headline Benchmark

WIP games, tools & toy projects
#1

When I started Game development, I thought I should start with a small project and take it all the way to completion, so that I would have all the basics in place. Coding at home is nothing like coding at work… Also I wanted to build something with a website and that used OpenGL.

So I built Headline Benchmark, unashamedly the Windows Ubuntu Experience Index! It’s a bit like a game - you get scores, it uses OpenGL… Arguably, it is not a game because it does not have a game loop, although that is straying into Gaming Philosophy.

You can go along to my site and download it for yourself for Windows or Linux - it takes about five minutes to run:

http://www.headline-benchmark.com

UPDATE: Headline Benchmark is also on Android now:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.clarke.agnes.benchmark.android

Direct link to the download page: http://www.headline-benchmark.com/download.jsp

After running it, you can click the Submit button to send the results to the website.

I don’t have proper installers yet - just archives and shell scripts, but I will add these as I want to put it on the Ubuntu Software Center. (And also the Windows Store, assuming that allows Java apps).

#2

Very cool actually! Is your rating index just based on clock speed/amount of RAM etc… Or does it actually use data from the internet and using that to compare? Because some CPUs my be faster on paper, but slower in an actually computer… just wondering how you calculate the results, its very interesting!

#3

Looks Cool. I’m going to download it now.

#4

All the data on the website is submitted by users running Headline Benchmark. Headline executes the following tests to evaluate computer performance: integer, floating point, single- to multi-thread scenarios, GPU geometry, textures, shaders, and memory performance (array copying).

I rate systems in four categories: Headline (general purpose), Gaming (biased towards GPU), Office (biased towards CPU) and creative (biased towards parallel processing).

@rv3392 - thanks, let me know how it goes (assuming it goes…:-)…).

The component scores are aggregated from the system results. I don’t just store an average - I build a curve of results to show effects of overclocking or power-saving states, but I don’t have enough data yet to make it worth my time to build the JSPs to show the curves (I would need dozens of different systems contributing data for each component). Each component tells you how many results and unique systems have contributed to the aggregate.

#5

I ran the test and it worked fine. I indeed doubt how much of a game it is though :wink:

Mike

#6

Thanks to Mike and Anonymouse!

@Mickelukas, if I integrate my chess game as another performance test, will it qualify as a game then? ;D (The computer would play itself of course.)

One user has hit an error and nicely allowed the app to send the website an error report - so automated error reporting seems to be working correctly too. As for the exception, I think some graphics cards are giving me null graphic card name.

EDIT: It turns out that recent Nvidia cards (at least certain 7xx series) do not support the JOGL GL2 profile, causing graphics tests to fail, and causing serialization of the results to fail too (even if graphics tests aren’t run). I should have a fix soon.

Operating system score card so far:

Win-64 version: 11 downloads.
Win-32 version: 1 download (me)
Linux-64 version: 0 downloads
Linux-32 version: 1 download (me)

I thought there would be a few more linuxers…

#7

I have put up a new version of Headline Benchmark, mainly updating the JOGL library and fixing some crash scenarios affecting at least the GTX 770.

I made one enhancement with this version - there is now a Feedback button that lets you send in a user comment to the website. The comment is not made public on the internet.

UPDATE: GTX770 fails on win-64, but I have a result from win-32 that passes. So it looks like a JOGL bug.

#8

I have released a new version of Headline Benchmark, fixing some screen flickering in one of the OpenGL tests and rebalancing the system scores. I also added a feedback button so users can send in feedback directly from the app (the feedback goes into the bug tracking system on my website).

I also added a command-line pure Java version for testing CPUs on any system. (The full application is restricted to only Linux and Windows as it uses OS-specific commands to get hardware information).

Come on, submit your system to my website and immortalize your hardware!

#9

I started work on the Windows installer at long last. The first step was wrapping the JAR with Launch4J which went flawlessly, to my surprise. I just need to figure out some art for a splash screen (something transparent, I think) and then I will build the MSI with this tool:

http://dennisbareis.com/makemsi.htm

Ubuntu is easier - I send Canonical the JAR and they package it for me!

Operating system scorecard:

headline-benchmark-windows-64.zip = 35
headline-benchmark-windows-32.zip = 8
headline-benchmark-linux-64.tar = 6
headline-benchmark-linux-32.tar = 5
hb_cli.zip = 3

I’ve had some downloads for Linux but no recent uploaded results, which is a little worrying. Linux was the main platform I wanted to deliver on…

Splash screen suggestions are welcomed :slight_smile:

#10

like this?

#11

I’ll take it! I will get rid of the purple cloudy thing though :slight_smile:

I ran this by my partner and bilznatch’s got the thumbs up - apparently my version lacks fun :frowning:

#12

Oh well, you’ll get em next time champ :stuck_out_tongue:

I just thought it’d be a bit plain without something in the background, I can change the color if purple isn’t your style :stuck_out_tongue:

#13

This is really cool! ;D

I got like 7’s and 6’s on most things but a 10.05 on memory… wtf?
Is this not a score out of 10? Please dont say its out of 100 haha!

#14

Thanks, saucymeatman! If you upload your results to the server you can compare your system to lots of others. 6/7 is an OK score, the top systems get nearer to 20. This is the current top score:

http://www.headline-benchmark.com/results/8234095e-f69e-41a0-ad23-e7f077c33ded

The score goes up exponentially, so double the performance doesn’t quite give double the score (to reflect the law of diminishing returns).

#15

Hah! I knew those 2400MHz RAM sticks would be worth it one day! xD

#16

#17

Well…


Exception in thread "main" java.lang.InternalError: Cant connect to X11 window server using ':0' as the value of the DISPLAY variable.
        at sun.awt.X11GraphicsEnvironment.initDisplay(Native Method)
        at sun.awt.X11GraphicsEnvironment.access$200(X11GraphicsEnvironment.java:65)
        at sun.awt.X11GraphicsEnvironment$1.run(X11GraphicsEnvironment.java:110)
        at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
        at sun.awt.X11GraphicsEnvironment.<clinit>(X11GraphicsEnvironment.java:74)
        at java.lang.Class.forName0(Native Method)
        at java.lang.Class.forName(Class.java:190)
        at java.awt.GraphicsEnvironment.createGE(GraphicsEnvironment.java:102)
        at java.awt.GraphicsEnvironment.getLocalGraphicsEnvironment(GraphicsEnvironment.java:81)
        at sun.awt.X11.XToolkit.<clinit>(XToolkit.java:119)
        at java.lang.Class.forName0(Native Method)
        at java.lang.Class.forName(Class.java:190)
        at java.awt.Toolkit$2.run(Toolkit.java:868)
        at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
        at java.awt.Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit(Toolkit.java:860)
        at javax.swing.UIManager.getSystemLookAndFeelClassName(UIManager.java:608)
        at com.clarke.agnes.benchmark.util.Utils.setPlatformLaf(Unknown Source)
        at com.clarke.agnes.benchmark.main.BenchmarkGui2.main(Unknown Source)
#18

Turns out something went wrong with the X Server, and a minute or so after a few other applications crashed with similar problems.
I restarted it and it worked fine.

I actually got into one of the top 20s, and my both my integrated and dedicated graphics got into the Top 20 for something.
Not bad for a cheap laptop.

#19

I was thinking “Please tell me I didn’t manage to get a simple call to getSystemLookAndFeel() wrong” - very relieved now!

And thanks for submitting a Linux result - I haven’t seen many of those so far.

#20

I uploaded a new version. The main changes this time are for Windows users - the app is now wrapped in an EXE by launch4j. This allows me to easily set the process priority to high, and also lets me offer a Java download for users without a public JRE.

As a Win-32 exclusive, the new splash screen is also available.

I also added some code to try to read CPU name from the registry if my calls to WMIC fail, as they occasionally do.

Also, I now have an application icon, so no more generic Java coffee cup :slight_smile: