Enable --!native for clients

Feature Requests Engine Features
#22

Native has been enabled on the client unannounced for some reason

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9 Likes
#23

Oh, damn. Finally! I hope it stays like this and they don’t just randomly remove it.

1 Like
#24

This is the first time a feature request has been implemented in ages.

#25

As far as I know what they meant in the announcement was that native codegen gets better speeds via types. Types don’t increase speeds by themselves, lua is a dynamically typed language while luau provides a typechecker ontop of it to ease development.

#26

From my tests, it actually does affect the bytecode to some extent already. At least in --!strict mode

#27

Huh? What do you mean change the bytecode?
I thought types were discarded during runtime, could I see your benchmark code?

Based on my own, (doing vector3 & scalar math without ncg) they seem 1:1.
Maybe I’m doing something wrong :sweat:

RobloxStudioBeta_AeV4JY8cyU

Code 
--!strict
-- strict typechecking speed benchmark, compared to non-typed.

local ITERATION_COUNT = 4096

local typedVectorMath: {number} = {}
local typedScalarMath: {number} = {}
local nonTypedVectorMath: {number} = {}
local nonTypedScalarMath: {number} = {}

--// A function to get the median percentile of the number array
local function calculateMedian(arr: {number}): number
	table.sort(arr)
	local n = #arr
	return n % 2 == 0 and (arr[n//2] + arr[n//2 + 1])/2 or arr[math.ceil(n/2)]
end

local function formatTime(seconds)
	if seconds >= 1e-3 then -- Millisecond range (>= 0.001 seconds)
		return string.format("%.3f ms", seconds * 1000)
	elseif seconds >= 1e-6 then -- Microsecond range (>= 0.000001 seconds)
		return string.format("%.3f μs", seconds * 1e6)
	else -- Default to nanoseconds
		return string.format("%.3f ns", seconds * 1e9)
	end
end

-- ===== BENCHMARKS ===== --

-- Typed vector math
for _ = 1, ITERATION_COUNT do
	local begin = os.clock()    
	local vec: Vector3 = Vector3.new(1,1,1)
	local vec2: Vector3 = Vector3.new(2,2,2)
	local temp: Vector3 = vec * vec2
	table.insert(typedVectorMath, os.clock() - begin)
end

-- Typed scalar math
for _ = 1, ITERATION_COUNT do
	local begin = os.clock()
	local a: number = 1.5
	local b: number = -4.2
	local c: number = 2.8
	local d: number = 3.14

	-- ax³ + bx²y + cxy² + dy³
	local x: number = 2.5
	local y: number = 1.8

	local term1: number = a * (x^3)
	local term2: number = b * (x^2) * y
	local term3: number = c * x * (y^2)
	local term4: number = d * (y^3)

	local result: number = ((term1 + term2) * (term3 - term4)) / (x^2 + y^2)

	table.insert(typedScalarMath, os.clock() - begin)
end

task.wait()

-- Non-typed vector math
for _ = 1, ITERATION_COUNT do
	local begin = os.clock()
	local vec = Vector3.new(1,1,1)
	local vec2 = Vector3.new(2,2,2)
	local temp = vec * vec2
	table.insert(nonTypedVectorMath, os.clock() - begin)
end

-- Non-typed scalar math
for _ = 1, ITERATION_COUNT do
	local begin = os.clock()
	local a = 1.5
	local b = -4.2
	local c = 2.8
	local d = 3.14

	local x = 2.5
	local y = 1.8

	local term1 = a * (x^3)
	local term2 = b * (x^2) * y
	local term3 = c * x * (y^2)
	local term4 = d * (y^3)

	local result = ((term1 + term2) * (term3 - term4)) / (x^2 + y^2)

	table.insert(nonTypedScalarMath, os.clock() - begin)
end

-- ===== RESULTS ===== --
print("Typed Vector Math (Median %ile):", formatTime(calculateMedian(typedVectorMath)))
warn("Non-typed Vector Math (Median %ile):", formatTime(calculateMedian(nonTypedVectorMath)))
print("Typed Scalar Math (Median %ile):", formatTime(calculateMedian(typedScalarMath)))
warn("Non-typed Scalar Math (Median %ile):", formatTime(calculateMedian(nonTypedScalarMath)))
#28

This initially got my hopes up… until I realized you tried this in Studio. :sob:
Just to clarify, NCG has always been enabled by default in Studio, working with both LocalScripts and ServerScripts.

However, after testing this on live servers, I can confirm it’s still not yet enabled there.

2 Likes
#29

I’m guessing it was a bug while lowering the IL, and iirc calls to the buffer library’s methods are optimized away with the necessary instructions, so the lowerer probably messed something with the stack pointer (and not Lua’s stack, which isn’t a stack in the first place, which is what I think @SyntaxMenace was talking about)

3 Likes
#30

They affect internally; things like type, typeof remain unchanged.

#31

not realistic
roblox supports a lot of platforms, doing this would require building for each of these platforms:

  • ARMv7 Android
  • ARMv8 Android
  • x86_64 Android
  • ARMv8 iOS
  • x86_64 Mac
  • ARMv8 Mac
  • x86_64 Windows
  • ARMv8 Windows
  • x86_64 Xbox One and Series
  • x86_64 PS4 and 5

Not to mention that each one of those x86 and arm subversions would need different builds to take advantage of every possible featureset that they can have (AVX2, AVX, no AVX, etc) and the consoles each would need their own console specific build

#32

roblox uses some arch-dependant libraries, so this still wouldn’t be a problem