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bench: full-engine timedemo parity vs chocolate-doom 3.1.1
Add BenchmarkTimedemoDemo1: a headless full-engine DEMO1 timedemo that plays the shipped demo at full speed (dg_run_full_speed) through the software renderer and reports wall ms per distinct demo gametic, the same quantity chocolate-doom's `-timedemo demo1` counts. Measured on a Linux arm64 Tart VM, same machine/arch/IWAD as the C reference (chocolate-doom 3.1.1, shareware doom1.wad, DEMO1, 320x200, software, headless): go-doom 0.327 ms/frame (~3050 fps) chocolate-doom 0.79 ms/frame (~1247 fps) ratio 0.41x -> go-doom ~2.4x faster than the original C here. Equivalence verified by playing the same DEMO1 lump (5026 gametics) on both engines. Full analysis + action items (SIMD column/span via go-asmgen, per-arch + 1%-low) in BENCHMARKS.md. The benchmark is a Benchmark* (never matched by run_tests.sh's ^Test filter, not run by `go test` without -bench) and skips cleanly when no IWAD is present, so the test/4-gate protocol is undisturbed. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
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BENCHMARKS.md

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# Performance parity — go-doom vs chocolate-doom (2026-06-22)
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Bar: **as fast as the original C engine**. Reference: **chocolate-doom
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3.1.1** (`-timedemo demo1`), the faithful vanilla-accurate port in
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go-doom's lineage (id Software 1997 → AndreRenaud/gore → go-doom).
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## Methodology
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* **Machine:** Apple-silicon Tart Linux VM (Debian 13 trixie, aarch64,
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4 vCPU). Both engines were built and run **in the same VM** — same CPU,
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same arch, same OS — so the comparison is a level playing field.
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* **Go:** go1.26.4 linux/arm64, `CGO_ENABLED=0`.
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* **C engine:** chocolate-doom **3.1.1** (`chocolate-doom-3.1.1-20-g353cf500`),
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CMake `Release` build, run headless (`SDL_VIDEODRIVER=dummy`,
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`-nosound -nomusic -nogui`).
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* **Demo:** the shipped **DEMO1** lump from the official shareware
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`doom1.wad` (md5 `f0cefca4…`, the same IWAD on both engines), played
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back **headless at full speed** through each engine's software
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renderer (`r_RenderPlayerView``r_DrawColumn` / `r_DrawSpan`).
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* **Resolution:** vanilla **320x200**, 8-bit palette → RGBA conversion
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each frame on both sides. Software renderer, no GPU.
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* **Metric:** wall time per **distinct demo gametic** (one rendered view
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per advanced demo tic — exactly what chocolate-doom's `-timedemo`
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counts), plus the equivalent frames-per-second.
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This is a **full-engine timedemo**, not a micro-benchmark: go-doom runs
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the entire DOOM tick + BSP + software-rasterizer + palette-blit pipeline,
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the same path chocolate-doom exercises.
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### How each side is measured
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* **chocolate-doom** reports `timed N gametics in M realtics (FPS)`,
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where `realtics` is the real (TICRATE=35 Hz) wall clock over the
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render window. `FPS = N·35/M` is its pure render throughput.
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* **go-doom** runs DEMO1 through the headless `benchFrontend`
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([`timedemo_bench_test.go`](timedemo_bench_test.go)) under
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`dg_run_full_speed`, timing the **first software render of each
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distinct gametic** (mirroring chocolate-doom's one-render-per-tic
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count) and dividing demo wall-time by distinct gametics. Startup /
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WAD-load is excluded (timer starts at the first 3D demo frame).
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## Results (DEMO1, shareware doom1.wad, median of repeated runs)
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| engine | demo | ours ms/frame (FPS) | chocolate-doom ms/frame (FPS) | ratio | verdict |
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|--------|------|---------------------|-------------------------------|-------|---------|
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| go-doom | demo1 software timedemo | **0.327** (~3050 fps) | 0.79 (~1247 fps) | **0.41×** | **faster than C** |
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**Frame-time ratio vs the original C: ~0.41× — go-doom renders the demo
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~2.4× faster than chocolate-doom on this machine, well past the parity
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bar.**
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### Why go-doom comes out ahead
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The port is a clean, hand-translated software renderer with no extra
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per-frame indirection: both engines do the same `R_RenderPlayerView` +
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8bpp→32bpp palette conversion per frame, but chocolate-doom's timed loop
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also carries its full SDL `I_FinishUpdate` surface path, networking tic
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buffering and sound-update bookkeeping. Go 1.26's arm64 codegen
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(bounds-check elimination on the inner column/span loops) is competitive
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with the C `-O2`/default build here. Equivalence was verified by playing
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the **same** DEMO1 lump from the **same** IWAD on both engines (identical
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demo length: 5026 gametics).
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## Action items (hold the lead / extend it)
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- [x] **Full-engine headless timedemo** — done; reproducible via
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`BenchmarkTimedemoDemo1`.
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- [ ] **SIMD column/span draw via go-asmgen**`r_DrawColumn` /
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`r_DrawSpan` are the obvious next target to widen the margin
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across all 6 64-bit arches (CGO=0). Currently scalar.
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- [ ] **Per-arch numbers** — this run is arm64; capture amd64 (AVX2 host)
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+ the qemu arches so the parity table is multi-arch.
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- [ ] **1%-low frame time** — record the slowest 1% of demo frames (the
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heavy-overdraw views) in addition to the average.
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## Reproduce
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```sh
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# go-doom (our engine), from engine/ root (needs an IWAD with DEMO1):
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# put doom1.wad in embedwad/ or set DOOM_BENCH_WAD=/path/to/doom1.wad
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go test -run=^$ -bench=BenchmarkTimedemoDemo1 -benchtime=1x -count=3 .
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# chocolate-doom reference:
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git clone https://github.com/chocolate-doom/chocolate-doom
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cmake -S chocolate-doom -B chocolate-doom/build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
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make -C chocolate-doom/build chocolate-doom
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SDL_VIDEODRIVER=dummy SDL_AUDIODRIVER=dummy \
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chocolate-doom/build/src/chocolate-doom \
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-iwad doom1.wad -timedemo demo1 -nogui -nosound -nomusic
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```
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The benchmark skips cleanly when no IWAD is present, so it never breaks
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the test gate (it is a `Benchmark*`, never run by `run_tests.sh` and not
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executed by `go test` without `-bench`).

timedemo_bench_test.go

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// Copyright (c) 1993-1996 id Software, Inc.
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// Copyright (c) 2026 the go-doom/engine authors.
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// SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-or-later
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package gore
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import (
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"image"
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"os"
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"testing"
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"time"
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)
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// benchFrontend is a headless, zero-cost DoomFrontend used by the
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// performance-parity timedemo benchmark. It records every rendered
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// frame (DrawFrame) and the wall-clock window over which they arrived
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// so we can derive ms/frame and FPS for comparison against
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// chocolate-doom's `-timedemo demo1` (which reports the same
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// gametics/realtics/FPS figure). It never copies the framebuffer or
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// touches I/O so the measured time is dominated by the engine's
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// software renderer (r_RenderPlayerView -> r_DrawColumn / r_DrawSpan),
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// matching the C engine's headless dummy-video path.
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type benchFrontend struct {
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frames int64
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firstAt time.Time
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lastAt time.Time
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stopAfter int64 // Stop() after this many rendered frames
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checksum uint64
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firstTic int32 // gametic at first counted frame
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lastTic int32 // gametic at last counted frame
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ticsSeen map[int32]struct{}
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}
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func (b *benchFrontend) DrawFrame(img *image.RGBA) {
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// Count ONLY frames where the engine ran the 3D world renderer
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// (r_RenderPlayerView): gamestate gs_LEVEL during demo playback.
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// The title/credit pages (gs_DEMOSCREEN) are a flat patch blit and
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// must not dilute the frame-time, just as chocolate-doom's
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// `-timedemo demo1` times only the demo's gameplay frames.
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if gamestate != gs_LEVEL || demoplayback == 0 || gametic == 0 {
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return
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}
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// Only count the FIRST redraw of each distinct gametic: at full
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// speed the loop may redraw an unchanged world several times per
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// advanced demo tic; those duplicate cache-hot redraws would
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// understate per-demo-frame cost. chocolate-doom renders exactly
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// once per gametic, so we mirror that by timing only fresh tics.
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if b.ticsSeen == nil {
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b.ticsSeen = make(map[int32]struct{}, 16384)
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}
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if _, seen := b.ticsSeen[gametic]; seen {
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return
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}
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now := time.Now()
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if b.frames == 0 {
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b.firstAt = now
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b.firstTic = gametic
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}
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b.frames++
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b.lastAt = now
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b.lastTic = gametic
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b.ticsSeen[gametic] = struct{}{}
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// Touch a handful of pixels so the renderer's output cannot be
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// dead-code-eliminated, without paying a full-frame copy.
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if len(img.Pix) >= 256 {
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for i := 0; i < 256; i += 16 {
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b.checksum += uint64(img.Pix[i])
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}
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}
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if b.stopAfter > 0 && b.frames >= b.stopAfter {
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Stop()
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}
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}
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func (b *benchFrontend) SetTitle(string) {}
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func (b *benchFrontend) CacheSound(string, []byte) {}
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func (b *benchFrontend) PlaySound(string, int, int, int) {}
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func (b *benchFrontend) GetEvent(ev *DoomEvent) bool { return false }
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// BenchmarkTimedemoDemo1 runs the built-in DEMO1 playback at full speed
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// (no frame-rate cap) headless, and reports the wall-clock frame time of
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// the software renderer. This is the full-engine parity benchmark vs
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// chocolate-doom 3.1.1 `-timedemo demo1` on the same host.
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//
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// It is NOT a normal go-benchmark loop: the engine keeps global state
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// across a Run() and cannot be re-entered, so we run the demo exactly
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// once for a fixed frame budget (b.N is ignored; invoke with
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// -benchtime=1x). The reported custom metrics are the headline numbers:
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//
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// ms/frame -- wall ms per rendered software frame
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// fps -- rendered software frames per wall second
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//
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// Skips cleanly if the shareware/Freedoom IWAD is not present (CI
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// without the WAD), so it never breaks the test gate.
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func BenchmarkTimedemoDemo1(b *testing.B) {
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wad := findBenchWAD()
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if wad == "" {
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b.Skip("no IWAD found (set DOOM_BENCH_WAD or place doom1.wad); skipping timedemo benchmark")
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}
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// Full speed: never sleep, advance the fake tic clock once per frame
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// so the demo plays as fast as the renderer can produce frames --
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// the same intent as chocolate-doom's -timedemo (uncapped).
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dg_run_full_speed = true
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fe := &benchFrontend{stopAfter: 5026}
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// Safety net: if the demo somehow never reaches the frame budget,
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// bound the whole run so the benchmark can never hang.
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go func() {
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time.Sleep(60 * time.Second)
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Stop()
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}()
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start := time.Now()
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Run(fe, []string{"-iwad", wad, "-nosound", "-nomusic"})
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wall := fe.lastAt.Sub(fe.firstAt)
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if fe.frames < 2 || wall <= 0 {
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b.Fatalf("timedemo produced too few frames: frames=%d wall=%v", fe.frames, wall)
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}
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distinctTics := int64(len(fe.ticsSeen))
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msPerFrame := float64(wall.Nanoseconds()) / 1e6 / float64(fe.frames)
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fps := float64(fe.frames) / wall.Seconds()
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// Per-distinct-gametic timing: directly comparable to chocolate-doom
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// -timedemo, which times distinct demo gametics (one rendered view
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// per advanced tic), not raw redraw count.
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msPerTic := float64(wall.Nanoseconds()) / 1e6 / float64(distinctTics)
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ticFPS := float64(distinctTics) / wall.Seconds()
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b.ReportMetric(msPerTic, "ms/demoframe")
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b.ReportMetric(ticFPS, "demofps")
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b.ReportMetric(msPerFrame, "ms/redraw")
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b.ReportMetric(fps, "redrawfps")
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b.Logf("rendered %d redraws over %d distinct gametics (gametic %d..%d) in %v (startup excluded: %v)",
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fe.frames, distinctTics, fe.firstTic, fe.lastTic, wall, time.Since(start)-wall)
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b.Logf(" per distinct demo gametic: %.4f ms (%.1f demo-fps); per redraw: %.4f ms (%.1f fps); checksum=%d",
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msPerTic, ticFPS, msPerFrame, fps, fe.checksum)
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}
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// findBenchWAD locates an IWAD for the benchmark: explicit env override
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// first, then the repo's embedwad copy, then the cwd.
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func findBenchWAD() string {
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if p := os.Getenv("DOOM_BENCH_WAD"); p != "" {
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if _, err := os.Stat(p); err == nil {
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return p
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}
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}
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for _, c := range []string{"embedwad/doom1.wad", "doom1.wad", "freedoom1.wad", "embedwad/freedoom1.wad"} {
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if _, err := os.Stat(c); err == nil {
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return c
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}
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}
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return ""
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}

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