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Dark GDK / dbSetGlobalObjectCreationMode - problems with exiting

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Pixel Perfect
17
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Joined: 21st Feb 2007
Location: UK
Posted: 2nd Mar 2008 00:42
Using the dbSetGlobalObjectCreationMode command certainly seems to add to the frame rate especially when using 3000+ objects but does anyone know why using the command seems to increase the exit time for a DGDK application from about 1 second to 40+ seconds?

No matter how good your code is, someone will improve on it
jason p sage
17
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Joined: 10th Jun 2007
Location: Ellington, CT USA
Posted: 2nd Mar 2008 05:13
hit the windows.h call _exit(0) if you have to - Quite sloppy - but - when you want STOP NOW - that works halfway decent

Codger
21
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Joined: 23rd Nov 2002
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Posted: 2nd Mar 2008 06:20
I ran a couple of tests using dbSetGlobalObjectCreationMode I noticed the exact time delay you mentioned in shutting down but I saw no increase in frame rate ( I had about 3000 spheres ).
I did activate the Task Manager and when dbSetGlobalObjectCreationMode is active and the program shuts down the CPU is very busy, possibly garbage collecting?

Do you have any documentation on this command I was unable to locate any

Codger

System
PIV 2.8 MZ 512 Mem
FX 5600 256 mem
Pixel Perfect
17
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Joined: 21st Feb 2007
Location: UK
Posted: 2nd Mar 2008 10:38
@Codger

Thanks for running some tests. I'm using the 3DWS 'Industrial complex' level in the tests which currently has over 3270 objects. A lot of these are various model meshes or clones of such, not simple primitives, so maybe that's making a difference. Currently I see an increase of about 7 fps by using this command. Not huge but useful with a level that is already pushing the engine regarding fps.

Like you I see my application exe taking about 50%+ cpu during the exiting phase.

Quote: "Do you have any documentation on this command I was unable to locate any"


Again, undocumented in DGDK but DBPro has the following:

Quote: "
This command will set the creation mode of the object manager. A Creation Mode of zero is the default, whereas a value of one will force the objects to share vertex buffers where possible. Vertex buffers are the internal memory resource the engine uses to store all geometry data before it is rendered to the screen. By sharing vertex buffers, you can gain performance on some 3D cards, but not others. By default vertex buffers are not shared for the sake of widest compatibility, better generic performance and less
prone to buffer overruns.
"


It does indicate it's graphics card dependant so not everyone may benefit. I'm currently running a Gainward 7800GS+ (which is actually the 7900 gpu running on AGP).

I may be missing something here, but by sharing vertex buffers I'd have thought that would have made cleaning up afterwards actually faster not slower!

No matter how good your code is, someone will improve on it
jason p sage
17
Years of Service
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Joined: 10th Jun 2007
Location: Ellington, CT USA
Posted: 4th Mar 2008 17:46
Quote: "I may be missing something here, but by sharing vertex buffers I'd have thought that would have made cleaning up afterwards actually faster not slower!"


I have a silly theory about this linked to the number of objects "ceiling" and "High Object Count" etc.

If Objects are managed less than stellar - and the Global Option you mention now needs to managed a vertex buffer "sharing" cross reference table of sorts to handle it - I could definately see the rendering as faster - as the meshes would be used closer to how DirectX handles them - a mesh can be used anywhere where - over and over in one scene FRAME (and potentially not the next quite easily) but trying to "Clean These Up" Properly might be a linked-list-traversing nightmare.

sometimes in my own code - even though I take a lot of care to avoid memleaks, proper init and shut down etc... there comes a time for the "HALT" statement - which I translate as "Get Out Now, Forget Clean Up - Let the OS release the memory in one fell swoop - I'm leaving!"

I THINK because TGC owns the DarkGDK WinMain - there may be some sort of "If user code bombs, quits... whatever, its a child process... so lets let it go bye bye and then do our own clean up"

This is just a theory - but I think thats why no matter what you do - the WAITING at shutdown is worse than normal using this option.

Though it looks like its a really good option to use less the delayed "kill" thing.

I also notice big delays when I had a scene going with a lot of objects. Even killing it via the Debug+Stop All is slower (even looks froze for multiple minutes on occasion). Hence why I tie this to the object count "management less than stellar" theory.

Overall though - I like DarkGDK - you just need to learn the do's and don'ts the hard way.

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