DBpro can use Multi-Core? - GameCreators Forum

Author

Message

Jordi

15

Years of Service

User Offline

Joined: 20th Feb 2011

Location:

Posted: 15th Dec 2011 13:01 Edited at: 15th Dec 2011 13:28

Link

Hello guys,

Anyone know that if DBpro can use Multi-Core?

I read that it's not possible, but I'd ask if anyone know of a plugin or something to use multi-core.

Thanks for help me

Back to top

Profile PM Email Website

Greenster

21

Years of Service

User Offline

Joined: 3rd Feb 2005

Location: US ©

Posted: 15th Dec 2011 13:52

Link

It already does. One drawback is there is no threading functions though.

When a software says it's optimized for multi-core, it doesn't actually mean anything except maybe more threads, cause the kernel handles it all nativly, you can't even influence hardware threading without a driver, and windows API has nothing for it..

Back to top

Profile PM Website

Jordi

15

Years of Service

User Offline

Joined: 20th Feb 2011

Location:

Posted: 15th Dec 2011 17:17

Link

Thanks Greenster

If I understand correctly, no have functions to control multi-core. The system use automatically if is required. ¿no?

Back to top

Profile PM Email Website

Quel

17

Years of Service

User Offline

Joined: 13th Mar 2009

Location:

Posted: 15th Dec 2011 20:14

Link

How do you type an upside down question mark, and what is its purpose?

-In.Dev.X: A unique heavy story based shoot'em ~35%
-CoreFleet: An underground commander unit based RTS ~15%
-TailsVSEggman: An Sonic themed RTS under development for idea presentation to Sega ~15%

Back to top

Profile PM

Neuro Fuzzy

19

Years of Service

User Offline

Joined: 11th Jun 2007

Location:

Posted: 15th Dec 2011 20:42 Edited at: 15th Dec 2011 20:43

Link

^ it's used in spanish for a question (same with upside down exclamation marks)

I don't believe you can multithread in DBPro, no.

Well, at least you can't use any native functions.

[edit]
I should elaborate on that: It is possible to multithread with DBPro through ianm's matrix utils, but from what I understand none of the DBPro functions are thread safe, so using them from a second thread could cause a memory error.

Back to top

Profile PM Email

MrValentine

AGK Backer

15

Years of Service

User Offline

Joined: 5th Dec 2010

Playing: FFVII

Posted: 15th Dec 2011 21:09

Link

You mean this¿ and this¡?... I have been using them a lot lately... theyre built into my galaxy s ][ android keyboard

I think the solution would be to jump into Pure GDK or Dark GDK... bare in mind Pure GDK 2.0 is out soon... I am planning to jump into that... it features full thread management from what I have read so far...

Back to top

Profile PM

IanM

Retired Moderator

23

Years of Service

User Offline

Joined: 11th Sep 2002

Location: In my moon base

Posted: 15th Dec 2011 22:29

Link

In PureGDK, access to the DBPro/GDK runtime is serialised, ie, one-at-a-time.

Quote: "none of the DBPro functions are thread safe"

Absolutely true. In fact, I'd lay bets on the fact that anything using an ID (including in my own plug-ins) would not be thread-safe. It's only relatively recently that a simple thing like string assignment became thread-safe (DBPro moved to use VC++2008 and the multi-threaded runtime).

Quote: "Anyone know that if DBpro can use Multi-Core?"

Only when it is built into a plug-in. A few of the official plug-ins (PhysX and DarkLight?) use it - it's completely transparent to the user.

Get the latest Matrix1Utility plug-ins (11-SEPT-2011)

Back to top

Profile PM Email Website

BatVink

Moderator

23

Years of Service

User Offline

Joined: 4th Apr 2003

Location: Gods own County, UK

Posted: 16th Dec 2011 12:29

Link

PhysX - yes
Darklights - yes, for the creation of the lightmap
DarkAI - I'm not sure

I have tested standard DBP multicore using Intel's tools. It registers about 1% of the second core, probably for some low-level stuff. I mentioned to Diggsey the possibility of Box2D being multicore, so that DBP games could get certified by Intel as "designed for n-Core", but I don't know if he looked into it too deeply.

Back to top

Profile PM Email

Morcilla

23

Years of Service

User Offline

Joined: 1st Dec 2002

Location: Spain

Posted: 17th Dec 2011 17:14

Link

Quote: "It's only relatively recently that a simple thing like string assignment became thread-safe"

Ok that DBPro and all related DX functions are not multi-core, but I think that multi-core still could be used in DBPro/DGDK programs to manage things like raw math calculus, keyboard input, AI systems, maybe music playing and this kind of 'parallel' stuff, is this right?

Quote: "DBP games could get certified by Intel as "designed for n-Core""

If DBPro could manage n-core just in the way that I described above, for 'secondary' tasks, that would be absolutely Fan-tas-tic!
Not only because of the advantage itself, but because of the relevance of being certified by Intel.
That would be a great boost for DBPro at this moment

Back to top

Profile PM Email Website

Jordi

15

Years of Service

User Offline

Joined: 20th Feb 2011

Location:

Posted: 20th Dec 2011 14:11

Link

Hello guys,

Quote: "How do you type an upside down question mark, and what is its purpose?
"

Quote: "^ it's used in spanish for a question (same with upside down exclamation marks)"

Yes, the "¿" is used in spanish. I'm sorry, when I write fast I forget to remove.

Quote: "I have tested standard DBP multicore using Intel's tools."

I tested my games with Intel's multicore test and the result is always 1,00 or 1,04

Back to top

Profile PM Email Website

Weave

AGK Bronze Backer

19

Years of Service

User Offline

Joined: 26th Sep 2006

Location:

Posted: 20th Dec 2011 15:26

Link

Found this the other day in the forums somewhere, needs the dll in the download.... don`t know if it helps at all...

` For multiple threads you really need to
` take control of the escapekey and the way
` you exit the program so it can be done
` safely.
disable escapekey

global x# = 0
global y# = 0
global z# = 0

sync on
sync rate 0

make object cube 1,10

autocam off
move camera -10

` These two lines of code below create two
` new threads. Threads are started automatically
` after being created like this. The return value
` is a DWORD handle to the threadid.
objs = make function thread(1)
calcs = make function thread(2)

` The main program loop.
do

` As you notice I put the escapekey in the
   ` main loop also, this is done for proper
   ` handling so that threads can exit with
   ` enough time before the main program exits.
   if escapekey() = 1
      sleep 500
      end
   endif

loop

`1 = function number
function objects()
   do
      rotate object 1,x#,y#,z#
      control camera using arrowkeys 0,0.5,0.3
      set cursor 0,0
      print "fps: "; screen fps()
      sync

` pressing the escape key makes this
      ` thread exit the loop and delete
      ` itself.
      if escapekey() = 1 then exit
   loop

` delete the thread that was created.
   delete thread objs
endfunction

`2 = function number
function calculations()
   do
      x# = object angle x(1)+0.4
      y# = object angle y(1)+0.4
      z# = object angle z(1)+0.4

` pressing the escape key makes this
      ` thread exit the loop and delete
      ` itself.
      if escapekey() = 1 then exit
   loop

` delete the thread that was created.
   delete thread calcs
endfunction

+ Code Snippet

` For multiple threads you really need to
` take control of the escapekey and the way
` you exit the program so it can be done
` safely.
disable escapekey

global x# = 0
global y# = 0
global z# = 0

sync on
sync rate 0

make object cube 1,10

autocam off
move camera -10

` These two lines of code below create two
` new threads. Threads are started automatically
` after being created like this. The return value
` is a DWORD handle to the threadid.
objs = make function thread(1)
calcs = make function thread(2)

` The main program loop.
do

   ` As you notice I put the escapekey in the
   ` main loop also, this is done for proper
   ` handling so that threads can exit with
   ` enough time before the main program exits.
   if escapekey() = 1
      sleep 500
      end
   endif

loop

`1 = function number
function objects()
   do
      rotate object 1,x#,y#,z#
      control camera using arrowkeys 0,0.5,0.3
      set cursor 0,0
      print "fps: "; screen fps()
      sync

      ` pressing the escape key makes this
      ` thread exit the loop and delete
      ` itself.
      if escapekey() = 1 then exit
   loop

   ` delete the thread that was created.
   delete thread objs
endfunction

`2 = function number
function calculations()
   do
      x# = object angle x(1)+0.4
      y# = object angle y(1)+0.4
      z# = object angle z(1)+0.4

      ` pressing the escape key makes this
      ` thread exit the loop and delete
      ` itself.
      if escapekey() = 1 then exit
   loop

   ` delete the thread that was created.
   delete thread calcs
endfunction

Back to top

Profile PM Website

Chris Tate

DBPro Master

17

Years of Service

User Offline

Joined: 29th Aug 2008

Location: London, England

Posted: 21st Dec 2011 00:11

Link

I could be wrong but the Styx plugin allowed you to register interval functions that run independantly from the main loop. It has been a long time since I used it and read its documentation. I remember my program crashing when Styx Intervals and Dark AI were used in the same program; possibly related to the use of threads. The Styx plugin also has a number of conflicts with other plugins.

Additionally, DarkNet optionally uses CPU threads per connection.

Back to top

Profile PM Email Website

Sorry your browser is not supported!

DarkBASIC Professional Discussion / DBpro can use Multi-Core?