Re: [GD-Windows] Win2K SP2 debugging slowdown?

[Javier A. <ja...@py...>]

No debug strings (we #ifdef out all our OutputDebugString calls in Release
builds), and DirectX retail runtime. :)

Javier Arevalo
Pyro Studios

----- Original Message -----
From: "Tom Forsyth" <to...@mu...>
To: "GDWindows" <gam...@li...>
Sent: Wednesday, October 03, 2001 5:41 PM
Subject: RE: [GD-Windows] Win2K SP2 debugging slowdown?


> [grrr... reply-to-person thing is getting annoying now]
>
> The debugger sets up a debug string handler that is usually very very
slow.
> So if you're outputting a lot of info to the debug output, that will cause
> serious slowdowns when the debugger is active. Remember that DirectX also
> throws a lot of stuff into the debug stream if you have the debug level
set
> high.
>
> Tom Forsyth - Muckyfoot bloke.
>
> What's he up to now (and can I have a go)?
> http://www.eidosinteractive.com/downloads/search.html?gmid=86
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Emmanuel Astier [mailto:emm...@wi...]
> > Sent: 03 October 2001 14:00
> > To: GDWindows
> > Subject: RE: [GD-Windows] Win2K SP2 debugging slowdown?
> >
> >
> > I have also a strange problem...
> >
> > My game (it is at a very early stage) runs at 1-2 fps in release mode
> > when I launch it under the debugger.
> > When I launch it without the debugger, it runs at 90 fps...
> >
> > There's no massive deallocations, no use of exceptions...
> >
> > I know a launch in the debugger should be slower than a real
> > launch, but
> > not that much ???
> >
> > Emmanuel
> >
> >
> >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Javier Arevalo [mailto:ja...@py...]
> > > Sent: mercredi 3 octobre 2001 14:29
> > > To: GDWindows
> > > Subject: Re: [GD-Windows] Win2K SP2 debugging slowdown?
> > >
> > >
> > > If only it were that easy. :)
> > >
> > > The situation happens when the game is run under the
> > > debugger, using the
> > > debug runtime or not doesn't make a difference. The slowdown
> > > magnitude is
> > > huge, about is a few seconds (5-7) versus a couple tenths of
> > > a second so I
> > > have ruled out cache, fragmentation and similar issues.
> > >
> > > Besides, why does it happen only after installing the Win2K
> > > Service Pack 2?
> > > I guess it has something to do with additional security
> > > features of the SP2
> > > for processes that run under a debugger, but that's just my
> > > own elaboration,
> > > and still leaves me with no idea what triggers the slowdown
> > > and how to fix
> > > it.
> > >
> > > The hardware configuration doesn't matter, since it's
> > > happened everywhere
> > > from 2-year-old P3-450's to brand-new 1.4GHz AMDs, 256 or
> > > 512Mb RAM. Heh all
> > > machines have NVidia cards but I really doubt that has
> > > anything to do, since
> > > the slowdown happens in areas with zero D3D interaction -
> > > sound and massive
> > > memory deallocations so far.
> > >
> > > Javier Arevalo
> > > Pyro Studios
> > >
> > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > From: "Tom Forsyth" <to...@mu...>
> > > To: "GDWindows" <gam...@li...>
> > > Sent: Wednesday, October 03, 2001 1:47 PM
> > > Subject: RE: [GD-Windows] Win2K SP2 debugging slowdown?
> > >
> > >
> > > > Sounds like the debug runtime is checking every freed block
> > > to make sure
> > > you
> > > > haven't scribbled off the ends. When you allocate stuff, it
> > > pads the start
> > > > and end with some special characters. IIRC, it pads 16
> > > bytes off start and
> > > > end with FD. When you call free() or delete() or whatever,
> > > it checks that
> > > > the FDs are still there.
> > > >
> > > > I have no idea hy it does this more or less than normal
> > > though - maybe
> > > > because your memory is heavily fragmented on those runs, so
> > > cleanup is
> > > quite
> > > > messy?
> > > >
> > > > Tom Forsyth - Muckyfoot bloke.
> > > >
> > > > What's he up to now (and can I have a go)?
> > > > http://www.eidosinteractive.com/downloads/search.html?gmid=86
> > > >
> > > > > -----Original Message-----
> > > > > From: Javier Arevalo [mailto:ja...@py...]
> > > > > Sent: 03 October 2001 08:28
> > > > > To: GDWindows
> > > > > Subject: [GD-Windows] Win2K SP2 debugging slowdown?
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > Hi all,
> > > > >
> > > > > We have been tracking a weird situation we have, where on
> > > > > some of our dev.
> > > > > machines our game takes several seconds to shut down. We
> > > > > eventually found
> > > > > out the following:
> > > > >
> > > > > - The game must be running in a debugging session under MSVC
> > > > > (haven't tried
> > > > > other debuggers).
> > > > > - The computer must have Windows 2000 _with_ service pack
> > > 2 installed.
> > > > >
> > > > > The slowdown happens during a loop that deletes several
> > > > > thousand dynamic
> > > > > memory blocks. Most of the time, sometimes it doesn't.
> > > > > Similar symptoms also
> > > > > appear in other places, like our streaming music
> > decoding thread.
> > > > >
> > > > > Running MSDEV under VTune we found that, when the slowdown
> > > > > happens, most of
> > > > > the time during that loop is spent inside the operating
> > > system, spread
> > > > > half-and-half in two functions: RtlCompareMemoryUlong() and
> > > > > RtlFillMemoryUlong().