Re: [Algorithms] Optimization

[Gil G. <gg...@ma...>]

> This may be borderline off-topic for this list...  If you agree, please
respond directly to me to avoid spamming the list.
>
>
> I was wondering what some of you are doing for PC optimization of your
C/C++ code?  More specifically, I'm wondering how you're leveraging your
tools (compiler, etc) when you don't have the bandwidth to run through and
hand optimize all of your code.  What compilers are you using to get the
best optimization (I'm stuck with VC6), what optimizations have you found to
be safe and fast, and what optimization have you found to be dangerous?
>

Well, we use VC6 and we find it does a very good job at the default
"release" settings. We use VTune to profile actual gameplay situations. When
we locate a hot spot, usually it is an algorthmic problem (hence your
question isn't off-topic). Some performance problems aren't really
algortihmic, and VTune provides further information. For example, VTune is
the ultimate tool for seeing how well VC did with the code generation. VC
usually generates excellent asm. The crappy memory subsystem on the PC is
more likely to show up as the culprit and in this case you might consider if
your data could be reorganized or compressed.
-Gil