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[Jookia]

Ugh, I don't know if I'm fit to program DIS. I'm such a piece of crap that I can't even locate a bottleneck in some crap renderer. I want to do a tile engine, but I don't know how. I can't do everything on my own and I'm kidding myself if I think I'm going to be able to make a game. There are libraries out there to display images on the screen, yet I don't want to use them. I have very bad health problems and I hate my crappy life.

[Footkerchief]

For anyone who, like me, had no idea what the OP was talking about, he means his game project, Disasters in Space.

[zchris13]

You should get professional help on that coding project.  Nobody became an expert overnight.

[Jookia]

You should get professional help on that coding project.  Nobody became an expert overnight.

I don't accept other people's code.

[zchris13]

That's not what I said, bro.  I said, get help.  Not someone to do it for you.

[qwertyuiopas]

Time it at the highest level.

Don't bother with the timing of the lowest level functions.


That is the first step in identifying ACCURATELY the bottleneck.

Why?

Because the resoulution of the timing function you use is too low!


Start by checking each block of code's time. Likely one or two in the main loop will be taking most of it. From there, you know what must actually be redone.


Do not redraw the whole screen if it is drawn to a persistant drawing area. If the characters from last iteration are still there, don't waste time redrawing them if the colours are unchanged.

Break up the screen into chunks and/or layers. If you have the "terrain" that almost never changed, keep it in one piece, and draw a second layer made of volitile chunks over it. It means LESS data transfer! (Since the terrain's texture is already in the graphics card memory, but any updated bits of the overlayed stuff must be sent each frame that they have changed.)

Or just find your own way.

But remember, when tracking down a problem, don't test the individual components until you have PROOF that they are the problem. Time the main loop, not each function call.

[Jookia]

How do I check code time?

[Berserker]

This might work:

Code: [Select]

float start_time = clock() / (float)CLOCKS_PER_SEC;

<block of code>

float end_time = clock() / (float)CLOCKS_PER_SEC - start_time;

end_time is now the time spent in seconds.

[Jookia]

Turns out the bottleneck is that the entire screen is one texture.

[qwertyuiopas]

As I said, it's the data dump, if it is a texture problem.

Optimize the unchanging bits out, so that you don't have to update them more than once every few seconds most fo the time, and cut the varying bits into blocks that are overlayed.

[Jookia]

What you said:

As I said, it's the data dump, if it is a texture problem.

Optimize the unchanging bits out, so that you don't have to update them more than once every few seconds most fo the time, and cut the varying bits into blocks that are overlayed.

What I understood:

[eerr]

I think he means partial print like for dwarf fortress.

only repaint the parts that change.

[zchris13]

Data dump is you telling the screen to change

He doesn't mean bits by bits, he means each section/tile.

I don't get the last one either.

[eerr]

Data dump is you telling the screen to change

He doesn't mean bits by bits, he means each section/tile.

I don't get the last one either.

I think the second part is recording the parts that do change frequently, so they can be copied over rapidly.

[Muz]

From my experience, if you have to ask whether you should continue something.. chances are it's not worth continuing. Maybe work on something smaller first till you get the hang of things. Or find something awesome enough that you won't even think of quitting. You really don't want to force yourself to slug through a game.