Real-time analysis of performance data of a video game
Contents
1. may include a microphone joy stick game pad satellite disk scanner or the like These and other input devices are often connected to the processing unit 721 through a serial port interface 746 that is coupled to the system bus but may be connected by other interfaces such as a parallel port game port or universal serial bus USB A monitor 747 or other type of display device is also connected to the system bus 723 via an interface such as a video adapter 748 In addition to the monitor 747 computing devices typi cally include other peripheral output devices not shown such as speakers and printers The exemplary environment of FIG 11 also includes a host adapter 755 Small Computer System Interface SCSI bus 756 and an external storage device 762 connected to the SCSI bus 756 The computing device 760 may operate in a networked environment using logical connections to one or more remote computers such as a remote computer 749 The remote com puter 749 may be another computing device e g personal computer a server a router a network PC a peer device or other common network node and typically includes many or all of the elements described above relative to the computing device 760 although only a memory storage device 750 floppy drive has been illustrated in FIG 11 The logical connections depicted in FIG 11 include a local area network LAN 751 and a wide area network WAN 752 Such net working environments are2. 036 A 5 1996 Shapiro 395 183 14 6 381 604 B1 4 2002 Caughran et al 1 1 may be displayed on a display screen that is used to provide information for rectifying the violation 12 Claims 12 Drawing Sheets 205 associate a diagnostics tool with application code of a video game 910 activate the diagnostic tool when the video game is in operation 915 capture and display real time performance data associated with execution of the application code 920 generate a waming when a performance metric violates a pre set condition US 8 219 975 B2 Page 2 OTHER PUBLICATIONS Industry Training Simulation and Education Conference 2005 10 http gamma cs unc edu Verdesca M et al Using Graphics Processor Units to Accelerate pages http VOUS OneSAF A Case Study in Technology Transition Interservice cited by examiner U S Patent Jul 10 2012 Sheet 1 of 12 US 8 219 975 B2 100 Count Frame sequence System Monitor 102 91 80 70 59 48 37 110 Counter Frames per second Frames D3D Blocked Frames GPU Wasted Thread Idle Dr PIX Monitor 115 Wm Proriy Count Last Frame 2 2 FIGURE 1 U S Patent Jul 10 2012 Sheet 2 of 12 US 8 219 975 B2 100 Count Frame sequence System Monitor 102 91 80 70 59 48 37 26 16 5 120 __ Counter Scale Min Max T Frames per second 1 8 56 2594
3. Condition D3D DrawApiCalls gt 6000 Priority 3 Condition D3D DrawApiCalls gt 3000 Priority 1 Condition Compile Complete 0 errors Priority 2 Condition Compile Complete 0 errors Priority 3 Condition Compile Complete 0 errors FIGURE 4C U S Patent Jul 10 2012 Sheet 6 of 12 US 8 219 975 B2 Dr PIX Monitor 115 Warnings Wm ad mue ustame 7 Too many D3D locks yz 22 Too many debug prints ZZ 22Z62 433 Toolongatrame 2 6 28 Frame Range 245 to 442 FIGURE 5 Warning at ast rane C Tonan Das b romare 2 6 T me 99 Time Range 1 0s to 2 0s FIGURE 6 U S Patent Jul 10 2012 Sheet 7 of 12 US 8 219 975 B2 100 System Monitor 102 91 80 70 59 48 37 26 16 5 J Gounter sae mn mex Frames per second 1 8 56 2594 14 Frames GPU Wasted 1 0 00 24 04 Frames D3D Blocked 1 0 00 93 57 d Thread Idie 1 0 00 100 00 133 Tootongafame_ 2 6 26 FIGURE 7A U S Patent Jul 10 2012 Sheet 8 of 12 US 8 219 975 B2 720 725 Framas Warn BED Read r Ia BONN j lsec Hsec AaB aac Pier girer iB sec Sise Title Free Pages I Thread0 de Thread Idle 1 000 100 00 SSSSS Thread Idle i RThreada Idle Threads Idle d Warnings arn DID CPU frame wav too long 0 86130 17 299 309 907 901 3D CPU
4. Spent in Interrupt Callbacks D3DCallbackTime gt 0 5 ms 1 ms 2 ms There was too much cumulative time spent processing interrupt callbacks This is most likely because InsertCall back routines took too long or it might be due to other US 8 219 975 B2 7 interrupt or DPC activity in the system The GPU has to idle the entire time that interrupt callbacks are processed by the CPU D3DX Too Many Run Time Shader Compilations D3DXShaderCompilations gt 0 5 10 There were too many run time calls to D3DXCompileShader or its variants Shader compilation has very high CPU overhead and requires significant amounts of dynamically allocated memory It s preferable to precompile all shaders on the PC D3DX Too Many D3DX Resource Creation Calls D3DXCreationCalls gt 0 5 10 D3DX resource creation APIs such as D3DXCreateTextureFromFile have high CPU and disc over head It s preferable to convert resources on the PC to the 360 format using functions such as XGCopySurface pack mul tiple resources into a single file so that a file doesn t have to be opened and closed for every resource and then load efficiently onto the 360 using functions such as XGSetTex tureHeader D3D Too Many D3D Resource Creation Calls D3DCreationCalls gt 0 5 10 D3D resource creation APIs such as CreateTexture and CreateVertexBuffer have high CPU overhead because they have to allocate physical memory D3D The Primary Ring Buffer was Overrun D
5. commonplace in offices enter prise wide computer networks intranets and the Internet When used in a LAN networking environment the com puting device 760 is connected to the LAN 751 through a network interface or adapter 753 When used in a WAN net working environment the computing device 760 can include a modem 754 or other means for establishing communica tions overthe wide area network 752 such as the Internet The modem 754 which may be internal or external is connected to the system bus 723 via the serial port interface 746 In a networked environment program modules depicted relative to the computing device 760 or portions thereof may be stored in the remote memory storage device It will be appre ciated that the network connections shown are exemplary and other means of establishing a communications link between the computers may be used While it is envisioned that numerous embodiments of real time analysis of performance data of a video game are par ticularly well suited for computerized systems nothing in this document is intended to limit the invention to such embodiments On the contrary as used herein the term com puter system is intended to encompass any and all devices capable of storing and processing information and or capable of using the stored information to control the behavior or execution of the device itself regardless of whether such devices are electronic mechanical logical or virtual in natu
6. count value for each of the warnings of column 1 while the fourth column provides frame information of where the warning occurred in the sequence of frames displayed in graphical display 120 Diagnostics display window 115 as well as system moni tor 110 may include soft keys for carrying out various opera tions such as for example Pause Stop Print Store Ignore Hide Edit and Clear While the functionality of some of these soft keys is self evident it may be pertinent to point out certain features in some others The Save key not shown is used to save the warnings in a database or file the Ignore key not shown is used to selectively ignore certain warnings the Hide key not shown is used to hide diagnostics display window 115 the Edit key not shown to edit the warning conditions so as to make them visible or invisible and the Clear key soft key 117 is used to clear the contents of diagnostics display window 115 The Stop key soft key 116 will be described below in further detail Furthermore each of the cells in tabular display 125 and or diagnostics display window 115 may be configured in various ways For example a cell may be configured as a soft key which when activated leads to a further operation such as providing an additional display A cell may be further config ured to be editable whereby for example the text content may be modified or a numerical parameter set to a desired value FIG 2 shows an exemp
7. frame time too lona E 2078130 17 239 309 307 301 FIGURE 7B U S Patent Jul 10 2012 Sheet 9 of 12 US 8 219 975 B2 Too many D3D locks Description The game has too many D3D locks happening for this frame You should not do so many on this frame Condition D3DLocks gt 100 FIGURE 8 U S Patent Jul 10 2012 Sheet 10 of 12 US 8 219 975 B2 associate a diagnostics tool with application code of a video game activate the diagnostic tool when the video game is in operation capture and display real time performance data associated with execution of the application code generate a warning when a performance metric violates a pre set condition FIGURE 9 US 8 219 975 B2 Sheet 11 of 12 Jul 10 2012 U S Patent 88 98 v8 9 08 0L 3301914 s uono uuoo uoneoiunuJulo s eot eq 1ndu s eot eq indino 9 je OA YON uoniog Duisseoougd oDeJojS IB OA 9 qeAoul8 UON oDeJojS aj qeaowaey 89 US 8 219 975 B2 Sheet 12 of 12 Jul 10 2012 U S Patent 0S Auq Addoj4 puoneoiddy 6v 074 pieoq y 6 J9 INdWIOD louu s LGL NW EGZ 4 XJOM ON olA q Be1ols z97 VZ JOWUOW r orl AVHOd jeues LL 3330914 YZ SSNONN 0 4 e ug Ieondo vel dy e ug IgondO GGL Jajdepy SOH 6c4 96e10 s jqearow y 924 SAuq Addo _ a 4 1 e ug ysiq ojeuBeyy EEZ gr ley
8. input output portion 74 is capable of accepting a software media on which is stored at least a portion of the diagnostic tool and for displaying the various display screens described above The processing portion 70 is capable of implementing real time analysis of performance data of a video game as described above For example the processing portion 70 is capable of generating performance data and the display screens described above The processor 68 can be implemented as a client processor and or a server processor In a basic configuration the pro cessor 68 can include at least one processing portion 70 and memory portion 72 The memory portion 72 can store any information utilized in conjunction with real time analysis of performance data ofa video game Depending upon the exact configuration and type of processor the memory portion 72 can be volatile such as RAM 76 non volatile suchas ROM flash memory etc 78 or a combination thereof The proces sor 68 can have additional features functionality For example the processor 68 can include additional storage removable storage 80 and or non removable storage 82 including but not limited to magnetic or optical disks tape flash smart cards or a combination thereof Computer storage media suchas memory portion 72 76 78 80 and 82 include volatile and nonvolatile removable and non removable media implemented in any method or technology for storage of information such as com
9. unit configured to provide a diagnostics display window for displaying a description and data statistics of a performance metric viola tion associated with the real time performance data BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The foregoing summary as well as the following detailed description is better understood when read in conjunction with the appended drawings For the purpose of illustrating real time analysis of performance data of a video game there is shown in the drawings exemplary constructions thereof jai 5 25 35 40 45 55 60 2 however real time analysis of performance data of a video game is not limited to the specific methods and instrumen talities disclosed FIG 1 shows an exemplary display screen of a system for analyzing the performance of a video game the display screen including a diagnostics display window FIG 2 shows an exemplary view ofthe diagnostics display window of FIG 1 in one operational display mode FIG 3 shows a drop down menu on the diagnostics display window of FIG 2 with one of the menu items showing an activation status FIG 4A shows a warnings display window that is a result of the activation on the drop down menu of FIG 3 FIG 4B shows another example warning display window FIG 4C shows another example warning display window wherein a user can generate a tailored warning FIG 5 shows an activation status on a second menu item of the drop down menu of the dia
10. 14 Frames GPU Wasted 1 0 00 24 04 1 Frames D3D Blocked 1 0 00 93 57 7 E Thread Idle 4 0 001 100 00 Toney pane 1 8 x Tootngatame j 2 6 26 Frame Range to FIGURE 2 U S Patent Jul 10 2012 Sheet 3 of 12 US 8 219 975 B2 Dr PIX Monitor MM ACAI Warning Pri Save Last Frame Too many D3D locks 326 Too many debug prints 2 T zuu 433 Too long a frame 2 248 Frame Range to FIGURE 3 Too many D3D locks Too many debug prints Too long a frame Warning 435 sio FIGURE 4A U S Patent Jul 10 2012 Sheet 4 of 12 US 8 219 975 B2 3D bracket ran aut of memory D CPU frame time too long 3D CPLI frame way too long More than half of the secondary ting buffer wa 3D The GPU starved tor data The GPU starved while waiting for the CPL to The primary ting buffer became full The secondary ring buffer became full 2 Tiling was used without enabling D30 CREATE D Too many callback interrupts l Too many D3D physical allocations Tao mary draw FI calls Too many GPU kick offs Too many shader pe LT hh n OSD resource blc TENSTA high dan 60Hz it wil help to lock it ta 60Hz Priority D SRA RRR ERRARE EAR CRGA Priory 2 a ze Priority 3 New 445 450 460 465 FIGURE 4B U S Patent Jul 10 2012 Sheet 5 of 12 US 8 219 975 B2 D3D Too many draw API calls Priority 1 Condition D3D DrawApiCalls gt 10000 Priority 2
11. 3 by a hard disk drive interface 732 a magnetic disk drive interface 733 and an optical drive interface 734 respec tively The drives and their associated computer readable media provide non volatile storage of computer readable instructions data structures program modules and other data for the computing device 760 Although the exemplary envi ronment described herein employs a hard disk a removable magnetic disk 729 and a removable optical disk 731 it should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that other types of computer readable media which can store data that is accessible by a computer such as magnetic cassettes flash memory cards digital video disks Bernoulli cartridges ran dom access memories RAMs read only memories ROMs and the like may also be used in the exemplary operating environment Likewise the exemplary environment may also include many types of monitoring devices such as heat sen sors and security or fire alarm systems and other sources of information A number of program modules can be stored on the hard disk magnetic disk 729 optical disk 731 ROM 764 or RAM 725 including an operating system 735 one or more appli US 8 219 975 B2 13 cation programs 736 other program modules 737 and pro gram data 738 A user may enter commands and information into the computing device 760 through input devices such as a keyboard 740 and pointing device 762 e g mouse Other input devices not shown
12. 3DPrimaryRingBufferOverruns gt 0 0 0 D3D had to block because the primary ring buffer was overrun This wastes CPU time for the duration of the block This overrun can occur for reasons such as using Predicated Tiling with a large number of tiles or when many kick offs of the GPU are being done such as can be caused by fre quently calling InsertFence Because the primary ring buffer is small the simplest fix is to increase its size via D3DRING_ BUFFER PARAM ETERS D3D Too Many Secondary Ring Buffer Overruns D3DSecondaryRingBufferOverruns gt 1 2 3 D3D had to block because the secondary ring buffer was overrun This wastes CPU time for the duration of the block This overrun occurs when the GPU is running behind and there is not enough room in the secondary ring buffer to hold all of the pending GPU commands that have been enqueued by the CPU The most straightforward fix is to increase the size of the secondary ring buffer via D3DRING_BUFFER_PARAMETERS but eliminating the CPU block may not be worth the increase in memory used More difficult is to reduce the amount of commands sent to the GPU such as by eliminating redundantly set state or by consolidating multiple draw calls D3D Tiling was Used Without Enabling D3D CREATE_ BUFFER 2 FRAMES D3DTilingEnabled amp amp D3DBuffer2FramesEnabled Predicated Tiling was used without enabling D3DCREATE_BUFFER_2_FRAMES Predicated Tiling works best if the GPU can make mul
13. FIG 4C Instead suppose the user enters D3D Draw ApiCalls in the Priority 1 Condition window When testing the condition an error will be generated The generated error will be Priority 1 Condition error CS0029 Cannot implicitly convert type float to bool Error not shown in FIG 4C The conditions and errors are based on C C conditional logic FIG 5 shows a hatched format of the Time mode option in drop down menu 301 indicative of selection of this option When thus selected as depicted in FIG 6 the frame range changes to time range In an example embodiment the time range displayed in Time Range display segment 615 1 0 seconds to 2 0 seconds in this example provides a time win dow within which warnings can be observed Thus the ability is provided to show warnings that were generated within a selected range of time FIG 7A shows an exemplary view of display screen 105 to describe operation of a soft key process associated with each of the warning messages in diagnostics display window 115 In this particular example the hatched portion indicates that the Too many D3D locks warning has been activated using a first mode of activation by single clicking on the warning for example When thus activated one or more pointer icons are displayed pointing to certain frames on graphical display 120 In this exemplary illustration two pointer icons 710 and 715 are displayed The pointer icons are used to i
14. United States Patent US008219975B2 12 10 Patent No US 8 219 975 B2 Goossen et al 45 Date of Patent Jul 10 2012 54 REAL TIME ANALYSIS OF PERFORMANCE SR Di ae Andrews i ali secs pu ohnsetal dus DATS OFA VIDEOGAME 7 506 305 B2 3 2009 Cornelius et al s 717 113 7 533 371 B1 5 2009 Johnsetal e 717 130 75 Inventors Andrew Goossen Issaquah WA US 7 950 004 B2 5 2011 Vieira etal 2717425 Parham Mohadjer Redmond WA 2003 0046663 Al 3 2003 Rogersetal lt 717 25 i 2004 0034847 A1 2 2004 Joffrain etal ve 717 113 DI Lo SRO TORY Mk 2004 0107415 A1 6 2004 Melamed etal we 717 124 US John Howard Palevich Medina 2005 0071818 Al 3 2005 Reissman etal 717 127 WA US Juan Carlos Arevalo Baeza 2005 0081104 A1 4 2005 Nikolik ee 714 38 Bellevue WA US Jason Matthew 2006 0253739 AI 11 2006 Godefroid et al 714 38 UT 1 2006 0281535 Al 12 2006 Bogan a 463 23 di bil aire i em 2007 0038977 Al 2 2007 Savage 717 106 ee Redmond WA US Michae 2007 0040939 Al 2 2007 Anderson et al 348 500 Burrows Sammamish WA US Karen 2007 0082741 Al 4 2007 XU 463 43 Elaine Stevens Woodinville WA US David Aronson Austin TX US OTHER PUBLICATIONS JC Yan et al Analyzing parallel program performance using normal 73 Assignee Microsoft Corporation Redmond WA ized performance indices and trace transformat
15. abeled Too many D3D locks may be made invis US 8 219 975 B2 5 ible by selecting this warning for example by clicking on it followed by activation of soft key 420 Each of the display boxes 425 and 430 may incorporate additional features such as a scroll bar Warnings window 410 provides additional soft keys such as for example Cancel soft key 435 and OK soft key 440 FIG 4B illustrates other example appropriate invisible and visible warnings Also as depicted in FIG 4B warning con ditions are fully editable A user can create a warning based on any of the supplied counter values This allows for an advanced user to go outside of predefined settings and evalu ate tailored data combinations Warnings can be tested in a dialog prior to use allowing the user to ensure correct expected behavior As depicted in FIG 4B a user can gener ate a new warning via soft key 445 a user can edit an existing warning via soft key 450 a user can reset a warning via soft key 460 a user can delete a warning via soft key 465 or a combination thereof Warnings can be added and removed by moving them between the invisible and visible list A user can set conditions and test if the conditions are technically correct before saving the warnings If the conditions are not correct an error will be generated For example referring to FIG 4C suppose a user forgets to include the gt 10000 portion shown in the Priority 1 Condition window of
16. adable media as used herein includes both storage media and communica tion media The processor 68 also can have input device s 86 such as keyboard mouse pen voice input device touch input device etc Output device s 84 such as a display speakers printer etc also can be included FIG 11 and the following discussion provide a brief gen eral description of a suitable computing environment in which s real time analysis of performance data of a video game can be implemented Although not required various aspects of real time analysis of performance data of a video game can be described in the general context of computer executable instructions such as program modules being executed by a computer such as a client workstation or a server Generally program modules include routines pro US 8 219 975 B2 11 grams objects components data structures and the like that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types Moreover implementation of real time analysis of per formance data of a video game can be practiced with other computer system configurations including hand held devices multi processor systems microprocessor based or programmable consumer electronics network PCs mini computers mainframe computers and the like Further real time analysis of performance data of a video game also can be practiced in distributed computing environments where tasks are performed by remote processing devices t
17. aphical format encompassing a plurality of real time frames corresponding to the video game that is in operation displaying in a diagnostics display window a description of the performance metric violation data statistics related to the performance metric violation and a first soft key operable to stop further warnings from being displayed in the diagnostics display window displaying in the diagnostic display window a second soft key operable for displaying in the system monitor dis play window a pointer icon pointing to a frame wherein the performance metric violation was encountered and displaying a hypertext link that is hyper linked to a docu ment containing information pertaining to remedying a performance metric violation 2 The method of claim 1 further comprising displaying in at least one of the system monitor display window or the diagnostics display window a third soft key associated with the frame wherein the performance metric violation was encountered the third soft key being operable for displaying US 8 219 975 B2 15 a description window comprising a description of the warning and a recommendation for rectifying the performance metric violation 3 The method of claim 2 wherein the hypertext link is displayed in the description window 4 The method of claim 1 further comprising displaying in the diagnostics display window a priority level associated with the performance metric violation 5 The method
18. aphics display 120 while the fourth and fifth columns provide minimum and maximum values of the corresponding monitored parameters Additionally performance analyzer system 100 may include a data store not shown which is used for storing a running log of timing parameters related to the monitored gaming parameters Consequently when a developer notices an abnormal spike for example in a particular frame on graphical display 120 the stored data may be accessed for carrying out a timing analysis on the abnormal frame 0 a 5 20 40 45 50 55 60 65 4 Diagnostics display window 115 Dr PIX Monitor pro vides data statistics pertaining to the monitored gaming parameters and specifically provides data related to one or more monitored parameters that fall outside a pre determined threshold In the exemplary view shown in FIG 1 a first column of diagnostics display window 115 lists warnings related to the monitored parameters The first warning indi cates too many D3D locks while the second warning indi cates too many debug prints The second column of diag nostics display window 115 lists the priority level of each of the warnings of column 1 The priority levels may be pre determined by a manufacturer of performance analyzer sys tem 100 or may be selectably set by a game developer or other user of performance analyzer system 100 The third column of diagnostics display window 115 lists the
19. dentify the one or more frames where the warning was generated In another example embodiment as depicted in FIG 7B the actual time duration that a warning was active is shown in an event band at the top of the display This is depicted as track that has a solid bar as depicted by bars 720 and 725 for the period the warning was evaluated to be true In an example embodiment the color of the bar signifies the priority of the warning The Too many D3D locks warning may be also activated using a second mode of activation by double clicking on it for example This form of activation results in the display of a description window for the warning An exemplary descrip tion window 810 is shown in FIG 8 for the warning Too many D3D Locks Description window 810 includes a con dition section 830 where one or more conditions that led to the warning are displayed Description window 810 further includes a description section 825 in which a description of the warning as well as other particulars of the warning is 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 6 provided Certain portions of the entries in either the condi tion section 830 and or the description section 825 may be configured as soft keys For example a portion or entirety of the admonishment You should not do so many on this frame may include a soft key In one embodiment the soft key is provided in a Hypertext Markup Language HTML format whic
20. depy o p A 097 Je yndwoy Bord sesti fez sono pez V scr SO TL8NUC pIeH 3 1 9e ug 481d PIEH Z TZL pun Bulssed0ld viva NVHOOYd SZ WV 997 SOIA 795 NOM c9 RIOUSN Wasis US 8 219 975 B2 1 REAL TIME ANALYSIS OF PERFORMANCE DATA OF A VIDEO GAME TECHNICAL FIELD The technical field relates generally to gaming applications and specifically relates to real time analysis of performance data of a video game BACKGROUND Analyzing the performance of a video game is traditionally carried out by collecting data when the game is in operation halting the game and then analyzing the collected data offline As can be appreciated this procedure is often a hit or miss affair because the captured data may or may not contain information pertaining to an intermittently occurring problem or to a problem of a subtle nature Furthermore the offline analysis process generally involves a collective effort from a team of software develop ers each having an individual area of expertise For example in such a team a first developer may be an expert on system libraries a second on databases and a third on the correct sequence of coding events that need to occur for successful operation of a particular video game This type of team com position is necessary because traditional analysis and debug ging tools often generate cues such as esoteric and cryptic warning failure messages that only an expert can
21. e the hardware software interface system determines which applications should run in what order and how much time should be allowed for each application before switching to another application for a turn 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 12 The hardware software interface system also manages the sharing of internal memory among multiple applications and handles input and output to and from attached hardware devices such as hard disks printers and dial up ports The hardware software interface system also sends messages to each application and in certain case to the end user regard ing the status of operations and any errors that may have occurred The hardware software interface system can also offload the management of batch jobs e g printing so that the initiating application is freed from this work and can resume other processing and or operations On computers that can provide parallel processing a hardware software interface system also manages dividing a program so that it runs on more than one processor at a time A hardware software interface system shell referred to as a shell is an interactive end user interface to a hardware software interface system A shell may also be referred to as a command interpreter or in an operating system as an operating system shell A shell is the outer layer of a hardware software interface system that is directly accessible by application prog
22. e gt 0 5 ms 1 ms 2 ms Too much CPU time was consumed in blocking D3D resource locks Blocks waste CPU time because the CPU spins for the entire duration Blocks can be tracked down by doing a PIX Timing Cap ture or by using the SetBlockCallback method Blocks can be eliminated by methods such as double buffering or triple or n buffering dynamic resources using methods such as Beg inVertices or other mechanisms D3D The System Consumed too Much GPU D3DIsGuideVisible amp amp D3DSystemGpuTime gt 0 333 ms ID3DIsGuideVisible amp amp D3DSystemGpuTime gt 1 ms The system consumed more GPU time than its reserved amount Please contact the manufacturer so that the manu facturer can reproduce the problem and fix it D3D The GPU Starved for Data D3DPresentInterval 0 amp amp D3DIdlesAtKickoff gt 0 0 0j The GPU went idle during rendering because it starved for command buffer data from the CPU Ideally the GPU is never idle and is always either rendering or waiting for the vertical blank Use the PIX Record Timing ability to determine why the GPU is starving Note that you may want to capture 2 frames at once because the idle may occur while transitioning from one frame to the next D3D The GPU Starved While Waiting for the CPU to End a Bracket D3DIdlesAtEndBracket gt 0 0 0 The GPU went idle while waiting for the CPU to call an End API None of the GPU command data in a tiling Z pass or XPS bracket is s
23. ertext link that is hyper linked to a docu ment containing information pertaining to remedying the performance metric violation 8 The computer readable storage medium of claim 7 hav ing further stored thereon computer readable instructions for performing the steps of displaying a second soft key in at least one of the system monitor display window or the diagnostics display win 10 20 25 30 40 16 dow the second soft key being associated with the frame wherein the performance metric violation was encoun tered the second soft key being operable for displaying a description window comprising a recommendation for rectifying the performance metric violation 9 The computer readable storage medium of claim 8 wherein the hypertext link is displayed in the description window 10 A system comprising a processor configured to capture real time performance data when a video game is in operation and detect a violation of a performance metric and a display unit configured to display the real time performance data in a graphical format encompassing a plurality of real time frames corresponding to the video game that is in operation display a warning when a performance metric violates the pre set condition wherein the warning is dis played in a diagnostics window the warning compris ing a description of the performance metric violation and data statistics related to the performance metric violation displa
24. gnostics display window FIG 6 shows a view of the warnings display window with atime range indicator display in response to activation of the menu item as shown in FIG 5 FIG 7A shows a selection status carried out upon one of the items in the diagnostics display window FIG 7B shows another example of a selection status car ried out upon one of the items in the diagnostics display window FIG 8 shows a description window containing information pertaining to the item that was selected as shown in FIG 7 FIG 9 shows a flow chart of an exemplary method for analyzing the performance of a video game FIG 10 is a diagram of an exemplary processor for imple menting real time analysis of performance data of a video game FIG 11 is a depiction ofa suitable computing environment in which real time analysis of performance data of a video game can be implemented DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF ILLUSTRATIVE EMBODIMENTS The following description provides details pertaining to analyzing the performance of a video game by capturing real time performance data and generating during this data capture a real time warning when a monitored parameter falls outside a pre determined threshold Consequently per formance issues that may be of an intermittent nature or not detectable in a non real time analysis process are uncovered Furthermore upon obtaining a warning a developer can obtain further particulars of the warning and a recommenda tion f
25. h can be activated to jump to a solution source Such a solution source may be a private document such as a user s manual or a public document such as a web page that is accessed via the Internet for example Furthermore in one exemplary embodiment clicking on a soft key located in any portion of description window 810 for example in description section 825 provides access to source code wherein the problem can be rectified The source code is a part of the gaming application code of the video game In an example embodiment description window 810 fur ther contains a number of dedicated soft keys such as for example the soft keys Close 820 Graph 815 Hide 835 and Edit 840 Clicking on Close 820 closes description window 810 Clicking on Hide 835 removes the warning from a warn ing window such as warnings window 410 described above Clicking on Graph 815 causes a warning graphical display not shown ofthe warning to appear Clicking on the Edit 840 allows the user to edit the warning condition See FIG 4C This warning graphical display may utilize a format similarto that of graphical display 120 described above Each of the soft keys may be also configured to change functionality when activated For example upon clicking on the Graph 815 key the soft key transforms to an Ungraph key which permits the warning graphical display to be closed A non exhaustive list of exemplary warnings together with some information pertain
26. hat are linked through a communications network In a distributed comput ing environment program modules can be located in both local and remote memory storage devices A computer system can be roughly divided into three com ponent groups the hardware component the hardware soft ware interface system component and the applications pro grams component also referred to as the user component or software component In various embodiments of a com puter system the hardware component may comprise the cen tral processing unit CPU 721 the memory both ROM 764 and RAM 725 the basic input output system BIOS 766 and various input output I O devices such as a keyboard 740 a mouse 742 a monitor 747 and or a printer not shown among other things The hardware component com prises the basic physical infrastructure for the computer sys tem The applications programs component comprises various software programs including but not limited to compilers database systems word processors business programs videogames and so forth Application programs provide the means by which computer resources are utilized to solve problems provide solutions and process data for various users machines other computer systems and or end users In an example embodiment application programs perform the functions associated with real time analysis of perfor mance data of a video game as described above The hardware software interface s
27. he CPU gt gt D3D Not using D3DRS_ PRESENTIMMEDIATETH RESHOLD D3D PresentImmediate Threshold 0 amp amp D3D Pre sentInterval 1 amp amp D3DGpuFrameTime gt 0 016667 ms D3DPresentInterval 2 amp amp D3DGpuFrameTime gt 0 033333 ms The GPU missed its target render time but D3DRS_PRESENTIMMEDIATETHRESHOLD isn t being used Use this render state to allow frames to be presented immediately when the frame took longer to complete than the target frame rate This will increase tearing but that s much better than stuttering We recommend setting D3DRS_PRESENTIMMEDIATETHRESHOLD to 100 D3D Too Many GPU Kick Offs D3DKickOffs gt 100 200 500 There were too many kick offs of command data to the GPU This wastes CPU and GPU overhead Note that the GPU overhead is not reproduced while analyzing a PIX GPU capture Too many kick offs might happen because of reasons such as InsertFence being called too often or because the SegmentCount specified via D3DRING_BUFFER_PARAMETERS is too high relative to the secondary ring buffer size FIG 9 shows a flow chart of a method for analyzing the performance of a video game In block 905 a diagnostic tool not shown of performance analyzer system 100 is associ ated with application code of the video game As one among several ways of doing so an executable code of the diagnostic tool is loaded and installed on a computer that houses and runs the application code of the video ga
28. ing to each of these warnings and some recommended solutions is provided below Several warnings listed below use a certain format for setting warn ing thresholds and priorities This exemplary format will be described using the warning labeled D3DShaderPatches gt 2 10 50 The numbers located within provide priority threshold warning values In this particular example the numbers located within indicate a priority level 1 warning setting when D3DShaderPatches gt 50 a priority level 2 warn ing setting when D3DShaderPatches gt 10 and a priority level 3 warning setting when D3DShaderPatches gt 2 It may also be pertinent to point out that these priority levels are shown inthe second column of diagnostics display window 115 as described above D3D Too Many Shader Patches D3DShaderPatches gt 2 10 50 There were too many vertex shader patches A vertex shader patch happens when a vertex shader is used with a different vertex declaration or SetStreamSource stride than it was previously used with or when it s used with a pixel shader whose inputs don t match the vertex shader s outputs Patches cause D3D to incur significant CPU overhead and waste GPU command space D3D Too Many GPU Interrupts D3DInterrupts gt 40 100 200 There were too many GPU interrupts GPU interrupts are generated by calls to InsertCallback or EndTiling EndZPass or XpsEnd Interrupts incur significant CPU and GPU over head D3D Too Much Time
29. ion techniques Par US allel Computing 1996 Elsevier pp 1215 1237 JK Hollingsworth et al Dynamic program instrumentation for scal Notice Subject to any disclaimer the term of this able performance tools 1994 ieeexplore ieee org pp 1 10 patent is extended or adjusted under 35 Bowdidge R W Refactoring gcc Using Structure Field Access Traces and Concept Analysis Workshop on Dynamic Analysis USC by LIST days 2005 1 7 http delivery acm org Nimmer J W et al Automatic Generation of Program Specifica 21 Appl No 11 925 226 tions ACM 2002 229 239 22 Filed Oct 26 2007 Continued 65 Prior Publication Data Primary Examiner Wei Zhen US 2009 0113251 Al Apr 30 2009 Assistant Examiner Satish Rampuria 74 Attorney Agent or Firm Woodcock Washburn LLP 51 Int Cl G06F 9 44 2006 01 57 ABSTRACT 52 U S CI 717 122 717 127 717 131 714 46 A method for analyzing the performance ofa video game uses 58 Field of Classification Search 717 124 135 a diagnostic tool that is associated with application code of 345 506 639 the video game The diagnostic tool is activated when the See application file for complete search history video game is in operation and real time performance data is captured and displayed A warning is generated when a per 56 References Cited formance metric violates a pre set condition The warnin p g U S PATENT DOCUMENTS 5 522
30. lary view of diagnostics display window 115 when a soft key of diagnostics display window 115 has been activated In this particular example soft key 116 which was labeled Stop in FIG 1 was activated thereby causing the soft key to be re labeled as Start Upon activation of the Stop function the contents of diagnostics display window 115 are frozen so that a developer can exam ine and analyze the displayed values After having done so the developer can now activate the Start key to resume display activities in diagnostics display window 115 FIG 3 shows an exemplary embodiment where a drop down menu 301 is provided in conjunction with diagnostics display window 115 As can be understood the functionality of drop down menu 301 may be implemented in other alter native ways such as for example by using selection icons or soft keys In this example drop down menu 301 contains three options Warnings Save and Time Mode The hatched format of the Warnings option is intended to indicate that this option has been selected When thus selected the Warnings window 410 of FIG 4A is displayed Warnings window 410 provides a list of Visible warnings in display box 425 and a list of Invisible warnings in display box 430 Action soft keys 415 and 420 permit transfer of warnings between display box 425 and display box 430 thereby permitting selection of the visibility status of individual warnings For example the warning l
31. me The loading may be carried out in a manner similar to that done for installing any commercial software say one that is provided ina CD ROM for example In block 910 the video game is set in operation The diagnostic tool is activated either before or during game operation In block 915 real time performance data associ ated with the execution of the application code is captured and displayed using display screen 105 described above It can be appreciated that the data capture aspect shown in block 915 typically would not interfere with normal operation of the video game In block 920 one or more warnings are gener ated when a performance metric violates a pre set condition The warnings and performance metrics associated with inter preting and using display screen 105 have been described above FIG 10 is a diagram of an exemplary processor 68 for implementing real time analysis of performance data of a video game The processor 68 comprises a processing portion 70 amemory portion 72 and an input output portion 74 The processing portion 70 memory portion 72 and input output portion 74 are coupled together coupling not shown in FIG 10 to allow communications therebetween The input output portion 74 is capable of providing and or receiving compo nents utilized to perform real time analysis of performance 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 10 data of a video game as described above For example the
32. nt formats For example in one implementation dis play screen 105 uses a windows format in accordance with Microsoft Windows amp However in other implementations other types of displays and display formats may be used The exemplary display screen 105 of FIG 1 shows a system monitor display window 110 and a diagnostics display win dow 115 labeled as Dr PIX Monitor System monitor display window 110 hereinafter referred to as system monitor 110 provides a graphical display 120 of gaming performance in terms of data statistics captured over a sequence of video gaming frames In one example the data statistics is a count value pertaining to the number of occur rences ofa monitored gaming parameter such as for example D3D locks Consequently the number of D3D locks occur ring on a real time frame by frame basis can be seen in sys tem monitor 110 It will be understood that various gaming parameters can be selected for monitoring together with selectable priority levels and other performance metrics A few non exhaustive examples of gaming parameters include redundant states number of thread switches in a kernel sleep time ratio of bytes read to number of requests Below the graphics display 120 of monitor display window 110 is a tabular display 125 that provides numerical infor mation pertaining to the various graphs displayed in graphical display 120 The first column of tabular display 125 identifies a particular graph In
33. of claim 4 further comprising displaying in the diagnostics display window a user interface for defining the preset condition for the performance metric 6 The method of claim 1 further comprising displaying in the diagnostics display window the data statistics in one of a a relative frame format or b a relative time of occurrence format 7 A computer readable storage medium that is not a tran sient signal the computer readable storage medium having stored thereon computer readable instructions for performing the steps of capturing real time performance data when a video game is in operation displaying the real time performance data in a graphical format encompassing a plurality of real time frames corresponding to the video game that is in operation displaying a warning when a performance metric violates a pre set condition wherein the warning is displayed in a diagnostics display window the warning comprising a description ofthe performance metric violation and data statistics related to the performance metric violation displaying a system monitor display window configured to display the real time performance data displaying a first soft key in at least one of the system monitor display window or the diagnostics display win dow the first soft key being operable for displaying in the system monitor display window an indication of a frame wherein the performance metric violation was encountered and displaying a hyp
34. or carrying out remedial action In one exemplary embodiment the warning is provided in the form ofa diagnostics display window containing warning labels Each of the warning labels is configured as a soft key that may be activated to display a pointer icon that points to a particular frame in a sequence of frames that is displayed in a graphical format in a system monitor window When the warning label is further activated by double clicking on it for example a description window appears The description win dow provides details of the warning and also provides a recommended course of action for rectifying the problem FIG 1 shows an exemplary display screen 105 that is a part of a performance analyzer system 100 for analyzing the per formance of a video game Performance analyzer system 100 has been branded as Dr PIX by Microsoft and it will be understood that any use of the term Dr PIX herein in this document is being merely being done for purposes of con venience Other trade names may be alternatively applied to a US 8 219 975 B2 3 performance analyzer system that incorporates the features described herein in this document Similarly reference is made herein to D3D which refers to a Microsoft develop ment tool named Direct3D This tool is generally known to persons of skill in this art and will therefore not be elabo rated upon in much detail Display screen 105 may be implemented in a variety of differe
35. puter readable instructions data structures program modules or other data Computer storage media include but are not limited to RAM ROM EEPROM flash memory or other memory technology CD ROM digital versatile disks DVD or other optical storage magnetic cas settes magnetic tape magnetic disk storage or other mag netic storage devices universal serial bus USB compatible memory smart cards or any other medium which can be used to store the desired information and which can be accessed by the processor 68 Any such computer storage media can be part of the processor 68 The processor 68 can also contain communications con nection s 88 that allow the processor 68 to communicate with other devices such as other devices for example Com munications connection s 88 is an example of communica tion media Communication media typically embody com puter readable instructions data structures program modules or other data in a modulated data signal such as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism and includes any information delivery media The term modulated data signal means a signal that has one or more of its characteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encode information in the signal By way of example and not limitation communication media includes wired media such as a wired network or direct wired connection and wireless media such as acoustic RF infrared and other wireless media The term computer re
36. rams and or end users In contrast to a shell a kernel is a hardware software interface system s innermost layer that interacts directly with the hardware com ponents As shown in FIG 11 an exemplary general purpose com puting system includes a conventional computing device 760 or the like including a processing unit 721 a system memory 762 and a system bus 723 that couples various system com ponents including the system memory to the processing unit 721 The system bus 723 may be any of several types of bus structures including a memory bus or memory controller a peripheral bus and a local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures The system memory includes read only memory ROM 764 and random access memory RAM 725 A basic input output system 766 BIOS containing basic routines that help to transfer information between ele ments within the computing device 760 such as during start up is stored in ROM 764 The computing device 760 may further include a hard disk drive 727 for reading from and writing to a hard disk hard disk not shown a magnetic disk drive 728 e g floppy drive for reading from or writing to a removable magnetic disk 729 e g floppy disk removal stor age and an optical disk drive 730 for reading from or writing to a removable optical disk 731 such as a CD ROM or other optical media The hard disk drive 727 magnetic disk drive 728 and optical disk drive 730 are connected to the system bus 72
37. re The various techniques described herein can be imple mented in connection with hardware or software or where appropriate with a combination of both Thus the methods and apparatuses for real time analysis of performance data of a video game or certain aspects or portions thereof can take the form of program code i e instructions embodied in tangible media such as floppy diskettes CD ROMs hard drives or any other machine readable storage medium wherein when the program code is loaded into and executed 20 40 45 50 60 65 14 by a machine such as a computer the machine becomes an apparatus for implementing real time analysis of perfor mance data of a video game The program s can be implemented in assembly or machine language if desired In any case the language can be a compiled or interpreted language and combined with hard ware implementations The methods and apparatuses for implementing real time analysis of performance data of a video game also can be practiced via communications embodied in the form of program code that is transmitted over some transmission medium such as over electrical wiring or cabling through fiber optics or via any other form of trans mission wherein when the program code is received and loaded into and executed by a machine such as an EPROM a gate array a programmable logic device PLD a client computer or the like When implemented on a general pur pose proces
38. sor the program code combines with the proces sor to provide a unique apparatus that operates to invoke the functionality of real time analysis of performance data of a video game Additionally any storage techniques used in connection with real time analysis of performance data of a video game can invariably be a combination of hardware and software While real time analysis of performance data of a video game has been described in connection with the example embodiments of the various figures it is to be understood that other similar embodiments can be used or modifications and additions can be made to the described embodiments for performing the same functions of real time analysis of per formance data of a video game without deviating therefrom Therefore real time analysis of performance data of a video game as described herein should not be limited to any single embodiment but rather should be construed in breadth and scope in accordance with the appended claims What is claimed 1 A method comprising associating a diagnostic tool with at least a portion of gaming application code of a video game activating the diagnostic tool when the video game is in operation capturing and displaying real time performance data asso ciated with execution of the gaming application code generating a warning when a performance metric violates a pre set condition displaying in a system window the real time performance data in a first gr
39. the illustration of FIG 1 the graphs have been identified by various types of lines such as solid dashed and dotted lines However this format has been uti lized merely for ease of description Ina practical set up each ofthe graphs may be identified by a unique color and each of the colors is identified in the first column of tabular display 125 For example graph 121 which is identified in FIG 1 using a solid line may be identified by a red color and cell 126ofthe first column oftabular display 125 would be shaded red correspondingly Other identification means may be simi larly used for identifying the individual graphs The second column of tabular display 125 provides list of performance metrics associated with various monitored parameters In this exemplary embodiment the entries in the second column correspond to various counters that are used to obtain count values of certain performance metrics that are used to analyze the performance of the video game The counters may be provided to correspond to a set of pre determined performance metrics that are selected by a manu facturer of performance analyzer system 100 Alternatively performance analyzer system 100 may be configured to per mit a developer or other individual to define one or more counters for various performance metrics that are of particu lar interest to the developer The third column of tabular display 125 lists the scaling factors for each of the graphs of gr
40. tiple passes over the command data to render one frame while the CPU is con structing the command data for the next frame Enable that scenario by specifying D3DCREATE_BUFFER_ 2_FRAMES at CreateDevice time D3D More than Half of the Secondary Ring Buffer was Consumed D3DTilingEnabled amp amp D3DBuffer2FramesEnabled amp amp D3DSecondaryRingBufferUsed gt D3 DSecondaryRingBuffer Size 2 More than half of the secondary ring buffer was consumed by a single frame while using D3DCREATE BUFFER _ 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 8 2_FRAMES Predicated Tiling works best if the GPU can make multiple passes over the command data to render one frame while the CPU is constructing the command data for the next frame and doing so requires enough secondary ring buffer room to hold 2 complete frames of command data Ifa single frame consumes more than half of the entire secondary ring buffer but less than the entire secondary ring buffer the frame will still be rendered fine but significant CPU and GPU stalls may result The most straightforward fix is to increase the size of the secondary ring buffer via D3DRING_BUFFER_PARAMETERS but eliminating the stalls may not be worth the increase in memory used Much more is to reduce the amount of commands sent to the GPU such as by eliminating redundantly set state or by consoli dating multiple draw calls D3D Too Much Time Consumed in D3D Resource Blocks D3DLockTim
41. ubmitted to the GPU until EndTiling EndZPass or XpsEnd is called D3D Too Many Draw Calls D3DDrawCalls gt 3000 6000 10000 There were many more draw calls than are done by most games in a frame Too many draw calls result in excessive CPU usage while rendering Consider cutting down on the number of calls such as by potentially doing better frustum culling or visibility determination or consolidating draw calls or using command buffers D3D CPU Frame Time Too Long D3DCpuFrameTime gt 50 ms 75 ms 100 ms The CPU took too long for a frame defined as the time between CPU calls to Swap Present Use PIX to Record Timing for a frame to determine why D3D CPU Frame Way Too Long D3DGpuFrameTime gt 200 ms The CPU took way too long for a frame defined as the time between CPU calls to Swap Present Cert requirements specify that Swap Present must always be called within 67 US 8 219 975 B2 9 ms If this is during level load when it is difficult to call Swap Present at the required rate consider using the Suspend and Resume methods to have D3D automatically swap for you during the load D3D GPU Frame Time Too Long D3DIdlesAtKickoff 0 amp amp D3DGpuFrameTime gt 50 ms 75 ms 100 ms The GPU took too long to render a frame defined as the time between processing Swaps Presents Use PIX to Record GPU for a frame to determine why lt lt Use D3DIdlesAtKickoff 0 so that it rules out GPU stalls caused by t
42. under stand Consequently this environment does not readily accommodate debugging efforts being carried out by a one person team when this person has a generalized knowledge of gaming and or software or even when this person is an expert in just one particular area of gaming and or software SUMMARY This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of con cepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description of Illustrative Embodiments This Summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter In one exemplary method for analyzing the performance of a video game a diagnostic tool is associated with at least some portion ofan application code that is used to execute the video game The diagnostic tool is activated when the video game is in operation and real time performance data is cap tured and displayed A warning is generated when a perfor mance metric violates a pre set condition The warning may be displayed on a display screen that is used to provide infor mation for rectifying the violation Furthermore an exemplary system for analyzing the per formance of a video game includes a computer readable stor age medium on which is stored a diagnostic tool for capturing real time performance data when the video game is in opera tion The system further includes a display
43. y a system monitor window configured to display the real time performance data display a first soft key in at least one of the system monitor window or the diagnostics window the first soft key being operable for displaying in the system monitor window an indication of a frame wherein the performance metric violation was encountered and display a hypertext link that is hyper linked to a docu ment containing information pertaining to remedying the performance metric violation 11 The system of claim 10 wherein the display unit is further configured to display a second soft key in at least one of the system monitor window or the diagnostics window the second soft key being associated with the frame wherein the performance metric violation was encountered the sec ond soft key being operable for displaying a description window comprising a recommendation for rectifying the performance metric violation 12 The system of claim 11 wherein the hypertext link is displayed in the description window
44. ystem component com prises and in some embodiments may solely consist of an operating system that itself comprises in most cases a shell and a kernel An operating system OS is a special program that acts as an intermediary between application programs and computer hardware The hardware software interface system component may also comprise a virtual machine man ager VMM a Common Language Runtime CLR or its functional equivalent a Java Virtual Machine JVM or its functional equivalent or other such software components in the place of or in addition to the operating system in a com puter system A purpose of a hardware software interface system is to provide an environment in which a user can execute application programs The hardware software interface system is generally loaded into a computer system at startup and thereafter man ages all of the application programs in the computer system The application programs interact with the hardware soft ware interface system by requesting services via an applica tion program interface API Some application programs enable end users to interact with the hardware software inter face system via a user interface such as a command language or a graphical user interface GUI A hardware software interface system traditionally per forms a variety of services for applications In a multitasking hardware software interface system where multiple programs may be running at the same tim
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