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Performance & Optimisation techniques

Programming for Games Devices. Performance & Optimisation techniques. 2010/11 Year Plan. Course Structure. Android Part I Introduction Building basic Android applications An open source framework for 2D games Game Project walkthrough Android Part II Optimisation techniques

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Performance & Optimisation techniques

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  1. Programming for Games Devices • Performance & Optimisation techniques CW208-3/4-2010/11, Chp 2: Lec 3

  2. 2010/11 Year Plan CW208-3/4-2010/11, Chp 2: Lec 3

  3. Course Structure • Android Part I • Introduction • Building basic Android applications • An open source framework for 2D games • Game Project walkthrough • Android Part II • Optimisation techniques • 3D Graphics with OpenGL ES CW208-3/4-2010/11, Chp 2: Lec 3

  4. Agenda • Introduction • Measuring performance • Traceview • Caliper • Optimising • High-level • Low-level CW208-3/4-2010/11, Chp 2: Lec 3

  5. Measuring Performance • Traceview • A graphical tool that depicts execution activity by an Android application • Useful for debugging and profiling • Profiling helps identify where the bottlenecks are in an application • Traceview is part of the Android SDK and is located in the folder: android-sdk-windows\tools CW208-3/4-2010/11, Chp 2: Lec 3

  6. Measuring Performance • Traceview generates a log file containing the trace information to be analysed • The android.os.Debug class must be included in the application • The Debug.startMethodTracing() and Debug.stopMethodTracing() methods are used to start/stop the logging of trace information to disk. CW208-3/4-2010/11, Chp 2: Lec 3

  7. Measuring Performance • Usually startMethodTracing() is done inside an Activity’s onCreate() method and stopMethodTracing() is done in that activity’s onDestroy() method • For Andengine apps, use the onLoadComplete() method to start tracing and onUnloadResources() to stop tracing: CW208-3/4-2010/11, Chp 2: Lec 3

  8. Measuring Performance @Override public void onLoadComplete() { Debug.startMethodTracing("calc"); } @Override public void onUnloadResources() { Debug.stopMethodTracing(); } This is the name of the trace file that is created (i.e calc.trace) When using the Android emulator, the trace file is written to an SD card image – this must be setup beforehand (more on this shortly) CW208-3/4-2010/11, Chp 2: Lec 3

  9. Measuring Performance • However, a more convenient option is to simply derive your andengine app from the BaseExample class (see the SpriteExample in the andengine examples) • This allows us to toggle tracing on and off through the emulator ‘Menu’ button • For example: CW208-3/4-2010/11, Chp 2: Lec 3

  10. Measuring Performance Pressing the ‘Menu’ button reveals this command button to start Method Tracing. Press ‘Menu’ again to reveal the ‘Stop Method Tracing’ button. CW208-3/4-2010/11, Chp 2: Lec 3

  11. Measuring Performance • BEFORE initiating a trace in your application you MUST do the following: • 1. Create an SD card image • For example, to create an image named “imgcd”, issue the following command from your android-sdk-windows\tools folder: > mksdcard 1024M ./imgcd This creates a 1GB file in the android-sdk-windows\tools folder called imgcd. This file will be mounted on the emulator file system and mapped to the sdcard folder (on the emulator) CW208-3/4-2010/11, Chp 2: Lec 3

  12. Measuring Performance • 2. Mount the SD card image • To mount or bind the SD card image to the emulator, we can do so via Eclipse before launching the Activity • 2.1 Choose Run->Run Configurations... • 2.2 Choose the ‘Target’ tab • 2.3 In the ‘Additional Emulator Command Line Options’ box (bottom of window), enter: -sdcard \the-path-to-sd-card-file\my-sdcard-file (see screenshot on next slide) CW208-3/4-2010/11, Chp 2: Lec 3

  13. Measuring Performance In this example, to path to my SD card image file is C:\Users\imgcd CW208-3/4-2010/11, Chp 2: Lec 3

  14. Measuring Performance • Finally, open AndroidManifest.xml and add the following line: <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" /> • (see AndroidManifest.xml in the andengine examples) • Otherwise the activity will not be able to write to the SD card! CW208-3/4-2010/11, Chp 2: Lec 3

  15. Measuring Performance • Troubleshooting • If the Activity will not launch, first remove the –sdcard parameter we added to the Run Configuration in the previous slides. • We will manually mount the SD card from the command line • Add the android-sdk-windows\tools folder to your PATH environment variable (for convenience) CW208-3/4-2010/11, Chp 2: Lec 3

  16. Measuring Performance • Manually mounting the SD card... • Open a command prompt and issue the following command from the location of your SD card image: emulator –avd AVDName –sdcard ./imgcd • Where AVDName is the name you have assigned your emulator (in Eclipse, open Window->Android SDK and AVD Manager to view the name CW208-3/4-2010/11, Chp 2: Lec 3

  17. Measuring Performance • Now you can launch the application as usual. • Afterwards you can view the tracefile on the emulator (do not close the emulator) • From the android-sdk-windows\platform-tools folder give the following command: adb shell CW208-3/4-2010/11, Chp 2: Lec 3

  18. Measuring Performance • This opens a shell prompt. Give the Linux command to see a directory listing: #ls • Note the sdcard folder #ls sdcard • Will show its contents – note carefully the name of the trace file • Now type CTRL+D to exit the shell CW208-3/4-2010/11, Chp 2: Lec 3

  19. Measuring Performance • We need to retrieve the trace file from the emulator and copy it to the local file system • In the android-sdk-windows\platform-tools folder, make a subfolder called tracefile (i.e. android-sdk-windows\platform-tools\tracefile) Depending on your Android SDK version, this folder might not exist. In this case, use the android-sdk-windows\tools folder instead CW208-3/4-2010/11, Chp 2: Lec 3

  20. Measuring Performance • From the android-sdk-windows\platform-tools folder give the following command: adb pull /sdcard/calc.trace .\tracefile This copies the file calc.trace from the emulator and places it in the android-sdk-windows\platform-tools\tracefile folder CW208-3/4-2010/11, Chp 2: Lec 3

  21. Measuring Performance • The final step is to view trace files using the Traceview tool • Traceview is a traditional Java app and is launched using the JDK • First make sure the JDK is in your system path, e.g. Open a command prompt and type java -version CW208-3/4-2010/11, Chp 2: Lec 3

  22. Measuring Performance • If Windows complains that java is an unrecognized command you must add it to the PATH environment variable • For example, the JDK folder might be located at: C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jdk1.6.0_23\bin; • This directory must be added to the PATH CW208-3/4-2010/11, Chp 2: Lec 3

  23. Measuring Performance • To run traceview and view the trace files, go to android-sdk-windows\tools folder and enter traceview <full-path-to-trace-file> • E.g. traceview ../platformtools/tracefile/calc CW208-3/4-2010/11, Chp 2: Lec 3

  24. Measuring Performance • Traceview has two panels – a Timeline panel and a Profile panel • We will focus on the Profile panel • To learn more about traceview, visit: http://developer.android.com/guide/developing/tools/traceview.html#timelinepanel CW208-3/4-2010/11, Chp 2: Lec 3

  25. Measuring Performance • The profile pane shows a summary of all the time spent in a method. • The table inclusive and exclusive times (as well as the percentage of the total time). • Exclusive time is the time spent in the method. • Inclusive time is the time spent in the method plus the time spent in any called functions. CW208-3/4-2010/11, Chp 2: Lec 3

  26. Measuring Performance • Next we consider a traceview capture from the SpaceInvaders project • Note that traceview shows the most time consuming methods first • The first two lines only are shown next: CW208-3/4-2010/11, Chp 2: Lec 3

  27. Measuring Performance The top-level routine consumes 100% of the time including all called methods, but only uses 0.2% of total time itself (excluding called methods onTickUpdate() consumes 63.6% of the available time including all called methods CW208-3/4-2010/11, Chp 2: Lec 3

  28. Measuring Performance • We can expand each method to see what other methods it calls and what % time they are consuming • In the case of the Andengine we will see engine methods listed initially – we must drill down into these to make sense of what is going on • Lets “follow the money trail” and see what methods onTickUpdate() calls: CW208-3/4-2010/11, Chp 2: Lec 3

  29. Measuring Performance Expanding onUpdate() gives us... Expanding updateUpdateHandlers() gives us... CW208-3/4-2010/11, Chp 2: Lec 3

  30. Measuring Performance Finally, expanding UpdateHandlerList.onUpdate() tells us that CollisionHandler.onUpdate() is consuming a lot of cycles! CW208-3/4-2010/11, Chp 2: Lec 3

  31. Measuring Performance • Returning to Eclipse, a bit of detective work is now required. • Open the CollisionManager class in AndroidInvadersActivity class • Note the method: @Override public boolean onCollision(IShape pCheckShape, IShape pTargetShape) { CW208-3/4-2010/11, Chp 2: Lec 3

  32. Measuring Performance • Right click on this method and choose ‘Open Call Hierarchy’. This tells us... ...that CollisionHandler.onUpdate() is the engine method that invokes our callback method onCollision(). CW208-3/4-2010/11, Chp 2: Lec 3

  33. Measuring Performance • Traceview Conclusion • If we needed to optimise Space Invaders, we would start here. • One possible solution is to not use this callback at all and use an alternative, cheaper method for collision checking between the enemies and the player ship • Some interesting real world stories about Traceview here (http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2010/10/traceview-war-story.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+blogspot/hsDu+%28Android+Developers+Blog%29) CW208-3/4-2010/11, Chp 2: Lec 3

  34. Measuring Performance • Traceview tech note • Traceview currently disables the JIT (the Just in-time Compiler), which may cause it to misattribute time to code that the JIT may be able to win back. • After profiling and optimising make sure the resulting code actually runs faster when run without Traceview. CW208-3/4-2010/11, Chp 2: Lec 3

  35. Microbenchmarking • Microbenchmarking looks at small snippets of code and returns timing results • Microbenchmarking is not the same thing as profiling • Profiling looks at the entire application • Microbenchmarking returns timing results that may not be reliable • There are many reasons...here are three: CW208-3/4-2010/11, Chp 2: Lec 3

  36. Microbenchmarking • 1. The results you see are valid only for the particular hardware, OS and JRE it was run on; one small change to any of these, and things can be drastically different • 2. Your code might not suffer nearly as many cache misses when it's running inside a microbenchmark as it does in real life • 3. Differing circumstances can affect the many layers of abstraction that lie below even the machine code, in unpredictable and uncontrollable ways CW208-3/4-2010/11, Chp 2: Lec 3

  37. Microbenchmarking • Why microbenchmark? • Still a good idea to seek to minimize the overall "amount of work" that your code needs to perform. • E.g. Break a loop early, do something in O(log n) instead of O(n) • Do not obsess over whether to loop backwards or forwards, cache a field value in a local variable, and other such tricks. CW208-3/4-2010/11, Chp 2: Lec 3

  38. Microbenchmarking • Caliper • Caliper is an open-source framework for writing, running and viewing the results of JavaMicrobenchmarks • A microbenchmark attempts to measure the performance of a "small" bit of code (typically in the sub-ms range) • Usually the code performs no I/O CW208-3/4-2010/11, Chp 2: Lec 3

  39. Microbenchmarking • Unfortunately it is not straightforward to integrate Caliper with andengine projects • You can read further about Caliper here (http://developer.android.com/guide/practices/design/performance.html) • There is a benchmarking class as part of the andengine library which reports the FPS of an andengine project • Now we consider how to use it... CW208-3/4-2010/11, Chp 2: Lec 3

  40. Microbenchmarking • The BaseBenchmark class • This class enables the recording of FPS benchmarks in a derived class • Usage... • Step 1) Subclass your andengine main activity class from BaseBenchmark e.g. public class AndroidInvadersActivity extends BaseBenchmark { CW208-3/4-2010/11, Chp 2: Lec 3

  41. Microbenchmarking • Step 2) Implement the following methods: @Override protected int getBenchmarkID() { return 0; } @Override protected float getBenchmarkStartOffset() { return 2; } @Override protected float getBenchmarkDuration() { return 10; } This is simply an ID for your benchmark (it is used if the results are submitted online) This is a delay in seconds before the benchmarking should begin This is duration in seconds the benchmarking should run for CW208-3/4-2010/11, Chp 2: Lec 3

  42. Microbenchmarking • Note that an Android handset will typically report much higher FPS than the emulator • This approach of measuring FPS should be taken as a general indicator of trends where we could answer questions such as: Is my new algorithm design an improvement on its previous incarnation in terms of performance? • rather than relying on hard numbers which may not be 100% reliable CW208-3/4-2010/11, Chp 2: Lec 3

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