Trouble with the canonical game loop

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Trouble with the canonical game loop

AnotherJake

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Post: #16

Aug 7, 2009 — 04:13 PM

Frank C. Wrote:I'm just going by the Apple docs for CFAbsoluteTimeGetCurrent: http://developer.apple.com/documentation...rence.html

That's why I use mach_time as well. I got slapped on the wrist for this a while back, using the unix time functions (which, BTW, I noticed id's Wolfenstein on iPhone uses).

I too check for negative deltas since I accidentally used a float for a time calc instead of a double one time. It blew the precision like once every 50 minutes or so (can't recall the exact time), and froze the game (seemingly, except it was just a large -delta so nothing would move forward), and was a challenging bug to track down.

DoG

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Joined: 2003.01

Post: #17

Aug 8, 2009 — 03:05 AM

I usually use following cross platform time function:

Code:

static inline double SystemReferenceTime(void)

{

#if defined(__APPLE__)

    AbsoluteTime    atime    = UpTime();

    Nanoseconds        nsecs    = AbsoluteToNanoseconds(atime);

    double            time    = UnsignedWideToUInt64(nsecs);

    return time*1.0E-9;

#elif defined(WIN32)

    static LARGE_INTEGER pfreq;

    static int whichTimer = 0;

    switch(whichTimer)

    {

        case 0:

        {

            int result = QueryPerformanceFrequency(&pfreq);

            if (!result)

            {

                whichTimer = 2;

                return GetTickCount()*1.0E-3;

            }

            whichTimer = 1;

        }

        case 1:

        {

            LARGE_INTEGER pcount;

            QueryPerformanceCounter(&pcount);

            return (double)pcount.QuadPart/(double)pfreq.QuadPart;

        }

        case 2:

        default:

            return GetTickCount()*1.0E-3;

    };

//    return GetTickCount()*0.001;

#elif defined(_POSIX__) || defined(WINDOWS)

    struct timeval tod;

    gettimeofday(&tod, NULL);

    return tod.tv_sec + tod.tv_usec * 1.0E-6;

#else

    #error SystemReferenceTime() not implemented for this platform

#endif

}

I don't know if gettimeofday() would be affected by the user setting date/time or network time updates, never got to really test that bit

Don't panic.

AnotherJake

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Posts: 3,552
Joined: 2003.06

Post: #18

Aug 8, 2009 — 07:53 AM

Well gettimeofday isn't reliably monotonic on the Mac, I know that much

Frogblast

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Posts: 87
Joined: 2006.08

Post: #19

Aug 9, 2009 — 11:27 AM

Frank C. Wrote:I'm just going by the Apple docs for CFAbsoluteTimeGetCurrent: http://developer.apple.com/documentation...rence.html

I also experienced negative deltas first hand on the iPhone (though that may have been a bug in an early OS). But either way IMHO, it can't hurt to check for and fix negative deltas even if they should never happen.

Interesting. I was under the impression that CFAbsoluteTime was just a wrapper over mach_absolute_time. I guess that may not be the case.

TomorrowPlusX

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Posts: 1,199
Joined: 2004.10

Post: #20

Aug 10, 2009 — 07:55 AM

I've switched to using mach time, and still get the strange jerky animation.

I've posted a demo app here, with the three game loop implementations: http://shamyl.zakariya.net/etc/gl/TerrainDemo.zip

(Note -- drive with arrow keys, unflip with the delete key, and if you have a wacom tablet plugged in, unplug it first! )

On my Oct 2006 MBP and spanking new Mac Pro I get smooth animation on all three game loops, until I turn off foliage ( the toggle on the top left ). Then the framerate stays the same, but the animation gets very jerky.

I assume that the foliage takes just long enough to draw that whatever problem is occurring in my gameloop is "smoothed out".

Frank C.

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Posts: 435
Joined: 2002.09

Post: #21

Aug 10, 2009 — 12:22 PM

I'm assuming "SPS" steps-per-second? If so, there's something wrong with "Another Jake's" loop...

A more meaningful statistic to debug jerky animation would be steps-per-frame - hate to sound like a broken record but frame interpolation is what ya need here.

On a side note, your demo worked fine with my Wacom tablet pluged in.

www.chaoticbox.com
@ChaoticBox

TomorrowPlusX

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Joined: 2004.10

Post: #22

Aug 10, 2009 — 01:52 PM

Frank C. Wrote:I'm assuming "SPS" steps-per-second? If so, there's something wrong with "Another Jake's" loop...

I know -- I mentioned that earlier on.

Quote:A more meaningful statistic to debug jerky animation would be steps-per-frame - hate to sound like a broken record but frame interpolation is what ya need here.

I won't argue against interpolation -- it's a good thing. But I'd rather figure out what's wrong with my gameloop first, then add interpolation later.

Quote:On a side note, your demo worked fine with my Wacom tablet pluged in.

I assume you've not installed Wacom's drivers then?

stevejohnson

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Posts: 671
Joined: 2002.11

Post: #23

Aug 10, 2009 — 01:58 PM

I also had issues with inexplicable jerkiness when using Alex's game loop back when I was using BlitzMax. Since then, I have changed my method to something simpler that uses the same idea. You only need three things: a minimum time step for your physics, an overflow bucket, and dt.

Code:

step = 1/120.0

bucket = 0.0

# ...

def update(dt):

    bucket += dt

    while bucket >= step:

        bucket -= step

        # ...do stuff...

My web site - Games, music, Python stuff

Frank C.

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Posts: 435
Joined: 2002.09

Post: #24

Aug 10, 2009 — 02:06 PM

TomorrowPlusX Wrote:I won't argue against interpolation -- it's a good thing. But I'd rather figure out what's wrong with my gameloop first, then add interpolation later.

It's just as likely there's nothing wrong with the loop, and the problem is that frames aren't interpolated

TomorrowPlusX Wrote:I assume you've not installed Wacom's drivers then?

They're installed - the preference pane says version 6.1.0-7. I recall updating the driver not too long ago.

www.chaoticbox.com
@ChaoticBox

FlamingHairball

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Posts: 622
Joined: 2007.09

Post: #25

Aug 10, 2009 — 02:56 PM

Hmm... Crashes on startup here: Mac Mini Intel Core Duo 1.83 ghz, 512 RAM, 64 shared VRAM(Intel GMA 950) etc...

From the console:

Code:

8/10/09 4:45:32 PM com.apple.launchd[84] ([0x0-0xa10a1].org.zakariya.Terrain[1525]) Exited abnormally: Bus error

And some of the crash log:

Code:

Process:         Terrain [1525]

Path:            /Users/lincolngreen/Downloads/TerrainDemo/Terrain.app/Contents/MacOS/Terrain

Identifier:      org.zakariya.Terrain

Version:         ??? (1.0)

Code Type:       X86 (Native)

Parent Process:  launchd [84]

Date/Time:       2009-08-10 16:45:06.760 -0500

OS Version:      Mac OS X 10.5.7 (9J61)

Report Version:  6

Anonymous UUID:  1BE6D722-B312-41AF-A4A1-40DC17C2861F

Exception Type:  EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGBUS)

Exception Codes: KERN_PROTECTION_FAILURE at 0x0000000000000000

Crashed Thread:  0

Thread 0 Crashed:

0   ???                               0000000000 0 + 0

1   org.zakariya.sgf                  0x007d120f sgf::glsl::ShaderProgram::ShaderProgram(std::basic_string<char, std::char_traits<char>, std::allocator<char> > const&, std::basic_string<char, std::char_traits<char>, std::allocator<char> > const&, std::map<std::basic_string<char, std::char_traits<char>, std::allocator<char> >, std::basic_string<char, std::char_traits<char>, std::allocator<char> >, std::less<std::basic_string<char, std::char_traits<char>, std::allocator<char> > >, std::allocator<std::pair<std::basic_string<char, std::char_traits<char>, std::allocator<char> > const, std::basic_string<char, std::char_traits<char>, std::allocator<char> > > > > const&) + 701

2   org.zakariya.sgf                  0x008b3df0 sgf::CompositeShader2D::CompositeShader2D(std::basic_string<char, std::char_traits<char>, std::allocator<char> > const&, std::basic_string<char, std::char_traits<char>, std::allocator<char> > const&) + 228

3   org.zakariya.sgf                  0x008146d1 sgf::ui::Hud::Hud(sgf::DisplayDelegate*) + 485

4   org.zakariya.sgf                  0x007bcfb3 sgf::DisplayDelegate::glContextCreated() + 113

5   org.zakariya.sgf                  0x0085e53d -[SGFOpenGLView update] + 325

6   com.apple.AppKit                  0x954c422c -[NSView _drawRect:clip:] + 3853

7   com.apple.AppKit                  0x954c2d23 -[NSView _recursiveDisplayAllDirtyWithLockFocus:visRect:] + 1050

8   com.apple.AppKit                  0x954c30ba -[NSView _recursiveDisplayAllDirtyWithLockFocus:visRect:] + 1969

9   com.apple.AppKit                  0x954c1679 -[NSView _recursiveDisplayRectIfNeededIgnoringOpacity:isVisibleRect:rectIsVisibleRectForV​iew:topView:] + 759

10  com.apple.AppKit                  0x954c0fbb -[NSThemeFrame _recursiveDisplayRectIfNeededIgnoringOpacity:isVisibleRect:rectIsVisibleRectForV​iew:topView:] + 306

11  com.apple.AppKit                  0x954bdadf -[NSView _displayRectIgnoringOpacity:isVisibleRect:rectIsVisibleRectForView:] + 3090

12  com.apple.AppKit                  0x953fe4b3 -[NSView displayIfNeeded] + 933

13  com.apple.AppKit                  0x953fe061 -[NSWindow displayIfNeeded] + 189

14  com.apple.AppKit                  0x953fde84 _handleWindowNeedsDisplay + 436

15  com.apple.CoreFoundation          0x9145c942 __CFRunLoopDoObservers + 466

16  com.apple.CoreFoundation          0x9145dc9c CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 844

17  com.apple.CoreFoundation          0x9145ec78 CFRunLoopRunInMode + 88

18  com.apple.HIToolbox               0x906b928c RunCurrentEventLoopInMode + 283

19  com.apple.HIToolbox               0x906b8fde ReceiveNextEventCommon + 175

20  com.apple.HIToolbox               0x906b8f19 BlockUntilNextEventMatchingListInMode + 106

21  com.apple.AppKit                  0x953fbd0d _DPSNextEvent + 657

22  com.apple.AppKit                  0x953fb5c0 -[NSApplication nextEventMatchingMask:untilDate:inMode:dequeue:] + 128

23  com.apple.AppKit                  0x953f45fb -[NSApplication run] + 795

24  org.zakariya.sgf                  0x0085ca62 SGFApplicationMain(sgf::Application*, int, char const**) + 700

25  org.zakariya.Terrain              0x000022cc main + 82

26  org.zakariya.Terrain              0x0000223e start + 54

Thread 1:

0   libSystem.B.dylib                 0x9008946e __semwait_signal + 10

1   libSystem.B.dylib                 0x900b3dcd pthread_cond_wait$UNIX2003 + 73

2   libGLProgrammability.dylib        0x93a10b32 glvmDoWork + 162

3   libSystem.B.dylib                 0x900b3155 _pthread_start + 321

4   libSystem.B.dylib                 0x900b3012 thread_start + 34

Thread 0 crashed with X86 Thread State (32-bit):

  eax: 0x00000002  ebx: 0x007d0d4a  ecx: 0x00000000  edx: 0x00cc9720

  edi: 0xbfffe00c  esi: 0x009482c0  ebp: 0xbfffde78  esp: 0xbfffddec

   ss: 0x0000001f  efl: 0x00010202  eip: 0x00000000   cs: 0x00000017

   ds: 0x0000001f   es: 0x0000001f   fs: 0x00000000   gs: 0x00000037

  cr2: 0x00000000

Binary Images:

    0x1000 -    0x49ff7 +org.zakariya.Terrain ??? (1.0) <f0553cc54a940c7685c0ceb7b76d852b> /Users/lincolngreen/Downloads/TerrainDemo/Terrain.app/Contents/MacOS/Terrain

  0x119000 -   0x125fff  com.apple.iokit.IOHIDLib 1.5.5 (1.5.5) <2a9407a7c9aa27d571f1118aa02b3248> /System/Library/Extensions/IOHIDFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/IOHIDLib.plugin/Contents/MacOS/IOHIDLib

  0x137000 -   0x153ff7  GLRendererFloat ??? (???) <927b7d5ce6a7c21fdc761f6f29cdf4ee> /System/Library/Frameworks/OpenGL.framework/Versions/A/Resources/GLRendererFloat.bundle/GLRendererFloat

  0x1ce000 -   0x227ff7  com.apple.driver.AppleIntelGMA950GLDriver 1.5.44 (5.4.4) <eff61d519cdb9eb0af377cc0bd046987> /System/Library/Extensions/AppleIntelGMA950GLDriver.bundle/Contents/MacOS/AppleIntelGMA950GLDriver

  0x3dc000 -   0x60cfef +org.zakariya.sre ??? (1.0) <6a7a8138b720a9aa5a365b20c29227eb>

I'm guessing this is not an unexpected crash(i.e no GMA support), but thought I'd post.

- Lincoln Green
http://www.binkworks.com/

TomorrowPlusX

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Post: #26

Aug 10, 2009 — 04:53 PM

Yeah -- no gma support. Sorry chief. I don't know what the minimum is, but I'm going with ATI x1600 -- which is what I have and which is barely able to run my shaders.

AnotherJake

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Posts: 3,552
Joined: 2003.06

Post: #27

Aug 10, 2009 — 07:26 PM

Frank C. Wrote:I'm assuming "SPS" steps-per-second? If so, there's something wrong with "Another Jake's" loop...

Well, it's not "my" loop exactly, since it's derived from DoG's. However, I did neglect to test that the tick rate was as-advertised. I just dropped it in and wanted to see if it worked on the end-result side of things. I didn't run it through anything that requires stable integration, so that might very well be an issue.

FWIW, I haven't changed my "main" code-base timing algorithm over to DoG's yet since I need to do more testing and tweaking with it, so I'm still using the one I derived from ThemsAllTook's.

I wish I had something more than a GMA to work with so I could see what's going on too.

TomorrowPlusX

Sage

Posts: 1,199
Joined: 2004.10

Post: #28

Aug 12, 2009 — 04:22 AM

Well, I've decided I'm going to try a slightly different path. I'm going to give a stab ad using a displaylink thread to perform rendering, and keep my game logic updates on the main thread, driven by a timer at 120hz.

Does anybody have any experience with display link? I should probably start a new thread for this discussion...

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