[Scummvm-devel] ScummVM 0.12.0: Missing builds

Max Horn max at quendi.de
Sat Sep 6 18:04:46 CEST 2008


Am 04.09.2008 um 09:47 schrieb Neil Millstone:

> Max Horn wrote:
>>
>> Am 02.09.2008 um 22:32 schrieb Neil Millstone:
>
[...]
>
>>> My current issue is that Inherit the Earth is now about 100Kb over  
>>> the available memory.  This seems to be mostly code size gained  
>>> since 0.11.0.  While we can't really prevent the binary from  
>>> growing, I can't imagine that I'll be able to get this game  
>>> working if the same happens next time.  If anyone knows how I can  
>>> save 100Kb in this game, please let me know!
>>
>> To repeat what Filipppos wrote: This is the first time I hear about  
>> this :(. Well, I assume you found out about this only recently,  
>> else I'd now start with my "we need to communicate more and better"  
>> jingle *g*. Anyway, now that we know, the SAGA folks can also look  
>> into the issue; given that they know the engine best, they might be  
>> able to help.
>>
>
> Yes, I only discovered this in the past few days.  I found a fix  
> which reduces the peak memory usage by changing how sound resources  
> are loaded so that the data is not stored in memory twice, as it is  
> now.  I'll send the patch for this to filippos so he can check it  
> doesn't break anything.  The game seems to work fine with the patch.

Good start. Did you already send the patch? Actually, it might be  
better to submit it to the patch tracker, that way, more people can  
review it, and it'll probably be quicker overall.

>  The problem is, I'm now still about 100kb from the end of memory,  
> which is not a good place to be for next time round, when the code  
> binary size will have grown.

:/.

> The thing is, I tend to assume that the engine authors may not be  
> interested in fixing bugs which only show up for low-memory/low-CPU  
> devices.  For an example, see the discussion on the thousands of  
> fopen calls for Kyra. That was fixed in the end, but the team's  
> initial response was to handle it in the backend, even though other  
> ports were affected.

What? Wow, that's quite different from how I recall things... :) So I  
just went back through that thread ("Kyrandia engine loading is slow  
on the DS"), and read it, and I really don't know how you come to that  
conclusion -- maybe you can tell me what exactly there made you feel  
as if you were left alone? Let me briefly sketch how that thread looks  
to me:


The *first* reaction was by LordHoto, the man behind our Kyra engine,  
and included a patch which tried to improve the situation. If that  
doesn't show willingness to cooperate and solve the problem, I don't  
know what does *g*.

A bit later, Betrand and me suggested that it might be possible to  
solve the issue by caching stuff at some point. I pointed out that the  
code peres and me are working on would provide that for free, *in the  
frontend*, but that you might be able to hack this into your fopen  
quickly in the meantime. Again, that doesn't sound like rejecting the  
responsibility for fixing this,

Other people chimed in, and we got a patch. BTW, initially, we knew of  
*no* other port that was affected, to the contrary DJWillis told us he  
was not aware of problems on the GP2x.

And then rev 33529, by arthrxx, the other man behind Kyra, fixed it.  
So, again the engine people were doing the fix. Nice. Oh, *after*  
that, we were told that PS2 was having problems, too. Luckily, we  
already fixed the issue, regardless of whether it was DS specific or  
not... :)


> The DS has 4Mb of RAM.  After the code and global data has been  
> allocated, there's anything between 1.9 and 2.3Mb of memory  
> available for the game to allocate.  That's not very much.

Aye.

Look, man, I understand it's frustrating to have to chase after ever- 
growing engine binary sizes, and all. But I really thing it's rather  
unfair to claim that this is because engine authors are unwilling to  
help. Rather, it seems to me that there is a certain lack of  
communication by porters, who don't tell us about problems. Maybe  
fearing the report will be ignored, or no solution will be possible...  
But actually, my experience is that those issues get fixed quickly,  
*if* they are reported. Sadly, they often are not :(.



Bye,
Max




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