Still leaking GDI resources?

Started by Harvey Birdman, September 01, 2007, 11:11:20 PM

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Harvey Birdman

Hey, guys -

I've just experienced my first app hang situation with the new rev. Same symptoms as before - after extended use, pop-up menus refuse to appear, buttons become non-funtional, etc. It definitely seemed to take longer; you seem to have resolved some of the leaks, but not all.

Have you tried GlowCode for leak tracking? I've had pretty good luck with it, but I haven't been workng with as complex a UI.

jo

Hi Harvey,

If this happens again, please open the Task Manager and if it isn't there already, add the GDI Objects column using the Select Columns item in the View menu. Please tell me what the number in that column is for TG2, you can email me directly at :

jomeder@planetside.co.uk

if you like. The numbers from the memory columns would be interesting too.

I think with a GDI object leak you are more likely to have problems with things stopping drawing, or "disappearing". The problem with things stopping working is a bit more of a puzzler.

I have tried the evaluation version of GlowCode a couple of times. It's really up to Matt whether that gets used or not.

Regards,

Jo

jo

Hi again Harvey,

Just a few more questions. How long had you been working with TG2? What sort of things had you been doing? Had you been using param views and such a lot and doing lots of quick renders, or did the problems arise after doing a long render? Anything else you can think to tell me about how you were working would be a big help. Due to the nature of my work I use TG2 in lots of short spurts, I'm always starting and stopping it. The more information you, and anyone else who has this problem, can give me the better I can try and set things up to see if I can reproduce things. As you can imagine I don't have a lot of spare time to mess with TG2 for extended periods of time, and the few times I've set things up to try and investigate this problem I probably don't quite match a typical working period closely enough.

Another interesting thing is what version of the app you're using, the one without the command window or the CLI one with it? I almost always use the CLI one because I need to see stuff in the command window. Sometimes this behaves a little different to the non-CLI one.

Regards,

Jo

Harvey Birdman

#3
Hi, Jo -

Sorry to greet you with all this on a Monday morning, dude.

;)

Let's see - I'll collect the data you requested the next time it happens. I've taken to running Task Manager when playing with TG2, so it shouldn't be a problem. I think I can recreate it.

It happened after many hours - 8~10, maybe, of fairly steady use. I really think it's a resource consumption issue. It always manifests itself with a sudden inability to show pop-up menus or new dialogs/property sheets. If other apps are running, I can close them and regain the lost TG2 funtionality for a limited period of time, as if resources were now available but are eventually leaked/consumed.

I think I exacerbate the trouble with my tendency to call up separate property sheets (double-clicking on a node in the node view) when tweaking shaders, instead of selecting them in the list view and showing the property sheets embedded in the mainframe. That really seems to do it - or at least that is where I nearly always first hit the wall; I'll go to summon an external property sheet and it will refuse to appear. I'll then hit the 'Save' button on the toolbar and it's pop-up won't appear. Then I close another app and the 'Save' pop-up (and other) functionality is restored, temporarily.

As for version, it's the Deep/Animation latest build for registered users - 1.9.03.1. And CLI? Errrr.... ummm.... what's CLI?

;D

<edit>
XP Pro with all SP's and updates; 2.8GHz P4 w/ .5G ram (yeah.... sigh. Need ram in a big way. Been poverty-stricken of late.  :( )
</edit>

jo

Hi Harvey,

Quote from: Harvey Birdman on September 02, 2007, 11:32:29 PM
Sorry to greet you with all this on a Monday morning, dude.

That's ok, I looked at the message in the weekend and decided it looked too much like work so I put it off until today :-).

Quote
And CLI? Errrr.... ummm.... what's CLI?

Using tgdcli.exe as opposed to tgd.exe. tgdcli.exe shows a command or console window.

Anyway, thanks for all the other info.

Regards,

Jo

bigben

#5
Like Harvey I tend to open node settings from the network view. The appearance of problems usually starts with things not drawing properly (missing componenets in popups), followed by short cut keys not working. As soon as the problems start to appear I try CTRL + S to try and save the project but this doesn't always work. As a rough fall back mechanism I try and also have an Office app running at the same time. Quitting this app usually frees up enough resources to at least get short cut keys working again, and usually get buttons working as well. Restarting TG2 is usually enough to keep going for a few more hours.

I don't think rendering has too much to do with it as it will also occur just as readily when I'm working on a complex node network, making lots of changes without rendering... although the preview render is still there as well.  I've used the CLI occasionally but not that often.... (hmmm there's an idea for another problem)  Setting up complex displacements seems to drain things more quickly than anything else (not a huge part of my work so I notice the difference).

I'll try some fo your suggestions for getting extra info.

PS. That was with 1.8.76...  It will be interesting to see how this latest update goes.

Volker Harun

Is there a certain critical value for GDI-objects? I just see that the value is increasing steadily (starting by ~250 after 1 hour and ~10 quick renders it is ~430)

Volker

jo

Hi Volker,

Quote from: Volker Harun on September 05, 2007, 05:20:22 AM
Is there a certain critical value for GDI-objects? I just see that the value is increasing steadily (starting by ~250 after 1 hour and ~10 quick renders it is ~430)

Yes, usually about 16 thousand. However I don't like the sound of the number increasing after the quick renders. I presume you are doing other things in between the renders, but I will have a mess about to see if I notice anything.

Regards,

Jo

jo

Hi everyone,

It is important to note that several potential GDI leaks were fixed for this current Deep release ( v1.9.03.1 ). If you are not using this version, then yes you may very well be getting GDI leaks. I'm only really interested in hearing about things using the latest version, so if you are using an older one please mention that or upgrade to the new version ( obviously you can't do that just yet if you're using the free version ) and see how you go with that.

Regards,

Jo

bigben

I haven't had any GDI issues yet with the new update (I'm using the CLI now to log output).  GDI objects has always stayed below the amount used by IE and Windows Explorer.   ;D