Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Porpoisepower]

someone suggested running DF in a virtual PC (vmware,ESX, etc)... stating that the virtualization software will handle the threading.

[Locriani]

someone suggested running DF in a virtual PC (vmware,ESX, etc)... stating that the virtualization software will handle the threading.

Yes, by simulating one core for DF to run on, and using the rest of your processor time with system call overhead 

[DeathOfRats]

someone suggested running DF in a virtual PC (vmware,ESX, etc)... stating that the virtualization software will handle the threading.

I very much doubt it. Current state of the art for automatic multi-threading is (as far as I'm aware) either compilation-time analysis or very limited (i.e., at the instruction level) at run-time, and neither does incredibly well for general-purpose problems. There are domain-specific tools that make certain assumptions about the code and data that have better results (as long as you code in a way that maintains those assumptions).

If a virtualization company had found the solution to that problem, which is very much non-trivial, they'd be selling it (probably as a separate product - or at least it'd be a *major* selling point for their platform), and raking in the big bucks.

[Nadaka]

I can only speak from personal experience, but i did a multi-threaded game for my major project last semester, and i spent most of the semester sorting out problems like what happens when two threads try and use the same piece of memory\variable at the same time (a problem you never have with single threaded stuff, as it's always sequential.)

It was entertaining, but quite annoying at times.

That's where Mutexes(sp?)/Locking come in handy.

That, or good design. You want to avoid a mutex as much as possible. In general, if there is any way to prevent race conditions, concurrent access, etc. without using a mutex, it will be more efficient than using a mutex. You want to give each thread as much data independence as possible, even if it means duplicating data.

someone suggested running DF in a virtual PC (vmware,ESX, etc)... stating that the virtualization software will handle the threading.

That won't work at all. There is no way to dynamically split code between two processors if it wasn't designed and written explicitly to be split.

[Draco18s]

What does that have to do with threading or am I missing some joke here?  nm, I see your other post now.

"Multithreading is an annoyance"
"Change religion after a minor annoyance"

It still doesn't really explain how they are similar.  I could compare many texts and pick out specific words that are the same.  It doesn't mean they are in any way related or have any specific meaning.  The only meaning I draw from that comparison is that this person is easily annoyed.  But I can't make an educated decision based solely on those two situations.

Is not, the similarity between two situations, the essence of certain types of jokes, puns, and humor?

Why to the French never starve and never drown?
Because an egg is enough and the water is low.

[Andir]

I can only speak from personal experience, but i did a multi-threaded game for my major project last semester, and i spent most of the semester sorting out problems like what happens when two threads try and use the same piece of memory\variable at the same time (a problem you never have with single threaded stuff, as it's always sequential.)

It was entertaining, but quite annoying at times.

That's where Mutexes(sp?)/Locking come in handy.

That, or good design. You want to avoid a mutex as much as possible. In general, if there is any way to prevent race conditions, concurrent access, etc. without using a mutex, it will be more efficient than using a mutex. You want to give each thread as much data independence as possible, even if it means duplicating data.

Yes, but I didn't want to get into the whole debate over some things being non-parallel and all that.  It definitely takes a different thought process, but I wouldn't call it annoying... it's a fun challenge to think of things in alternative algorithms and not cut/paste the nearest chunk of code just to get the job done.

[Armok]

Why to the French never starve and never drown?
Because an egg is enough and the water is low.

Winpun!