Telemetry 1.1f released!

Now that the holidays and GDC are behind us we're going to buckle down and get some pretty significant features and changes that our customers have asked for.  But before that we've released 1.1f with a lot of minor fixes and improvements.

Speaking of GDC, it was great meeting so many of our customers and getting positive feedback on Telemetry -- thanks for stopping by the booth!

Run-Time

• Enhancement: new plot types TMPT_TIME_US and TMPT_TIME_CLOCKS
• Bugfix: crash bug with Windows DX9 tmxgpu
• Bugfix: crash bug with TMCT_FILE and OS X
• Bugfix: tmSetLockStateMinTime wasn't checking some parameters in checked builds
• Bugfix: if the memory arena passed to tmInitializeContext wasn't zeroed out bad things could happen.  Telemetry now automatically zeroes that memory first.

Visualizer

• Enhancement: A very basic "search for zone" is implemented using Ctrl-F.  Does not support wildcards and only searches for zones that are currently loaded in memory.  A better implementation is in the works, but enough people asked for this that we've decided to provide this short term implementation.
• Enhancement: You can now plot a zone's time by right-clicking on it and choosing "Plot zone time".  As with search, you have to make sure that all zones you care about are in memory.  And again, this is a short term solution until we get a global solution in place.
• Enhancement: "lock to end" supported, so if watching live captures the last frame is visible at all times instead of scrolling off screen.
• Bugfix: Slow performance when rendering really wide zones 
• Bugfix: Right-click on some zones and zone types was sketchy
• Bugfix: Intermittent crashes when viewing a session with a combination of very short and very long frames.

Server

• Bugfix: rare race condition when accepting multiple profiling sessions from the same machine in less than one second

Misc

• Bugfix: tmSetLockStateMinTime return values were improperly documented
• Bugfix: tmSPUBindContextToListener function signature documentation was wrong

Telemetry 1.1e Released!

Even though it's been only a couple weeks since our last release we wanted to get another big one out before the holidays. We've made a lot of little enhancements, added support for a new platform, and, best of all, have implemented a very handy feature -- off-line performance capture!

As long time Telemetry users know, Telemetry's architecture is based on streaming data over the network to a server which acquires, processes, stores, and eventually serves up the data. Unfortunately this isn't practical in certain situations. For example, a testing lab may not have network access for security reasons; some consoles have notoriously poor networking performance (even while wired); or a test machine may not have access to a Telemetry server.

To address these concerns we've implemented off-line data capture. The only change you have to make is a parameter to tmOpen -- specify TMCT_FILE instead of TMCT_TCP. Now instead of writing to the network Telemetry will write to disk. When done you take the "tmdata" files and then import them into the Visualizer (or play them back to the server). It's that simple, and in some cases can make a dramatic (5-10x) performance difference.

Run-Time

• Enhancement: Performance improvements for 360 and PS3
• Enhancement: Added TMPI_START_TIME parameter to tmGetPlatformInformation
• Enhancement: Win32: Changed context switch trace management code in an effort to be more robust across a wider range of systems
• Enhancement: Duration of TCP send now has a plot automatically generated
• Enhancement: Added more send buffers to increase performance and prevent stalls while writing to the network
• Enhancement: TMCT_FILE for local mirror of network traffic (i.e. disconnected captures are now possible!)
• Enhancement: BETA support for new platform
• Change: PS3: Telemetry thread now defaults to hwthread 1
• Change: 360: Telemetry thread now defaults to hwthread 5

Server

• Enhancement: Greatly enhanced performance under certain conditions with lots of frames
• Bugfix: Occasional server crashes when open zones spanned a very large number of frames
• Change: removed TM_APP_STRING and TM_APP_TICK console spam

Visualizer

• Enhancement: "Import Data Files" feature added (related to TMCT_FILE support)

Other

• Bugfix: Some documentation was using tmDynamicString improperly
• Enhancement: Cleaned up example files
• Enhancement: Added 'tmimport' command to playback raw net files captured with TMCT_FILE sessions

Telemetry 1.1d Released!

This is another maintenance release for Telemetry. Thanks to everyone who submitted bug reports and feature requests!

Runtime

• Bugfix: calling tmInitializeContext on an active context would result in random crashes. Now it returns an error with checked builds.
• Enhancement: (Experimental) TMZF_PLOT_TIME_EXPERIMENTAL. Specifying this will generate a plot of times for the given zone.
• Enhancement: (Experimental) You can now register your own debug display function for the run time using tmSetParameter with TMP_DEBUG_PRINTER
• Bugfix: Win32 build was generating a benign warning/error with AppVerifier due to attempting to OpenThread a NULL handle
• Bugfix: TMXGPU: passing a NULL context to tmxgpu would result in crashes
• Bugfix: Linux and OS X 32-bit: dynamic strings would sometimes crash the run time

Visualizer

• Bugfix: TMMF_ICON_* messages weren't showing up in the message window
• Bugfix: Multiple different blob plugins were not handled correctly
• Bugfix: Fixed weird UI issues where zone display would pick up incorrect mouse events
• Bugfix: OS X: Ok/Cancel buttons in message box were reversed
• Bugfix: D3D: Too many plot samples crashed Visualizer
• Change: OS X: Defaults to 1280x800 window size

Server

• Bugfix: Fixed a couple causes of the 'hanshake times out' issue
• Bugfix: Fixed some server instability
• Bugfix: Blobs were not served up properly
• Enhancement: 32-bit Linux version available now

Other

• Bugfix: Updated UE3 integration docs
• Bugfix: Fixed missing documentation for tmsRegisterMessageHandler, tmPPURegisterSPUProgram and TmOpenFlag
• Enhancement: Added embedded server tutorial code

Telemetry 1.1c Released!!

This is a maintenance fix for Telemetry 1.1. As always, update all components in tandem!

Runtime

• Change: TMXERR_GPU_INVALID_CONTEXT is now returned by the tmxGpuInit functions if a NULL context is passed
• Change: Fixed spurious warnings when trying to close a NULL socket (now silently ignored)
• Bugfix: Unused parameter warning in tmxgpu
• Bugfix: Dynamic strings were not working properly on 32-bit OS X run time
• Bugfix: tmSendCallStack did not send proper data when given a callstack previously fetched via tmGetCallStack

Visualizer

• Changes: Zones are no longer arbitrarily split across frame boundaries
• Bugfix: Context switch rendering on 360 regression for 1.1
• Bugfix: Newlines were not always handled correctly in license file leading to "Corrupt Visualizer license" messages
• Bugfix: Minimize-then-maximize to black screen
• Bugfix: Visualizer's spawned editor is now found in path instead of requiring a full path name
• Bugfix: TMMF_ZONE_LABEL was inadvertently replacing labels even on aggregate zones (e.g. LOD zones)
• Bugfix: thin zones were incorrectly colored as LOD zones
• Bugfix: Visualizer plugins were occasionally not found at startup

Server

• Bugfix: Unbalanced leaves with enters were causing intermittent server crashes

Other

• Bugfix: Symbolizer bugs fixed
• Enhancement: Symbolizer now works correctly on OS X
• Enhancement: Additional platform support for symbolizer
• Change: UE3 integration docs updated

Telemetry 1.1a Released!!

Wow, been a long time coming, but this is a massive update that has implemented a ton of features and new platform support!

YOU WILL HAVE TO UPDATE ALL COMPONENTS AND REBUILD YOUR GAMES!! The protocols have changed to support our new features, so make sure you rebuild, relink, update your DLLs and run the new server and Visualizer.

SPU Support

So the big feature people have been waiting for is support for the PS3 SPU on Telemetry, and this required a significant amount of architectural work (since it effectively meant multiple processes), but it's done! It's a standard part of the Telemetry/PS3 distribution now.

OS X Support

That's right, we have OS X support, both 32-bit and 64-bit run-times, along with the Visualizer and command line server! The run-time is part of Telemetry/Mac but the Visualizer and server are available to licensees of any platform.

GPU Support

We now have support for benchmarking GPU calls on XBOX 360, PS3 and Direct3D (DX9,DX10, and DX11). We provide this as a layer on top of Telemetry's timespan features, and we support both synchronous and asynchronous operation.

Visualizer/D3D

The Visualizer now uses Direct3D on Windows instead of OpenGL. The OpenGL version is still available and will continue to be maintained (it's viz64gl.exe in the distribution). Using Direct3D should reduce some of the compatibility problems customers have seen with different video cards and drivers.

Linux Support

We now have support for 32-bit and 64-bit Linux run-times on Intel architectures, along with a command line server for Linux.

Additional changes are as follows:

Run-Time

• Change: tmSetParameter now takes a pointer to parameter instead of the parameter itself


• Change: PS3 library has been renamed to libtelemetryPS3.a


• Change: Linux static library now called libTelemetryX86.link.a or libTelemetryX64.link.a


• Bugfix: calling tmOpen after tmClose didn't work properly


• Bugfix: PS3 network connection issues


• Bugfix: NTELEMETRY was masking connection status constants


• Bugfix: Time wrapping on Linux wasn't handled properly

Visualizer

• Enhancement: Number of zones in a thread now displayed as part of tooltip over trackhead


• Change: Implicitly generated plots for internal Telemetry events (number of allocs, number of locks, etc.) removed


• Change: Timespans generate virtual Telemetry messages


• Change: Profiler rows are reasier to see


• Change: Visualizer input buffer is now larger, helping with extreme data flooding cases


• Change: Timespans now go to microsecond display if < 0.5ms in duration


• Bugfix: race condition that would lead to occasional crash


• Bugfix: Some stall zones were not being rendered properly


• Bugfix: Timespan rendering was broken in some cases


• Bugfix: Annotation handling resulted in loss of annotations if they were numeric


• Bugfix: Zone depth computations were inaccurate in some cases


• Bugfix: Timeline state background colors are stable


• Bugfix: Fragmented input data packets would occasionally cause a hang


• Bugfix: Out of range 64-bit plot values would cause a crash


• Bugfix: High CPU utilization in data processing and server connection threads in some situations

Server

• Enhancemenent: added -keeptmp option for testing


• Enhancement: Added offline processing of previousy stored tmp files


• Bugfix: Minor memory leak


• Bugfix: Server would occasionally resend duplicate lock events in certain flooding conditions


• Change: No longer limited to 64K top level zones per frame


• Change: Server buffers frame data instead of just the most recent frame


• Change: You can now register your own message handler for warning dialogs, etc. with the tms server library

Telemetry 1.0n Released!!

While working on the SPU implementation of Telemetry we realized that the amount of required server work would be substantial. Instead of holding off on a bunch of smaller fixes and changes while we finished that we decided to temporarily pause SPU development and give you guys a really solid interim release before we dive back in.

Unfortunately because of the tweaks this requires another full upgrade -- you must upgrade your run-time, server and Visualizer simultaneously! You'll also want to do a full rebuild since some function signatures and constants may have changed.

The big changes are crash fixes for the server; major UI improvements to the Visualizer (including fixing some bugs with timespan rendering); and the embedded server library is now available in beta form. But there are a ton of other things in here too, so I encourage you to read the change list. Probably 50% or more of these changes were due to direct customer feedback, so please keep us up to date on problems, questions, suggestions or just general comments!

Run-Time

• Change: PROTOCOL CHANGED! Make sure you are using only 1.0n components in your Telemetry chain (server, Visualizer and run-time)
• Change: 360 now sends over profile-0 username as session username
• Bugfix: Internal stall zones that result from flushing the Telemetry buffer are now placed in the correct place in the timeline so that they don't look like displaced child zones. They now look like siblings of the calling zone that forced the flush.
• Change: Reduced string table max size to 16K sdtrings -- please let me know if this causes problems. We're trying to get the minimum context size down.
• Bugfix: Win32: No longer search symbol path for PDBs at startup. This was causing weird hiccups/hangs/stalls for some customers with symbol server paths but without a valid symbol server running.
• Bugfix: NTELEMETRY versions of tmPlotI32 and tmPlotI64 were missing. NTELEMETRY version of tmGetAccumulationStart was also incorrect.
• Enhancement: Command line and parameters are now stored, sent and displayed by the Visualizer as part of session information.

Visualizer

• Enhancement: Cut-and-paste the active tooltip by holding down control as the tooltip pops up. This is a stop gap measure until we get global cut-and-paste for all UI elements. You must enable this first in Options.
• Change: Protocol changed! Make sure you update run-time, server and Visualizer simultaneously!
• Enhancement: MAJOR enhancements to the level of detail rendering of small zones and groups of small zones!! Zones should never LOD away completely; they now look better and are a different color when it's an LOD aggregated zone; you should see a tall 'stalactite' if there is even one tiny child zone deep in a hierarchy; top-level zones now LOD properly all the time; LOD aggregate zones display actual summed child times instead of LOD aggregate displayed time; LOD aggregate zones only display zone name if it's the same zone name (otherwise displays "").
• Enhancement: User messages (tmMessage) are now put in a separate tree branch next to Telemetry messages instead of using a separate checkbox.
• Enhancement: Tooltips now render callstacks vertically.
• Enhancement: Session list now shows numberr of frames in the session
• Change: Session info at bottom of screen now in 12H format instead of 24H format
• Enhancement: Choose microseconds or cycles as display unit for short duration zones.
• Enhancement: Tree views now have a 'half-on' checkbox state to indicate a mix of checked/unchecked children
• Enhancement: Zones that contain message text now display with a letter 'M'
• Enhancement: Generated plots now have an asterisk in their name and can now also be removed.
• Enhancement: Right-click on track head has a "Minimize all but this track" option
• Enhancement: Dynamic tick mark spacing along top of zone view
• Enhancement: Persistent outlining of zones supported, i.e. you can do right-click "Highlight all these zones"
• Change: Zoom is now clamped to 10K clock cycles.
• Bugfix: Minimized tracks that have no data (e.g. lock track if you haven't record any lock events) are no longer displayed
• Bugfix: timeline bars don't disappear no matter how thin they get
• Bugfix: fixed spacing and rendering problems with timespans

Server

• Change: Protocol versions changed!! Make sure you are using 1.0n versions of server, Visualizer and run-time simultaneously!
• Enhancement: Separate server lib is now available (tmsserver*.dll) on Win32. An example program is also supplied.
• Bugfix: Server now puts up message boxes in case of fatal session errors.
• Bugfix: On overflow (too many zones) the server is more aggressive killing the offending session
• Bugfix: More exception handling wrapper to prevent crashes
• Enhancement: Tmp files are only flushed/written if there is incoming data, so a paused (e.g. breakpointed) connection not keep generating a bunch of little files

Telemetry 1.0M released!

This is mostly a maintenance release to get some bug fixes, polish, etc. out there.

This WILL require another full rebuild! Sorry about the inconvenience (again), the APIs have been tweaked to be a little friendlier, specifically the tmEntryEx and tmTryLockEx APIs take a pointer to a matchid instead of a reference.

• tmEnterEx and tmTryLockEx have slightly different signatures
• TMZF_FILTER has been removed since it's no longer necessary
• callstack propagation bug fixed when callstacks were only 1 deep
• Visualizer crash bug fixed if a session ended unexpectedly while the Visualizer was trying to load it
• Track minimization state is now persistent between sessions -- no more constantly minimizing unwanted tracks!
• Currently loaded session is highlighted in the session selector
• Some server exception handling propagation issues fixed
• Memory utilization in the Visualizer reduced considerably for lock events
• Very simple text-only memory reporting available by right clicking on a timeline bar or a memory event. This is just to show some of the data we're acquiring and processing as we move towards memory management feature enhancement.