ANALYZING VIDEO GAME PERFORMANCE USING NON-INTRUSIVE CAPTURE AND STORAGE OF RUN-TIME GAME DATA

• US 20090113303A1
• Filed: 10/31/2007
• Published: 04/30/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Linden, Randal N., Goossen, Andrew, Mohadjer, Parham, Aronson, David, Kimball, Matthew
• Granted Patent: US 8,667,473 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/719
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/70 Game security or game management aspects
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/77 involving data related to game devices or game servers, e.g. configuration data, software version or amount of memory
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/209 characterized by low level software layer, relating to hardware management, e.g. Operating System, Application Programming Interface
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/535 for monitoring, e.g. of user parameters, terminal parameters, application parameters, network parameters
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3419 by assessing time
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3476 Data logging G06F11/14, G06F11/2205 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/88 Monitoring involving counting

Abstract

The performance of a video game is analyzed using non-intrusive capture and storage of game data. A non-linear capture format is used for capturing run-time game data. The run-time game data includes run-time parameters associated with execution of an application code as well as run-time parameters associated with hardware of a game platform upon which the application code is being executed. The captured data is stored in a storage medium using a non-contiguous storage format.

Claims

1. A method for analyzing performance of a video game, the method comprising:

providing a storage medium;

using a non-linear capture format for capturing run-time game data comprising at least one of run-time parameters and run-time measurements associated with execution of an application code, and run-time parameters associated with hardware of a game platform upon which the application code is being executed; and

storing the run-time game data in the storage medium, the storing comprising a non-contiguous storage format.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

capturing a video image when the application code is being executed; and

storing the video image along with the run-time game data in the storage medium.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

identifying a performance glitch during execution of the application code;

providing a performance monitor display; and

displaying in the performance monitor display, at least one of the stored video frame or a portion of the stored run-time game data corresponding to a time of occurrence of the performance glitch.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein identifying the performance glitch comprises identifying an abnormal execution time for a portion of the application code.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein identifying the performance glitch comprises visually observing a display screen of the video game during execution of the application code.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein using the non-contiguous storage format comprises storing a first portion of run-time game data and a related second portion of run-time game data in non-contiguous segments of the storage medium.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

retrieving the first and second portions of run-time game data from the non-contiguous segments;

combining the first and second portions of run-time game data;

providing a performance monitor display; and

displaying in the performance monitor display, the combined first and second run-time game data.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the hardware comprises a central processing unit (CPU) coupled to a graphics processor unit (GPU), the coupling configured to permit asynchronous, parallel operation of the CPU and the GPU.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

identifying a performance glitch during execution of the application code;

providing a performance monitor display;

retrieving from storage, run-time game data of the CPU relative to the GPU; and

displaying in the performance monitor display, at least one of the run-time parameters and the run-time measurements of the CPU relative to the GPU.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

retrieving from storage, at least one run-time parameter associated with execution of application code; and

displaying in the performance monitor display, the at least one run-time parameter associated with execution of application code along with at least one run-time parameter of the CPU relative to the GPU.

11. A system for analyzing the performance of a video game, the system comprising:

a game platform for running the video game;

a debugger software module coupled to the game platform, the debugger software module operable to capture run-time game data from the game platform using a non-linear capture format that has minimal impact upon the performance of the video game, the run-time game data comprising run-time parameters associated with the video game, and run-time parameters associated with hardware in the game platform; and

a storage medium configured to store the game data in a non-contiguous storage format.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the storage medium comprises a storage buffer configured for circular logging of the run-time game data.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the storage medium comprises a short-term storage buffer coupled to a long-term storage buffer, the short-term storage buffer configured for storing the game data for a first amount of time and the long-term storage buffer configured for storing the game data for a second amount of time.

14. The system of claim 11, further comprising a performance monitor display configured to display at least a portion of the stored game data over a user-selected period of time.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the hardware in the game platform comprises a central processing unit (CPU) coupled to a graphics processor unit (GPU), the coupling configured to permit asynchronous, parallel operation of the CPU and the GPU, and wherein the performance monitor display is configured to display run-time parameters of the CPU relative to the GPU.

16. A computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon computer-readable instructions for performing the steps of:

capturing game data comprising run-time parameters associated with execution of an application code, and run-time parameters associated with hardware in a game platform upon which the application code is being executed; and

storing the run-time game data using a non-contiguous storage format.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein storing the run-time game data comprises using a storage buffer configured for circular logging of the run-time game data.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 16, having further stored thereon computer-readable instructions for performing the steps of:

capturing video image when the application code is being executed; and

storing the video image along with the run-time game data.

19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, having further stored thereon computer-readable instructions for performing the steps of:

providing a performance monitor display; and

displaying in the performance monitor display, at least one of the stored video frame or a portion of the stored run-time game data corresponding to a time of occurrence of a performance glitch.

20. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, having further stored thereon computer-readable instructions for performing the steps of:

capturing run-time parameters of a central processing unit (CPU) coupled to a graphics processor unit (GPU), wherein the CPU and the GPU are components of the game platform.