Method and apparatus for visualizing and interactively manipulating profile data

• US 8,502,822 B2
• Filed: 07/31/2009
• Issued: 08/06/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nintendo Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Nintendo Company Limited
• Inventors: Rabin, Steve
• Primary Examiner(s): WANG, JIN CHENG
• Application Number:
  US12/534,048
• Publication Number:
  US 20100079463A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,467 Days
• Field of Search: 345440-442, 717/133, 717/158, 715/700
• US Class Current: 345/440
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3419 by assessing time
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3466 Performance evaluation by tracing or monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3664 Environments for testing or debugging software
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/81 Threshold
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/865 Monitoring of software
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04817 using icons graphical or visual programming using iconic symbols G06F8/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/203 Drawing of straight lines or curves
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/206 Drawing of charts or graphs
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/40 Filling a planar surface by adding surface attributes, e.g. colour or texture
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/20 Function-generator circuits, e.g. circle generators line or curve smoothing circuits
• CPC Class Codes: H02K 15/063 Windings for large electric machines, e.g. bar windings windings consisting of cables H02K15/065
• CPC Class Codes: H02K 3/48 in slots

Abstract

Profile data collected through sampling is transformed and visually and interactively manipulated and displayed. In one scenario, the profile data is collected through statistical profiling of a program for a video game. The game program profile data is visually and interactively manipulated and displayed to visually present a dynamic behavior of the video game that shows correlation of impacts that the functions of the program have on the video game'"'"'s performance. This allows the developer to identify inefficient sections of the program for optimization.

Claims

1. For use with a video game console of a type that is responsive to a handheld controller input to execute a video game program and provide interactive animated displays, a method of collecting and transforming profile data of performance measurements from the video game program and visualizing and interactively manipulating the transformed data to visually present a dynamic behavior of the video game program that shows correlation of impacts that functions have on performance of the executing video game program, the method comprising:

collecting the profile data;

displaying, by a profile analyzer, a list of one or more functions of the video game program in a Functions List window of a display device based on the profile data, each displayed function in the Functions List window being user selectable, the profile analyzer being implemented at least in part in hardware;

receiving user input selecting a function from the Functions List window; and

displaying, by the profile analyzer, a function graph of the selected function in a Function Graph window of the display device based on the profile data,

wherein the Function Graph and the Functions List windows are separate windows and are simultaneously displayed on the display device, and

wherein the function graph includes a data line and a highlight band tracking the data line, the data line representing a graph of instantaneous performance values of the selected function, a thickness of the highlight band representing a margin of error of the selected function, and the highlight band being simultaneously displayed with and surrounding the data line.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of displaying the list of one or more functions in the Functions List window comprises:

generating a mini-graph for each function based on the profile data, each mini-graph being a graph of the corresponding function'"'"'s performance over a duration of the profile data; and

displaying the mini-graph in the Functions List window within a predetermined area footprint.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the step of generating the mini-graph for each function comprises generating each mini-graph using non-linear scaling.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the step of generating the mini-graph for each function comprises generating each mini-graph using exponential scaling.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of displaying the function graph of the selected function comprises visually correlating the highlight band in the Function Graph window with the selected function in the Functions List window.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein in the step of displaying the function graph of the selected function comprises:

displaying the data line; and

smoothing the highlight band based on the data line such that the highlight band is on the data line.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the step of smoothing the highlight band comprises tracking a moving average of the data line within a predetermined window when a change in the data line within the predetermined window is within a predetermined percentage of the margin of error, and tracking the data line substantially exactly otherwise.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the step of smoothing the highlight band comprises:

(1) setting a window size parameter n=0;

(2) incrementing the window size parameter n=n+1;

(3) determining whether a moving window of size 2n+1 centered on a current time t lies within data line bounds of the profile data and proceeding to (4) when the moving window lies within the data line bounds and proceeding to (6) otherwise;

(4) determining whether either a first difference of data values d(t+n)−

d(t) or a second difference d(t−

n)−

d(t) of the data line is within a predetermined margin of error percentage and proceeding to (5) when both first and second differences are within the predetermined margin of error percentage and proceeding to (6) otherwise;

(5) determining whether the window size parameter n is less than a predetermined maximum window size parameter and proceeding to (2) when the window size parameter n is less than the predetermined maximum window size parameter and proceeding to (7) otherwise;

(6) decrementing the window size parameter; and

(7) averaging the data values within the window of size 2n+1 centered on the current time t.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying a graph representing range and average performance values for the data line of the selected function for a portion of the corresponding function graph currently displayed in the Function Graph window based on the profile data.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the graph representing the range and average performance values is simultaneously displayed with and is visually correlated to the corresponding function graph.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying, in a Performance Graph window of the display device, a performance graph of instantaneous performance values of the video game program based on the profile data,

wherein the Performance Graph window is separate from the Functions List and the Function Graph windows and is simultaneously displayed with the Functions List and the Function Graph windows.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising displaying the performance graph to visually alert the user when the performance graph drops below a predetermined instantaneous performance value.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

scaling the Function and Performance Graph windows so that X-axis scales of the Function and Performance Graph windows correspond one-to-one to each other;

receiving a user input for non-linear scaling; and

performing non-linear scaling along the X-axis scales of the Function and Performance Graph windows in response to the user input while maintaining the one-to-one correspondence.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein

the performance graph in the Performance Graph window is a graph of an instantaneous frame rate of the video game program at each frame of the profile data, and

the selected function'"'"'s data line in the Function Graph window represents a percentage of a frame time spent executing the function at each frame of the profile data.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying one or more functions of the video game program for modification based on the dynamic behavior of the video game program visually presented in the Functions List window and/or the Function Graph window; and

modifying the identified function(s) to optimize the performance of the video game program.

16. A profile analyzer structured to transform profile data of performance measurements from a video game program to visually present a dynamic behavior of the video game program, the analyzer comprising:

a processor, a memory, and a display controller,

wherein the processor, in conjunction with the memory, is structured to process the profile data received from a profiler,

wherein the display controller is to control a display device to display

a list of one or more functions of the video game program in a Functions List window of the display device based on the profile data analysis, each displayed function in the Functions List window being user selectable, and

a function graph of a user selected function in a Function Graph window of the display device based on the profile data analysis,

wherein the Function Graph and the Functions List windows are separate windows and are simultaneously displayed on the display device, and

wherein the function graph includes a data line and a highlight band tracking the data line, the data line representing a graph of instantaneous performance values of the selected function, a thickness of the highlight band representing a margin of error of the selected function, and the highlight band being simultaneously displayed with and surrounding the data line.

17. The analyzer of claim 16, wherein

the processor is structured to generate a mini-graph for each function based on the profile data, each mini-graph being a graph of the corresponding function'"'"'s performance over a duration of the profile data, and

the display controller is structured to control the display device to display the mini-graph in the Functions List Window within a predetermined area footprint.

18. The analyzer of claim 17, wherein the processor is structured to perform non-linear scaling to generate each mini-graph.

19. The analyzer of claim 18, wherein the processor is structured to perform exponential scaling to generate each mini-graph.

20. The analyzer of claim 16, wherein the display controller is structured to control the display device to display the function graph of the selected function to visually correlate the highlight band in the Function Graph window with the selected function in the Functions List window.

21. The analyzer of claim 16, wherein

the processor is structured to smooth the highlight band based on the data line such that the highlight band is on the data line, and

the display controller is structured to control the display device to display the data line and the smoothed highlight band.

22. The analyzer of claim 21, wherein in the processor is structured to smooth the highlight band so that the highlight band tracks a moving average of the data line within a predetermined window when a change in the data line within the predetermined window is within a predetermined percentage of the margin of error and tracks the data line substantially exactly otherwise.

23. The analyzer of claim 21, wherein the processor is structured to:

(1) set a window size parameter n=0;

(2) increment the window size parameter n=n+1;

(3) determine whether a moving window of size 2n+1 centered on a current time t lies within data line bounds of the profile data and proceed to (4) when the moving size lies within the data line bounds and proceed to (6) otherwise;

(4) determine whether either a first difference d(t+n)−

d(t) or a second difference d(t−

n)−

d(t) of the data line is within a predetermined margin of error percentage and proceed to (5) when both first and second differences are within the predetermined margin of error percentage and proceed to (6) otherwise;

(5) determine whether the window size parameter n is less than a predetermined maximum window size parameter and proceed to (2) when the window size parameter is less than the predetermined maximum window size parameter and proceed to (7) otherwise;

(6) decrement the window size parameter n=n−

1; and

(7) average the data values within the window of size 2n+1 centered on the current time t.

24. The analyzer of claim 16, wherein

the processor is structured to determine average performance values of the data line of the selected function for a portion of the corresponding function graph displayed in the Function Graph window, and

the display controller is structured to control the display device to display a graph representing the range and average performance values.

25. The analyzer of claim 24, wherein the display controller is structured to such that the graph representing the range and average performance values is simultaneously displayed with and is visually correlated to the corresponding function graph.

26. The analyzer of claim 16, wherein

the processor is structured to generate a performance graph of instantaneous performance values of the video game program, and

the display controller is structured to control the display device to display the performance graph in a Performance Graph window of the display device,

wherein the Performance Graph window is separate from the Functions List and the Function Graph windows and is simultaneously displayed with the Functions List and the Function Graph windows.

27. The analyzer of claim 26, wherein

the processor is structured to determine whether or not the performance graph is below a predetermined instantaneous performance value, and

the display controller is structured to control the display device to visually alert the user when the processor makes the determination.

28. The analyzer of claim 26, wherein

the processor is structured to scale along X-axis scales of the Function and Performance Graph windows so that the X-axis scales of the Function and Performance Graph windows correspond one-to-one to each other and to non-linearly scale along the X-axis scales of the Function and Performance Graph windows in response to the user input while maintaining the one-to-one correspondence, and

the display controller is structured to control the display device to display the scaled function graphs in the Function Graph window and the scaled performance graph in the Performance Graph window.

29. The analyzer of claim 26, wherein

the performance graph in the Performance Graph window is a graph of an instantaneous frame rate of the video game program at each frame of the profile data, and

the selected function'"'"'s data line in the Function Graph window represents a percentage of a frame time spent executing the function at each frame of the profile data.

30. For use with a video game console of a type that is responsive to a handheld controller input to execute a video game program and provide interactive animated displays, a method of collecting and transforming profile data of performance measurements from the video game program and visualizing and interactively manipulating the transformed data to visually present a dynamic behavior of the video game program that shows correlation of impacts that functions have on performance of the executing video game program, the method comprising:

collecting the profile data; and

displaying, by a profile analyzer, a function graph a function of the video game program selected by a user on a display device based on the profile data, the profile analyzer being implemented at least in part in hardware,

wherein the function graph includes a data line and a highlight band tracking the data line, the data line representing a graph of instantaneous performance values of the selected function, a thickness of the highlight band representing a margin of error of the selected function, and the highlight band being simultaneously displayed with and surrounding the data line.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein in the step of displaying the function graph comprises smoothing the highlight band such that the highlight band is always on the data line but does not always exactly track the data line.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein the step of smoothing the highlight band comprises tracking a moving average of the data line within a predetermined window when a change in the data line within the predetermined window is within a predetermined percentage of the margin of error, and tracking the data line substantially exactly otherwise.

33. The method of claim 30, further comprising scaling the function graph along an X-axis scale of the function graph in response to an input from the user requesting non-uniform scaling.

34. The method of claim 30, further comprising displaying a performance graph of instantaneous performance values of the video game program on the display device based on the profile data such that X-axis scales of the function graph and the performance graph correspond one-to-one to each other,

wherein the function graph is displayed in a window of the display device, the performance graph is displayed in a window of the display device separate from the window of the function graph, and the performance graph is simultaneously displayed with the function graph.

35. The method of claim 34, further comprising displaying the performance graph to visually alert the user when the performance graph drops below a predetermined instantaneous performance value.

36. The method of claim 30, further comprising:

displaying a graph representing range and average performance values for the data line of the selected function for a portion of the function graph currently being displayed based on the profile data,

wherein the graph is simultaneously displayed with and is visually correlated to the function graph.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein the graph representing the range and average performance values is simultaneously displayed with and is visually correlated to the corresponding function graph.

38. The method of claim 30, further comprising:

displaying a list of one or more functions of the video game program based on the profile data, the selected function being selected by the user from the displayed list; and

visually correlating the highlight band of the function graph with the selected function in the displayed list,

wherein the function graph is displayed in a window of the display device, the list is displayed in a window of the display device separate from the window of the function graph, and the list is simultaneously displayed with the function graph.

39. The method of claim 38, wherein each function in the list is displayed as a mini-graph of a corresponding function'"'"'s performance over a duration of the profile data, each mini-graph occupying a predetermined area footprint of the display device.

40. The method of claim 30, further comprising:

identifying one or more functions of the video game program for modification based on the dynamic behavior of the video game program visually presented in corresponding function graphs; and

modifying the identified function(s) to optimize the performance of the video game program.