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Does reading lots of information from an array object every frame have any kind of negative effects? (Latency, ect...)
And if so, would alterable values be faster?
(Im making a game where alot of information about the in-game units needs to be stored and accessed every frame, and i figured arrays would be useful, and they have built in saving and loading.)
Arrays Read From virtual memory, so there shouldest be any problem... Why have you had trouble?
No, i was going to code an engine where everything is stored in an array, and because of the saving/loading functionality, this would make it where you can save your game and load it identical to the way you left it.
Then someone told me the read/write latency for a project like this was intolerable. :(
Just making sure. :)
I think that they might have been talking about constantly reading/writing from the disk, but I don't think even that would be 'intolerable' (certainly inadvisable, though).
No, they read from physical memory most of the time..Quote:
Originally Posted by SEELE
NO THEY DONT!
Excuse me?
I think there is confusion because you are both using different definitions of the term "virtual memory".
Common usage propagated by Windows:
Physical memory = Storing data stuff on sticks of RAM, etc.
Virtual memory = Memory space (e.g. swap file / page file) on a hard drive (or some other means of alternative storage) used to store data that should be in the physical memory, but for which there is no space to store in the physical memory.
Alternative usage:
Virtual memory: A memory address scheme which supports an address space greater than physical memory (which could potentially necessitate a swap file or similar). This means that virtual addresses are transparently converted into physical addresses in physical memory or on tertiary/alternative storage.
Conclusion:
If we were to go by the first definition of virtual memory, then Jam is correct that it isn't often read from virtual memory (as in the paging file).
If we were to go by the alternative definition of virtual memory, then SEELE is correct that it is often read from virtual memory (be it on on physical memory or a paging file).
Im confused, which is it? :(
The array object will load the array file from your hard drive into memory when you tell it to, and then when you request a value it will read it from memory.
yer, thx joshtech i hadn't heard the first definition... but i can see how it makes sence.