Debugging w/ XACT in a proj
Hey guys,
Had a question regarding XACT in the April SDK. I noticed there is a multitude of threads being utilized with XACT during debugging, and I believe the context switching is making it timely to step through code line for line. The problem I'm having is I find it hard to debug since every step in the code takes about 10 or 12 seconds to pocess. Is there a way to make debugging in an XAct program smooth without adding critical sections all over the place?
Using Visual Studio.net 2003, win32 C++ app.
Thanks for any advice or clarification.
Hi Strakian. I've had the same problem myself, and I'm not aware of any way to prevent execution of all other threads while you're stepping through a thread in Visual Studio. However I'm not a Visual Studio expert, and there may be a way to do this - I'd scan the documentation for something like "suspending/freezing threads".
What I can suggest is to use WinDBG in cases where this issue really prevents you from debugging at all. WinDBG lets you suspend or freeze any thread using the ~n and ~f commands. It's available at http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/devtools/debugging/installx86.mspx, and it is more powerful than the VS debugger in many ways, if a little harder to use. (I use it exclusively.)
Finally, you could set the priority of the thread you're trying to debug to "Above Normal" to minimize context switches to other threads while debugging.
Hope that helps -
Dugan Porter - Game Audio Team - Microsoft
This posting is provided "as is" with no warranties, and confers no rights
