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Wizard Joined: 14 Aug 2004 Posts: 1269

[Edit: Changed from 1.09 to 1.15 since this non-critical issue remains.]

I've noticed that CMUD uses CPU when I think it shouldn't do under some circumstances.

Case (a):

Steps to reproduce:
1. Open CMUD and do nothing. The Sessions window will appear. CMUD uses some CPU, which is particularly noticeable when I put my laptop into minimum CPU speed mode. It uses a few percent but varies when I have CMUD in the background. But if CMUD is in the foreground, this rises to around 40 or 50%, but varying widly, up to 85% (on task manager). Testing more, if seems to be dependent on exactly where the focus is. It is particularly bad when I click on a MUD Session icon or otherwise shift the focus to a MUD Session icon by Alt-tabbing or clicking on the CMUD Sessions icon on the task bar. (It was also possible to get the Sessions window to display Stay on top behaviour intermittently during my experiments.) [Edit: I've FOUND IT: If I put the mouse over any of the Session icons or the white background on which they are placed, CPU rises to about the 50%.]

Case (b):

2. (cont.d from above) Open a session with an imported MUD file offline. (Uses CPU to open it and then it goes back to virtually nothing.)

3. Reconnect session. I get a couple of exceptions which I submit to Zugg.

4. Login to the account menu of the MUD. Some CPU is being used and nothing is going on. Not too much though, but enough to warrant me trying to look for any #ALARMS that might be set.

5. I open the Settings Editor by clicking on the Triggers button on the toolbar. It uses a lot of CPU. Between 50 and 100%. (My laptop is still on minimum CPU speed setting though.)

6. I Alt-Tab into my browser to type more of this message. CPU dies right-down (I have Task Manager minimised, so I can see the little icon in my systray.) I restore Task Manager and see that CMUD is using between 8 and 11% CPU.

7. I Alt-Tab back to CMUD and it starts using 100% CPU.

8. I give the main CMUD window focus, which by now has been disconnected by the MUD as being idle too long before loging in proper. CPU is low.

9. I give focus back to the Settings Editor. Bizarely, CPU is still low.

10. I click on CMUD in the task bar, but CMUD decides that it should give the Settings Editor focus and not the main window that I clicked on. CPU spikes at 100% for a few seconds and goes back down.

11. AHA!!! I've found it! If the mouse cursor is over the "tree" view in the settings editor, including the scroll bar, but not including the icons on the left or the class / package selector at the top, CPU is at 100%.

If anyone has any other cases, maybe post them here? I will. I think I've had others, but can't reproduce them now.

Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 5:30 am

Hmm, how slow is your computer? I can't reproduce any of this.

When I put my cursor over session icons, the CPU goes to about 5% for an instance (to display the tooltip for the icon), then drops to zero immediately.

When I put my cursor over something in the tree view in the settings editor, the CPU goes to about 2%. I'm not sure if it's also trying to display some tooltip or not, but I certainly don't get 100% CPU. But this is a pretty fast computer.

Maybe you can send me the *.PKG file that you have loaded into the settings editor so I can see if it's settings dependant or something.

Wizard Joined: 14 Aug 2004 Posts: 1269

Well my laptop is a 1.7 GHz Pentium-M (which is level 8 in the Toshiba Power Saver), but when I'm on battery power, my default power profile reduces that to 593 MHz (the minimum setting - level 1). 1.7 GHz Pentium-M is about equivalent to a 2.7 GHz P4 in benchmarks - don't know about the other speeds though. When on full speed, the CPU barely registers. If I turn it down to a setting which is Level 3-8 (it's supposed to adapt automatically according to load), the CPU used by CMUD is about 10% in the Settings Editor but variable. It increases whenever I move the mouse anywhere, but reduces down to about 8% - 11% when I leave the mouse on the tree view. The Sessions window is about the same.

So it seems that on a fast computer you won't notice it, but there must be some kind of loop, as on a slower one you will. And it's not just about speed. It's about battery life and cooling. That's why I have my CPU down so low on battery (but when I'm actually MUDding, I'm usually plugged in and so I turn it up to the max or triggers run slowly).

It's not my package file - I can reproduce the CPU issue without ever loading my package - I open CMUD, choose Materia Magica offline, click triggers, move my mouse over to the tree.

Wizard Joined: 03 Mar 2001 Posts: 1127 Location: London

Another way. Go to the reference flyout, and click the dropdown list, then use mousewheel to scroll up/down continuously. CPU jumps to 50%-85%. This on an Athlon XP 3200+ with 2GB RAM

Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 5:01 pm

Guinn: anything you do like moving the mousewheel to scroll the list is obviously going to use CPU because it's causing that menu to constantly refresh and redraw as you scroll it. So I'm not worried about stuff like that. It's the CPU activity when nothing is actively being done (like what Seb is reporting) that worries me more.

Seb: Thanks for the info. I'll look into the DevExpress code and see what kind of processing they are doing on mouse-over. My guess is that it's some kind of tooltip thing. But thanks for verifying that it's only an issue on slow computer settings. That means that the 2-3% that I'm seeing in the settings editor is the same as what you are seeing, and I should be able to track that down.

Wizard Joined: 14 Aug 2004 Posts: 1269

This non-critical issue remains in 1.15.