Memory banks versus integer data
Blitz3D Forums/Blitz3D Programming/Memory banks versus integer data
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Graphics3D ( 800, 600, 32, 2 ) miBanco% = CreateBank() PokeByte miBanco%, 0,255 datoByte% = PeekByte (miBanco%,0) FreeBank miBanco% miNumero% = 255 Repeat RenderWorld Text 0,0, datoByte% Text 0, 10, miNumero% Flip Until KeyHit(1) If you use a memory for storing a number not exceeding the data type byte, 255, I'm saving memory ?, I ask that the integer data type has a higher rank. |
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| You'd save memory, but IIRC Blitz can handle integers faster than the other datatypes, so using bytes may be very slightly slower. |
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| I thought the memory banks were much faster. In such a case when retrieving the data type byte bank, move to a integer variable and achievement does not understand what is the advantage of a bank. datoByte% = PeekByte (Mibanco%, 0) |
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| The advantage of a bank is you can store more than a single value.... Useful for reading files into memory and then parsing through them..... Useful for returning multiple values from a function (store them in a bank and return the bank handle) The main drawback is that you have to get your bank offsets correct otherwise you will end up reading/writing junk data to/from the bank.... |
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| Memory banks can be faster when dealing with blocks of memory but AFAIK generally are inefficient for high frequency retrieval of discrete values. |
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| I have used a bank in one case when i needed to store the heights (between 0 and 255) of a huge terrain. Because there is no way in Blitz3d to create a dim array with bytes instead of integers, i used a bank with bytes to store these heights without taking too much memory... |
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| I recently had to do something extremely similar to RemiD and yeah, it can save memory because you're using 1/4 the bytes, but may not necessarily be faster due to extra time in processing and locating the data... It all really depends on the amount of data and the frequency/complexity of the processes which use and manipulate it. Anyway, coincidentally, I recently thought I'd share this: http://www.blitzbasic.com/codearcs/codearcs.php?code=3171 |
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| @_PJ_>>interesting, i will take a look when i have more time. You may be interested in this : http://www.blitzbasic.com/Community/posts.php?topic=101699 (not sure if this works correctly) |
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| I'll have a look over that in more detail this evening. Seems pretty intriguing! |
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