CPU usage monitoring

[dranonymous]

I've done no research, so I'm open to be flamed.

Is there any way to detect what the cpu is doing while your program is running?  My thought is that I could run a 'stress test' on the computer the program is running on.  Depending on the results, it would set program options differently at runtime.  I could turn off music or load lower quality images, etc.

Any info?

[Inquisitor]

Google for profilers. Java actually has one itself (hotspot profiler) - try running your app with -xprof parameter. If you're using eclipse there's a really nice profiler plugin for it.

[dranonymous]

Thanks for the info on the -Xprof.  I have started using that just recently.

I'm actually trying to get at the info in the application itself.  In pseudo code, it might look like this -

1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10

if(CPU.getActivity() >= 0.60f) {     graphics.antiAliasing(false);     music.stop(); } if(CPU.getActivity() <= 0.20f) {     graphics.antiAliasing(true);     music.start();      botAI.setDifficulty(AI_HIGH); }

In the 'code' CPU.getActivity would return the processors current loading (think task manager in Windows, or ps or top for linux) as a float 0 being not loaded 1 being fully loaded.

I've used a similar technique before.  When network traffic got very high, it would start sucking the CPU.  In the graphics thread, I checked the loading and if it was too high, I skipped the draw for that frame.  This was in a C# program. (Don't flog me for not using java!)

Am I asking for the impossible?

Regards,
Aaron R>

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[princec]

You need to write a bit of JNI to do this.

Cas

[Abuse]

Is there any way to detect what the cpu is doing while your program is running?

Thats easy, its running your program =)

[elias]

I don't know why you want to measure CPU load instead of something more relevant to your game, like FPS. FPS can easily be measured in-game, so why not do something like:

if (fps < 60) {
 disableExpensiveStuff();
}

- elias