slight performance suggestion

Wherever you use float division you could replace it with float multiplication (faster).
for example:
_SIO2particle->speed = (float)sio2Randomui( (unsigned int)MAX_SPEED ) / 100.0f;
could be
_SIO2particle->speed = (float)sio2Randomui( (unsigned int)MAX_SPEED ) * 0.01f;

Not much of a factor, but it all adds up .

you are absolutely right... I try to do that as much as I could within SIO2, but for the tutorials well that's just for demonstration purpose so... but in any case if you find some within the SIO2 code lemme know!

Cheers,

Can I ask why that is faster? Ans why --i is faster than i--. Any reason? Just curious

Multiplication is always faster than division, for CPU optimization reasons. I'm sure google knows exactly why.

So, instead of dividing by ten, multiply by 0.1, for the same result but faster!




-j

Thanks! That make sens, but --i is faster than i--, that doesn't make sens to me

oioioi wrote:Can I ask why that is faster? Ans why --i is faster than i--. Any reason? Just curious

Division is extremely slow in most CPUs, it's a matter of how the circuitry is constructed. Multiplication is always much faster.
(Some CPUs don't even offer hardware support for division, it is emulated in software!)

freebird373 wrote:Wherever you use float division you could replace it with float multiplication (faster).
for example:
_SIO2particle->speed = (float)sio2Randomui( (unsigned int)MAX_SPEED ) / 100.0f;
could be
_SIO2particle->speed = (float)sio2Randomui( (unsigned int)MAX_SPEED ) * 0.01f;

Not much of a factor, but it all adds up .

A few comments regarding this:

1) most good compilers like GCC, which is used for iPhone development, automatically "optimize" division by a constant into multiplication by the inverse constant. I haven't checked this on the iPhone SDK, but I would be shocked if it didn't do this.

2) Multiplication and Division can be made equally as fast on modern hardware. It all depends on the architecture. For iPhone, division is slower than multiplication.

3) The original form is preferable for readability.

SPQR

Someone should do some time tests ;.

This article is bit outdated but suggests not to use division at all.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms839365.aspx

My results from a little test on the 2G ipod touch.

temp = 525.0 / 3.0f;
vs.
temp = 525.0 * 0.333333334f;

One iteration
div: 0.0000099999999748 secs
mult: 0.0000059999999849 secs


10,000 iterations
div: 0.0001499999996213 secs
mult: 0.0001259999996819 secs


eh, NOT much of a difference as expected.

hummmmmm really interesting... more of theses type of benchmark would be great that can help us all to optimize our code better...

Cheers and tks!,