Lesson 2

Table of Contents

Vorbis Resource Usage

The Vorbis format requires significantly more CPU than PCM, but much less memory. Let’s estimate the performance usage, and compare your estimates.

  1. From the Layouts menu, select Designer.

  2. In the Project Explorer's Audio tab, select the DungeonAndEnemies Music Segment.

  3. In the Property Editor, select the Conversion tab.

  4. In the Conversion Settings group box, click the Pop Out button next to the Music_Detailed Conversion Settings.

  5. In the Conversion Settings Editor’s Format column, set all platforms to Vorbis.

  6. Click Convert....

  7. In the Audio File Conversion dialog, select your working platform and press Convert.

    Let’s play the Music Segment while capturing the performance usage with the Profiler.

  8. In the toolbar, click Start Capture.

  9. In the Transport Control, make sure Play Converted is selected and click Play.

    Let the Music Segment play until the end.

  10. In the toolbar, click Stop Capture to stop capturing.

  11. From the Layouts menu, select Profiler.

  12. Select the Advanced Profiler's Plug-ins tab.

    As described earlier, consider repositioning the time cursor to a point that represents the average of the CPU - Plug-in Total usage.

  13. In the Vorbis row, note down the % CPU usage.

    As demonstrated in the above measurements, having the music in Vorbis would increase the CPU usage by about 40 times as much (from 0.0394% to 1.7%) compared to PCM. In contrast, the Converted Size would be reduced by approximately 88 MB (7.2% of the total PCM size), and so leave the music in the Vorbis format.


Was this page helpful?