Game Development Community

Debug Question

by Anthony Rosenbaum · in General Discussion · 08/26/2004 (7:19 pm) · 4 replies

I usually find code errors by tracing, a print here an echo there. More and more I see the limitation of this type of debugging. So I have started exploring the Debug Feature of VS C++ 6.0 Sadly the manual is rather lacking when it comes to an explanation of how to debug, so I started guessing. I saw something called "attach to process" It lets you monitor a running app. Nothing really happens while the program is running but when it gets shut off some information is displayed.

Now I am trying to track down an error that seems to occur very randomly and has to do with the getBinRange function which just happens to be called by just about everything at one moment or another. It is related to the minCoord and maxCoord. Problem is the assertation call only tells me where it occurs not what triggered the function and passed in the variables to begin with.

So my question is this, if I set up a dedicated server and "attach to process" the VS debugger I be able to get the step by step process of what eventually triggered the crash?
NextNext Thread
PrevPrevious Thread
More from General Discussion


Torque Owner Drew Hitchcock
#1
08/26/2004 (8:57 pm)
Have you tried opening the call stack window? I think you can open it with view|debug windows|call stack, or just hit alt-7. It basically lets you step backward in time and see what functions were called to get you where you are now. It's pretty useful, especially for random crashes.

Associate Anthony Rosenbaum
#2
08/27/2004 (5:27 am)
While the program run I have "(call stack unavailable while child is running)" so I need to wait for a crash then I presume

Torque Owner Drew Hitchcock
#3
08/27/2004 (10:21 am)
Yeah, you'll either need to crash or hit a breakpoint probably. It would be moving way too fast while the program is running, anyway.

Torque Owner Mz
#4
08/27/2004 (2:42 pm)
It would probably easier to start the program inside the debugger (Don't attach to a running process if you can avoid it) and wait for a crash. Just use start debug off the build menu.

Then it ought to drop you right at the crash with a functioning call stack window.