A debug statement is the most important part of any development process. Anything and everything can be tracked and traced through debug statements. However, being a system printing call, each debug statement comes with a cost on performance, which has a direct effect on runtime FPS. This is why a strategy on the placement of debug statements is absolutely necessary.
Let's have a look at the strategies related to following categories:
- Memory allocation
- Tracking the object state
- Checking the program flow
- Tracking object values
In a game development object cycle, an object should be allocated once per initialization and deallocated on destruction. However, due to manual programming mistakes, developers forget to free the memory. In this case, the garbage collector cleans the memory when it is invoked by the system automatically. This way, a lag in performance is observed.
Now, as a strategic placement to trace such mistakes, two debug messages should be placed at the constructor and destructor.
Also, a debug statement after initializing each object ensures a successful initialization of the object. This can reveal the amount of memory it consumes.
An object can be initialized at any time during gameplay. Now, any external dependency in the initialization process can cause failure of allocation. So, the object goes into null state and might cause an exception if not handled properly.
A successful debug statement and a failed debug statement (with reason) helps the developer rectify the issue.
Many times, a wrong deallocation also changes the state of the object. So, the debug statement identifies the spot. The developer can solve the issue with the help of debug statements both for objects and program flow.
A debug statement in every method clearly shows the call hierarchy and program flow. A modular program can be tested with this system. Then, the module set can be tested with one debug statement in each module start.
Any wrong or unnecessary calls can be removed or rectified through this process. Proper program flow ensures a certain frame rate during runtime. So, this approach can be used to optimize performance.
Even after a successful initialization of the object, the content may not be correct. So, putting a debug statement to check the loaded/initialized content is necessary to avoid future conflicts.
This is very useful when loading data from an external source. Debug statements are used to verify the loaded data after initialization. Any program module can be designed using an object-tracking method, resulting in a better programming structure.