ModernUO/Projects/UOContent/Engines/Pathing/PathfindRecorder.cs
Kamron Batman b852bca41e
perf(pathing): pool the StepCache strata buffer, then clean up the pathing engine around it (#2523)
Started as an allocation pass over `StepCache` and grew into a cleanup of the surrounding pathing engine. Four commits, each independently reviewable; net **−560 lines**.

Build clean (0 warnings). All 122 `Server.Tests.Pathfinding` tests pass.

---

## 1. `perf`: pool the strata buffer, cut a hot-path dictionary lookup

**The headline is that `TryGetMask` — the actual hot path — was already allocation-free.** `StepMask` is a readonly struct, `StaticTileEnumerable` is a `ref struct`, `ChunkMissState` is a struct in a `Dictionary`. So most of this is a bake-throughput and GC-churn win, with one exception noted below.

`BuildChunk` accumulated packed multi-Z strata into a `List<byte>` that grew by doubling (256 → 512 → 1024 → …) and then paid a final `ToArray()`. A full map bake runs it ~114k times. It now writes into a `byte[]` rented from `STArrayPool<byte>.Shared` through a span writer, and hands the chunk one exact-size copy.

**This required fixing a latent out-of-bounds guard.** The record-fit check reserved headroom for **8** strata (`StratumByteLength * 8`) while `ComputeStandableSurfaceZs` can return up to **16** — so a cell could write 305 bytes starting from a 65,383-byte offset. Against a `List` that was benign (it just grew past 64 KB, and emitted offsets stayed under the `NoStrata` sentinel). Against a fixed-size rented buffer it is an out-of-bounds write, so tightening it was a *prerequisite* for the pooling, not a drive-by. The guard is now exact, which additionally proves no emitted offset can collide with `NoStrata == ushort.MaxValue`.

**One genuine query-path win:** `ShouldPromoteAfterMiss` did *two* dictionary lookups per miss — a `TryGetValue`, then an indexer assignment that re-hashes and re-probes. It now mutates in place via `CollectionsMarshal.GetValueRefOrNullRef`. This runs on every uncached chunk touch during A* expansion. The window-expiry branch keeps its explicit early return, so `MissPromotionThreshold == 1` still resets rather than promoting.

Also dropped `StepProbe.ComputeStrataAt` / `ComputedStratum` (dead code, zero callers) and collapsed six 18-argument `new StepMask(0, 0, …, kind)` blocks into `Fallthrough(kind)`.

**Considered and rejected:** pooling the `Direction[]` that `Find` returns. It *escapes* the call — `MovementPath` holds it across ticks while `PathFollower` walks `m_Index` through it — so it cannot be rented-and-returned, and it cannot be borrowed from the shared `BitmapAStarAlgorithm.Instance` without one creature clobbering another's in-flight path. `CheckPath` rate-limits repaths to one per 2s per creature, putting this at roughly 60 KB/sec at 1,000 pathing creatures. Not worth a public API break plus a use-after-return footgun.

## 2. `docs`: rewrite the comments for publication

The comments had accumulated as development notes: internal phase jargon (`Tier 4`, `the Phase-2 synthesizer`), change narration aimed at a reviewer (`which the old ComputeStandingZ anchor missed`, `legacy behavior`), benchmark anecdotes (`benchmarked as near-optimal`, `a ~20 ns lookup`), and paragraphs restating the code.

Rewritten to keep the rationale you cannot recover by reading the code — why the source-Z guard cannot be widened, why multis fall through with a halo, why the promotion gate counts Finds rather than calls, why `ComputeFingerprint` must hash the *files* and not the live tile tables — and drop the history that got us there.

Three comments were **factually wrong**, not just wordy:

- `CacheEvictionTimer` and `CacheStats` documented a class called `StaticWalkabilityCache`. No such class exists — it is `StepCache`.
- `StepCacheFile` declared `File layout v8` while `FormatVersion` is 9, and called the current record layout "the v6 layout" in four places. The layout descriptions are now unversioned so they cannot drift again.
- `StepProbe.ComputeStandingZ` claimed `StepCache` uses it to bake `SourceZ`. It has not since the baker moved to the clearance-aware `ComputeStandableSurfaceZs`; only a parity test calls it.

## 3. `refactor`: simplify `StepCacheFile.Write`, consolidate the format tests

`SaveToFile` walked `_keysList` **twice** — once to count the map's chunks, then again through a `ChunkEnumerator` closure to emit them — because `Write` needed the count up front to size its index array. Both loops had the same root cause. Passing a **span** collapses them: the count is just `span.Length`.

That deletes the `ChunkEnumerator` delegate, the closure over the list enumerator, and **both `InvalidOperationException` throws**, which existed only to police the delegate's "yield exactly `chunkCount` chunks" contract — a contract a span makes unrepresentable.

`Write` now patches the header's `IndexOffset` by seeking back to it rather than reaching into the writer's live buffer with `BinaryPrimitives`. That also retires `IndexOffsetFieldPosition`, a hand-maintained byte offset that had to track the header layout, and sidesteps the stale-array hazard that motivated the manual patch (`BufferWriter` reallocates on growth).

**Tests:** `StepCacheFileV6/V7/V8Tests` were named for the format version that introduced each transform — and the format is now **v9**, so all three names described formats the loader rejects outright. Beyond triplicated builders and plumbing, two things were actually broken:

- The three near-identical rejection tests each cited a `MinSupportedVersion` that had since moved (`"version 5 < MinSupportedVersion 6"`, `"6 < 7"`, `"7 < 8"`). They passed for the wrong reason.
- `AssertBaseEqual` (used by V7 and V8) **silently skipped the swim and strata trailers**. A regression dropping either would not have failed those tests.

Now one `StepCacheFileFormatTests`, named for behavior — predictive-Z elision, compression, compact index — with a single `AssertIdentical` that does check both trailers, the three rejection tests folded into one theory that also covers a future version, and a zero-chunk case the delegate-based writer never had coverage for.

## 4. `test`: consolidate the parity and lifecycle tests

Three files tested "parity" and none of the names said *which*. They were three different layers, and the seams are the useful part, so they are now one `StepCacheParityTests` that names them:

| Test | Compares | Answers |
|---|---|---|
| `ProbeMatchesSlowPath` | StepProbe vs MovementImpl | Is the bake right? |
| `CacheMatchesProbe` | StepCache vs StepProbe | Is it stored and returned intact? |
| `CacheServesReachableWalkStates` | StepCache vs MovementImpl | End to end, over the states A* visits |

Merging removed a duplicated stub `Mobile`, duplicated region seeds, and a filename/class mismatch (`StepProbeParityTests.cs` declared `StaticWalkabilityParityTests`). `SwimBake_ProducesWetCells` moved with it — it lived in the cache parity file but never touched the cache.

Tests reached into `StepCache._chunks` via `GetField` in **9 places**, each rebuilding the key encoding and cell-index arithmetic by hand. `StepCache` now exposes `GetResidentChunk` and `ResidentIndexInSync` alongside the internal test hooks it already had (`LazyReaderHasChunk`, `CurrentFindGeneration`), and the shared arithmetic moved to `PathingTestSupport`. All 9 reflection blocks are gone.

`StepCacheLifecycleTests` is regrouped by what it covers — promotion gate, fallthrough routes, strata, swim layer, eviction — with the `Tier4*` names dropped. Removed `Singleton_IsAvailable`, which asserted an inline-initialized static property was not null; that is the entire 123 → 122 test-count delta.

---

## Verification

Tests were mutation-checked rather than just run, since round-trip and parity tests can pass while a transform silently no-ops:

- Injecting an off-by-one into the `IndexOffset` patch fails **15 of 123** — the format tests are load-bearing.
- Offsetting the cache's cell index by one fails **7 of 10** parity cases, and the 3 that stay green are exactly the ones that do not touch the cache. The layering localizes a fault rather than just reporting one.
2026-07-12 20:02:29 -07:00

152 lines
5.2 KiB
C#

using System.IO;
using System.Text;
using Server.Logging;
using Server.Mobiles;
using Server.Text;
namespace Server.Engines.Pathing;
/// <summary>
/// Appends one JSONL record per pathfind, capturing the inputs — start, goal, map, capability
/// flags — needed to replay it later in a benchmark. Toggled at runtime with [PathRecord;
/// <see cref="Configure"/> only seeds the initial state from server.cfg.
///
/// Meant for short bursts: turn it on, walk the region or trigger the scenario, turn it off. The
/// writes go through a StreamWriter's buffer on the game thread, so a busy shard doing hundreds of
/// pathfinds a second can saturate that buffer and stall the loop on disk I/O. Sustained capture
/// would need an async sink with backpressure.
/// </summary>
public static class PathfindRecorder
{
private static readonly ILogger logger = LogFactory.GetLogger(typeof(PathfindRecorder));
private static StreamWriter _writer;
public static bool Enabled { get; private set; }
public static string OutputPath { get; set; }
public static long RecordsWritten { get; private set; }
public static void Configure()
{
OutputPath = ServerConfiguration.GetOrUpdateSetting(
"pathfinding.recorder.path",
Path.Combine(Core.BaseDirectory, "Data", "Pathfinding", "recordings", "pathfinds.jsonl")
);
var startEnabled = ServerConfiguration.GetOrUpdateSetting("pathfinding.recorder.enable", false);
if (startEnabled)
{
SetEnabled(true);
}
}
/// <summary>
/// Toggles recording, opening the file on enable and flushing and closing it on disable.
/// Idempotent.
/// </summary>
public static void SetEnabled(bool enabled)
{
if (enabled == Enabled)
{
return;
}
if (enabled)
{
try
{
Directory.CreateDirectory(Path.GetDirectoryName(OutputPath) ?? ".");
var stream = new FileStream(OutputPath, FileMode.Append, FileAccess.Write, FileShare.Read);
_writer = new StreamWriter(stream, new UTF8Encoding(false));
Enabled = true;
logger.Information("PathfindRecorder enabled, writing to {Path}", OutputPath);
}
catch (IOException ex)
{
logger.Warning(ex, "PathfindRecorder: failed to open {Path} for write", OutputPath);
_writer = null;
Enabled = false;
}
}
else
{
Enabled = false;
try
{
_writer?.Flush();
_writer?.Dispose();
}
catch (IOException ex)
{
logger.Warning(ex, "PathfindRecorder: error closing {Path}", OutputPath);
}
_writer = null;
logger.Information("PathfindRecorder disabled ({Count} records this session)", RecordsWritten);
}
}
/// <summary>
/// Pushes the writer's buffer to disk, so a capture can be inspected without disabling first.
/// No-op when disabled.
/// </summary>
public static void Flush()
{
try
{
_writer?.Flush();
}
catch (IOException ex)
{
logger.Warning(ex, "PathfindRecorder: flush failed for {Path}", OutputPath);
}
}
/// <summary>
/// Records one Find. Sits on the pathfinding hot path, so it costs a single bool check when
/// disabled.
/// </summary>
public static void RecordIfEnabled(Mobile m, Map map, Point3D start, Point3D goal)
{
if (!Enabled || _writer == null || m == null || map == null)
{
return;
}
var canSwim = false;
var canFly = false;
var canOpenDoors = false;
var canMoveOverObstacles = false;
if (m is BaseCreature bc)
{
canSwim = bc.CanSwim;
canFly = bc.CanFly;
canOpenDoors = bc.CanOpenDoors;
canMoveOverObstacles = bc.CanMoveOverObstacles;
}
try
{
// One interpolation covers every numeric field without a per-field ToString. The bools
// are appended as literals because JSON wants lowercase and bool.ToString() capitalizes.
using var vsb = ValueStringBuilder.Create(192);
vsb.Append(
$"{{\"Name\":\"recorded\",\"MapId\":{map.MapID},\"StartX\":{start.X},\"StartY\":{start.Y},\"StartZ\":{start.Z},\"GoalX\":{goal.X},\"GoalY\":{goal.Y},\"GoalZ\":{goal.Z},\"CanSwim\":"
);
vsb.Append(canSwim ? "true" : "false");
vsb.Append(",\"CanFly\":");
vsb.Append(canFly ? "true" : "false");
vsb.Append(",\"CanOpenDoors\":");
vsb.Append(canOpenDoors ? "true" : "false");
vsb.Append(",\"CanMoveOverObstacles\":");
vsb.Append(canMoveOverObstacles ? "true" : "false");
vsb.Append("}\n");
_writer.Write(vsb.AsSpan());
RecordsWritten++;
}
catch (IOException ex)
{
logger.Warning(ex, "PathfindRecorder: write failed, disabling");
SetEnabled(false);
}
}
}