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[Dorm]

Hi All,

Not sure where to post this and as it is quite general don't want to put a bug report in yet for each specific occurrence.

I have been playing Dwarf Fortress for a while but I keep getting frustrated as my fortresses get a bit bigger. I start out at 150 fps (cap) and slowly work down to ~50 fps (probably due to my inability to clean up and fortress design) which is still relatively playable but as soon as a siege starts dwarf fortress will just crash.

I have started to play on smaller and smaller embark areas as I assumed this was just my processor giving up the ghost but it is still occurring with 2x2 embark areas with ~80 dwarfs and I'm still capped at 150 fps.

I was wondering if anyone knew of some steps to try and fix it myself before I start setting up bug reports?

Thanks for any help offered!

PS: Computer is i5 @ 3GHZ and 8 GB ram (I'm aware only 1 core is used though).

[WoobMonkey]

Have you tried setting the program's priority to highest?

If you're using the LNP, there's a button for that.  If you're running a Windows PC, open the Task Manager, right-click DF, and set priority to max.

Also, what size world have you genned?  Are there many civs?

[Dorm]

I'm using Masterwork DF loading tool with priority set to realtime (I am assuming that is highest but will manually force it too).

The most recent world I have created is 67x67 with I think 5-7 civ's - this one appears to be crashing even at 150 fps though with a 2x2 embark area and 77 dwarves.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

[BigD145]

Limit DF to a single core. Do this immediately after starting the exe. This should clear up your issue. Setting priority higher could cause even more problems.

One core IS used but your OS is constantly changing which core that is. You want DF to stay on one core.

[Dorm]

Hi guys,

I've just tried limiting DF to my second core and also had a look in the error log (minor error was showing that I wasn't sure if it caused the crash).

Just deleted error log, re-ran my game on a single core and still crashes (and doesn't produced any new error log) - guess more serious and time to start putting in the bug reports!

[BigD145]

Are you overclocking your i5? Do you get the same problem if you run DF directly and not use the Masterwork loader? DF still works without the Masterwork exe. That thing just adjusts the raws, which are thereafter fine. This just sounds like a Masterwork thing. Best to ask in that part of the mod forums.

[WoobMonkey]

Another, possibly silly, question - is your CPU overheating, by any chance? 

[Dorm]

Nah not overclocking at all - will go over to the masterwork forum and see if I can find anything!

Will try using vanilla DF soon and then report on bug tracker if I get crashes then.

PS: the CPU shouldn't be overheating - will try that first to rule it out though

EDIT - Just tested, my CPU is running at ~55oC in idle in the room (probably a bit hot) but is not massively affected when I run DF on that core. I would also not expect to have 150 fps (even with the small fort) if the CPU was struggling in the heat I think?

[BigD145]

FPS is not exactly what you think it is in DF.

55C idle is quite hot.

[Dorm]

Sorry for not getting back sooner!

I thought FPS was essentially the number of "steps" taken in DF?

I had a dig around anyway and tried hashing out all of the lines for digging invaders in dfhack.init file and worked perfectly! (strangely even though I have disabled this option)

Checked around and that seems to only be specific to MasterworkDF - so fixes current crashes and will still with masterwork for a while. This has given me a lot of info on things crashing though so might be able to fix it when vanilla DF crashes when I go back to it!

Thanks for all your help guys.