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[levraininjaneer]

Whoa: again a very good answer.

I'm getting quite desparate for a way to improve FPS as I've had multiple forts dying FPS deaths just as they came into their prime.

I find that my machine can handle 60 dwarves well, but 80, the minimum required for goblin action (unmodded) is too many.

[PatrikLundell]

Adjusting the goblin pop siege level isn't considered modding, since it's an available parameter (which I usually set to 1 = 20; you might like 2 = 50). Likewise, the titan level in advanced world gen should be adjusted downwards to match.

[Fleeting Frames]

Out of other parameters, temperature and weather have substantial effects on FPS and can be turned off unless you work with fire, magma, ice, evil biomes or murky pools.

As far as embark location goes, a forest can have a large impact, especially as season changes and all new growths pop up. Furthermore, since lot of calculations are per tile, doing smaller embarks and generating thinner worlds are helpful.

When designing a fortress, clear non-interrupted paths are preferable. Digging may be hardly avoidable, but a door linked to a repeater can cost a bit, though bridges have their own special place in hell (even a retracting bridge on flat ground in fresh embark linked to repeat lever will visibly stagger the game every time it toggles). Getting back towards the original thread topic, this also includes the changing squares of pathable and unpathable water near, say, where river flows off the map (beyond the cost of the water flow calculation itself), classic dwarven water reactor or the pump mist generator it is powering, should the pump ring be rotating 4+ water. (Mist, smoke and miasma have lesser effects that are however much easily caused in mass.)

Oh, and in actions every job seeks materials/dwarves as well, so large stockpiles/engraving areas can cost a bit.

[levraininjaneer]

Yeah, I've done quite a study and implemented most of what you mentioned here.

Some comments on yours:

Flowing liquids are a no-no, but easily avoidable.

I'm not so sure about the stockpiles, though. I've had forts getting slow and "tested" deleting *all* the stockpiles that I had. Did not even make a difference I could notice. Is it not possible that the combination of eligible object and open stockpile tiles (and dwarves to do the work) cause the FPS hurt?

However amount of dwarves (or creatures: visitors can be a bitch, so can invaders) I think overshadows any other factor. I've had 2x2 embarks that did not even pierce a cavern that just died to FPS when 80 dwarves was reached. Much sadness.

I never knew about bridges though.
Do you mean that, when a bridge changes from down to retracted (or raised) it impacts FPS just for the change? In other words, having many bridges is no problem, but raising / retracting bridges frequently fo impact?

[Fleeting Frames]

Yup on stockpiles - it's the job-seeking behaviour that's the issue.

And kinda on bridges. Sure, there's the same impact on FPS that comes with toggling furniture, but the momentary timestop caused by recalculating everything even when nothing changes when one turns on or off is something to be seen.

It might be something else like the constant job rotation for pickup equipment for you too, though, since my 3x5 fort (102 citizens, 134 pets, 41 visitors/wild animals) with temperature, weather, 3 caverns, thick world and multiple magma and water rivers is singing along at 30-40 FPS, and the biggest difference between FPS of two different players in community forts has been 6 times.

[levraininjaneer]

I've posted a link called "Help: An FPS mystery to solve"

About my 2x2 fort where experienced a sudden drop in FPS and I still don't know why.

It was an interesting experiment in how much the different factors (stockpiles, trees, animals, overcrowding, temperature, weather) mattered, since changing any of these did very little to help the FPS.

In the end I gave up, since I couldn't get the FPS up to what I considered at the time an acceptable level, and I was kinda eager to start a new fort and "apply what I've learnt" anyway.

Would be really cool to solve the mystery though. I'd appreciate it a lot if you could look at it?

[levraininjaneer]

I checked again: removing all stockpiles leads to no FPS improvement. In fact, it seems to get a bit worse. But the worseness may be caused by something else.

The game on my PC stabilizes at about 50-60 FPS, which I've come to accept since then. But it does kinda feel criminal for a 2x2 embark, with only 60 dwarves.

[Fleeting Frames]

Unfortunately, I'm not really very familiar /able to check FPS-dropping check spam or ways to check it much beyond what I posted. Poorly setup squads causing massive FPS loss was surprise to me, for instance.

Even for FPS drain bugs I know, something like werebeast waiting for time to strike off the map edge is not something I know how to check....Look that all your doors and hatches are set to pet-passable?

That said, I expected 1-6 FPS, not 50-60 :p. Good luck with solving it, though, there's a thread on FPS in dwarf mode discussion forum.

[levraininjaneer]

Ah, thanks.

However, I'm sorta over that fort and not really interested in bringing it back. In fact, it's two forts ago.

My new fort is much more interesting. It's a monument to both fortress and FPS efficiency. And military bad assery. The undead has attacked us twice, and a goblin siege of about 35 goblins and 20 critters also. I'm running 81 adults 5 kids and 5 visitors max and when there's not a bunch of zombies or gobbos on the map, I manage 45 to 55 FPS.