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[Aggeloi]

The simple version: I can't.

The longer version: I'm a hyper-multitasker, and I've found that, at least for starting out, I have to have certain periods of time where I do nothing in the game but wait for the dwarfs to get off their butts and accomplish tasks, because if I layer on too many tasks, then suddenly the miners are more worried about carrying products made by the other dwarfs to stockpiles than they are about clearing out the space I'm trying to create. (I'd be happier if the crafters would carry their own products to the stockpiles before starting the next project - that seems like a much more efficient method - but I'm not sure how to convince them to do so.) All that to say, I like to run something else in another window so I can be doing something rather than just staring at the screen and waiting for them to finish the first task so I can get the next task going.

But I can't.

It doesn't seem to matter if it's a browser, a smaller game like Minesweeper, or a folder, if I have ANYTHING open along with Dwarf Fortress, then my computer suddenly runs like I poured yogurt in the processor. Everything slows down to a snail crawl, both DF and the other program keep getting the '[Program] has stopped running. Please wait for it to respond' message, sometimes things crash, etc, etc. If I'm only running DF, no problems at all (so far, though admittedly I haven't played very far yet). But the instant a second program opens, it's goodbye processing speed.

Has anyone else run into this? Is there some magic formula or rain dance I can do to make it so I can have even just one more program running while DF is up? Or should I just grab a good book every time I sit down to play?

Thanks for the help.

[Skorpion]

Well, if you've got a multi-core PC, just set DF's affinity to one core, and everything else to the rest?

[vanatteveldt]

I can heartily recommend linux for all your DF needs ;-) (especially on cheap hardware, try out mint or xubuntu...)

[Aggeloi]

Well, if you've got a multi-core PC, just set DF's affinity to one core, and everything else to the rest?

...I've got a cheap laptop I picked up at Best Buy a couple years ago. I'm not even sure what multi-core means, lol.

[Matoro]

Well, if you've got a multi-core PC, just set DF's affinity to one core, and everything else to the rest?

...I've got a cheap laptop I picked up at Best Buy a couple years ago. I'm not even sure what multi-core means, lol.

Laptop. That's your problem. DF makes even a better computers crawl. Laptops it just crushes under its steel fist.

Do you have FPS problems when you're running only DF? Since, if you don't, you could use, for example, Lazy Newb Pack and modify FPS cap, so you could run faster through "boring parts".

[Quietust]

Well, if you've got a multi-core PC, just set DF's affinity to one core, and everything else to the rest?

...I've got a cheap laptop I picked up at Best Buy a couple years ago. I'm not even sure what multi-core means, lol.

Open Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc), select the Performance tab, and examine the "CPU Usage History" section at the top - if there's only one graph in there, then your system has only one processor, meaning DF will slow everything else to a crawl while it's running. If there's more than one graph, then you have a multiprocessor system and shouldn't be having that problem.

[Sutremaine]

You can also try setting DF's priority to below normal, to stop it from Godzillaing whatever else is open.

[Azated]

Just remember that DF itself doesn't have multi-core support, so running it on more than one core is just a waste of time and potentially causes more problems than if your processor was single core. People with brand new, top of the line computers often have serious issues running dwarf fortress because of that lack of optimization.

[Xinael]

Azated, that's a bit of an exaggeration, isn't it? Pretty much every processor released since 2007 has had more than one core and most people don't have any "serious problems" with DF. These systems are carefully designed to run single-threaded applications intelligently if they can.

With regard to OP's "miners running to do other things" problem: you need to change the labours on those miners (and farmers I find are another one that loves to run off and ignore the unplanted fields). Use Dwarf Therapist to make it easy on yourself, or you can fight your way through the in-game UI to do it, and disable labours that end "hauling" on those units you don't want to be dragging certain kinds of things around.

There are a few different kinds of hauling labour, to give you finer control over who does what. Don't worry about them not being able to get items for their jobs - hauling limitations don't apply to moving items from place to place for workshop orders and other jobs like construction. I routinely turn off all hauling labours on my miners until I'm finished excavating. I turn it off on farmers once the farms are built. I turn it off on masons, carpenters, mechanics, glassmakers, potters, smiths etc, when I want them to be making things instead of hauling. Once I have a large migrant force, everyone with a productive labour enabled has all hauling disabled, and a force of unskilled migrants with no other jobs takes over hauling duties.

Hope that helps!

[slothen]

Azated, that's a bit of an exaggeration, isn't it? Pretty much every processor released since 2007 has had more than one core and most people don't have any "serious problems" with DF. These systems are carefully designed to run single-threaded applications intelligently if they can.

Its not an exaggeration if interpreted a certain way.  Namely, DF's ability to torture test hardware when you're doing things that are bad for your FPS will always outpace the hardware's capabilities.  However, most players know not to do those things, so in that sense, lots of hardware can handle DF 'just fine.'

I suspect the OP is running into some serious hardware bottlenecks if he is noticing big performance hits to the entire system when running minesweeper alongside DF.  But hell, even then DF is perfectly playable.  If you set your popcap to 50 and embark on 3x3 or less, you can play DF on a netbook just fine.  Just gotta give up having lots of below 7/7 flowing water and certain megaprojects.  There's also options to design with efficient pathfinding in mind, editing out invader clothes, turning off temperature, and editing the entity raws to have sieges before 80 dwarfs, and turning off entirely or removing some cavern layers.

[enizer]

i have a fairly good computer that runs 80+ fps with most things, the exception being liquid flow,
any megaproject involving magma or water knocks my fps below 20

long complex tunnels with 1z wide corridors also hurt when lots of things move through them, but not nearly as much as liquids

[Aggeloi]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions and advice! I'm still stuck with my original 7 dwarfs, but I'm eager to get some more so I can have grunts to do nothing but haul for everyone else... lol.