I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this or if it's possible, but here it goes.
I have an 8-core macbook pro. A few weeks ago, Urist McLogicBoard decide to break and although my computer still runs, Activity Moniter shows that kernel_task (the OS itself) is using between 500-600% CPU usage (Since there are 8 cores, this is about 63-75% CPU capacity). For reasons I won't get into, I can't fix my computer for about a month.
But I really want to play Dwarf Fortress. Since Dwarf Fortress isn't multithreaded, in theory, if the crazy-high kernel_task usage is restricted to 6 cores, and I can somehow guarentee that 1 core is mostly dedicated to Dwarf Fortress, then I could still play it to a degree. (It's possible that slowdown due thrashing and multi-core issues makes this impossible, but I'm not sure).
Is there some way I can run the program giving it priority to one of the cores? Or on the other side, is there anyway to restrict kernel_task to the first 6 cores? I'm pretty sure the DF itself has no mechanism for this, so I imagine a solution would have to be built into Mac/Darwin/Unix, or be pretty creative. I thought maybe virtualizing a machine and dedicating the cores to that machine might work (since virtualbox let's you do this), but the overhead might make the whole thing slower. I'm a technical user, so any suggestions are welcome.
I expect that any solution would require 1 by 1 embark, small population cap, etc. but at this point I'll just be happy to play
Thanks