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[Jim Groovester]

I've got this problem. I'm trying to fill a 96x96 area with water. I've got a cave river source that I'm pumping out of to fill it, but the problem is that it's taking forever. Hours in real time. I've been at it for two days now, and it's still not finished yet. I'm trying to make a giant obsidian tower, and at this rate it's going to take half a year to complete it.

So, is there any way to speed this up, either by increasing the rate the water flows in game or improving FPS? (Beyond buying a new computer, of course.)

I've come up with a few ideas of my own. For one, I'm going to connect the pumps taking water from the waterfall tiles to a constant power source instead of an intermittent one, so that should help, and I'm also considering building reservoirs that should fill less CPU-intensively (or so I hope) that I can then use water pressure to fill the area.

Is there anything else that I should try? Important note, I'm still playing 40d.

[AutomataKittay]

The problem's always same, you're limited by water flow rate and evaporation. You'll need to build reservoirs, high stack of them, so as little water evaporates as possible, and have some good and strong pump system to move water around as quickly as possible. Otherwise, you're pretty much stuck filling it up at the rate all of your incoming water source comes.

[evileeyore]

I've come up with a few ideas of my own. For one, I'm going to connect the pumps taking water from the waterfall tiles to a constant power source instead of an intermittent one, so that should help, and I'm also considering building reservoirs that should fill less CPU-intensively (or so I hope) that I can then use water pressure to fill the area.

Is there anything else that I should try? Important note, I'm still playing 40d.

Nope, you've pretty much covered it.  As long as your reservoirs are underground you don't have to worry about evaporation.

My only alternate suggestion would be to simply divert the river... but I have no idea your setup is.

[AdirianSoan]

If your pumping system is dwarf-powered, and you're having to shuffle dwarves around on a pump stack, that can significantly slow things down.

If your pumping system relies at any point on natural water expansion, or if the water you're pumping from isn't 7/7, that will slow things down.  You can only pump water when there's water in the tile being pumped, and only as much water as is available; one solution here recommended in the forums is to have four pumps at the bottommost level (wherever you are pumping your water from) pumping into the second pump in the stack, which can effectively quadruple your water flow rate.  And if you're using an aquaduct to get water from the waterfall to your pump, and then pumping water into your reservoir from the aquaduct, you're likely depending on natural water expansion; you need pressure to get water from point A to B in a reasonable frame of time.

[The Grackle]

A> You want all your pump-stacks mechanically powered.  Don't mess around with pump operators.

B> Draw water from as close to the source tile as you can.  For an underground river that's next to the magical waterfall, or the edge of the map.

C> Your pump-stack should go up to the top z-level, then flow through some aqueduct/flume hanging over your obsidian mold.  Don't build a floodgate at the end.  Build a dead end, with another pump just above it. That last pump is like the faucet (and can be pumped by your dwarves if you want).  Putting that "faucet" there will increase the output speed a lot.  Even more so for magma.

96x96 is really really big.  If you're having trouble with water, magma will be even worse.  I'd almost suggest casting separate 48x48 segments one at a time.  It would probably be faster, despite building separate molds. 

You should build a magma pumpstack next to your volcano that reaches all the way down to the bottom Z-Level and pumps from there up to the top of your mold.  You WILL drain the whole volcano-- probably many times.  In 40d, they refill slowly.  I used to expand the top of the volcanoes while dry, so they'd have bigger reservoirs once they refilled. 

Good luck!