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Author Topic: Is the constant simulation of the game world worth getting 1/5th the FPS?  (Read 24716 times)

Footkerchief

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Re: Is the constant simulation of the game world worth getting 1/5th the FPS?
« Reply #90 on: September 21, 2014, 07:37:48 pm »

There is bound to be less fps as each of those calculations need to happen also.

It's rarely this simple.  Most of the calculations that happen in a program do not have a significant impact on its performance.  A small minority of the calculations usually cause most of the problems.  This is especially true in a program like DF that's riddled with bugs known to impact framerate.  Don't trust your intuition, trust the profiler.
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Two

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Re: Is the constant simulation of the game world worth getting 1/5th the FPS?
« Reply #91 on: September 24, 2014, 04:52:35 am »

The low FPS is caused by bad coding. A simple look at my CPU monitor tells me that, because it is 86% idle while the FPS drops.

Now while I say bad coding, it is hard to blame anyone for it, because when DF started its development things were very different. I am pretty sure much of that code and structure is still the same as it was during release, and it is questionable if and how the small team should manage a rewrite of essentially all code parts with unpredictable results. And especially: an unpredictable next release date.
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Putnam

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Re: Is the constant simulation of the game world worth getting 1/5th the FPS?
« Reply #92 on: September 24, 2014, 05:34:35 am »

There is bound to be less fps as each of those calculations need to happen also.

It's rarely this simple.  Most of the calculations that happen in a program do not have a significant impact on its performance.  A small minority of the calculations usually cause most of the problems.  This is especially true in a program like DF that's riddled with bugs known to impact framerate.  Don't trust your intuition, trust the profiler.

Especially since even the slightest amount of actual empirical testing will determine that the FPS loss has nothing to do with world simulation. In fact, even thinking about it will reveal how bloody obvious it is that that is not the case. If it were the case, then FPS death would happen the instant gameplay starts, as the world is mostly independent of your fort. If it were the case, then the two-week world simulation before the game starts would take more than 20 seconds. Considering actual facts, the chance of the world generation being the cause of FPS problems is patently ridiculous.

SimRobert2001

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Re: Is the constant simulation of the game world worth getting 1/5th the FPS?
« Reply #93 on: September 24, 2014, 01:56:55 pm »

There is bound to be less fps as each of those calculations need to happen also.

It's rarely this simple.  Most of the calculations that happen in a program do not have a significant impact on its performance.  A small minority of the calculations usually cause most of the problems.  This is especially true in a program like DF that's riddled with bugs known to impact framerate.  Don't trust your intuition, trust the profiler.

Especially since even the slightest amount of actual empirical testing will determine that the FPS loss has nothing to do with world simulation. In fact, even thinking about it will reveal how bloody obvious it is that that is not the case. If it were the case, then FPS death would happen the instant gameplay starts, as the world is mostly independent of your fort. If it were the case, then the two-week world simulation before the game starts would take more than 20 seconds. Considering actual facts, the chance of the world generation being the cause of FPS problems is patently ridiculous.

You mean like the fact that the more war goblins wage, the lower my FPS is? That kind of thing? that more calculations puts more strain on the CPU? Can you link us to these experiments?
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Putnam

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Re: Is the constant simulation of the game world worth getting 1/5th the FPS?
« Reply #94 on: September 24, 2014, 02:21:06 pm »

You mean like the fact that the more war goblins wage, the lower my FPS is? That kind of thing? that more calculations puts more strain on the CPU? Can you link us to these experiments?

Post hoc ergo propter hoc. There are a gigantic amount of other factors that could be causing your FPS to lower, and not only the vast majority of them are likely to be worth at least 10 times as much strain to your CPU, but they're also actually related to your doings in the fortress, which world simulation isn't.

I didn't say that world simulation doesn't put more strain on the CPU, just that the effect is so negligible as to be completely ignored.

MDFification

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Re: Is the constant simulation of the game world worth getting 1/5th the FPS?
« Reply #95 on: September 24, 2014, 02:51:29 pm »

There is bound to be less fps as each of those calculations need to happen also.

It's rarely this simple.  Most of the calculations that happen in a program do not have a significant impact on its performance.  A small minority of the calculations usually cause most of the problems.  This is especially true in a program like DF that's riddled with bugs known to impact framerate.  Don't trust your intuition, trust the profiler.

Especially since even the slightest amount of actual empirical testing will determine that the FPS loss has nothing to do with world simulation. In fact, even thinking about it will reveal how bloody obvious it is that that is not the case. If it were the case, then FPS death would happen the instant gameplay starts, as the world is mostly independent of your fort. If it were the case, then the two-week world simulation before the game starts would take more than 20 seconds. Considering actual facts, the chance of the world generation being the cause of FPS problems is patently ridiculous.

You mean like the fact that the more war goblins wage, the lower my FPS is? That kind of thing? that more calculations puts more strain on the CPU? Can you link us to these experiments?

The simplest experiment would be to compare FPS on embark (before local features start messing with your fort) on a massive world and a tiny world. The problem is trying to eliminate all local factors to try to keep conditions as close to identical as possible.

Another thing; if world simulation was causing FPS loss on a significant level, worlds with more civs and sites would have more interactions and thus lower FPS. Genning my worlds with high numbers of civs has no noticeable difference in my game.
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dennislp3

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Re: Is the constant simulation of the game world worth getting 1/5th the FPS?
« Reply #96 on: September 24, 2014, 06:28:39 pm »

based on what I can tell people are having issues on a local level...everything is simulated from the start...the issues come usually after a year or two
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Putnam

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Re: Is the constant simulation of the game world worth getting 1/5th the FPS?
« Reply #97 on: September 24, 2014, 06:36:29 pm »

There is bound to be less fps as each of those calculations need to happen also.

It's rarely this simple.  Most of the calculations that happen in a program do not have a significant impact on its performance.  A small minority of the calculations usually cause most of the problems.  This is especially true in a program like DF that's riddled with bugs known to impact framerate.  Don't trust your intuition, trust the profiler.

Especially since even the slightest amount of actual empirical testing will determine that the FPS loss has nothing to do with world simulation. In fact, even thinking about it will reveal how bloody obvious it is that that is not the case. If it were the case, then FPS death would happen the instant gameplay starts, as the world is mostly independent of your fort. If it were the case, then the two-week world simulation before the game starts would take more than 20 seconds. Considering actual facts, the chance of the world generation being the cause of FPS problems is patently ridiculous.

You mean like the fact that the more war goblins wage, the lower my FPS is? That kind of thing? that more calculations puts more strain on the CPU? Can you link us to these experiments?

The simplest experiment would be to compare FPS on embark (before local features start messing with your fort) on a massive world and a tiny world. The problem is trying to eliminate all local factors to try to keep conditions as close to identical as possible.

Another thing; if world simulation was causing FPS loss on a significant level, worlds with more civs and sites would have more interactions and thus lower FPS. Genning my worlds with high numbers of civs has no noticeable difference in my game.

AFAIK we're talking about FPS death, which happens over time and thus cannot be associated with world simulation.

smjjames

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Re: Is the constant simulation of the game world worth getting 1/5th the FPS?
« Reply #98 on: September 24, 2014, 06:39:02 pm »

You know, have you guys ever looked at the errorlogs while the low FPS is going on? I know not everything that causes FPS issues will generate errors for the errorlog, but if it's generating a lot of a particular error or is generating a lot in a short period of time, then perhaps something is up.
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StagnantSoul

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Re: Is the constant simulation of the game world worth getting 1/5th the FPS?
« Reply #99 on: September 24, 2014, 07:24:33 pm »

What is that "army will camp forever" thing?
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smjjames

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Re: Is the constant simulation of the game world worth getting 1/5th the FPS?
« Reply #100 on: September 24, 2014, 07:31:43 pm »

What is that "army will camp forever" thing?

It's an army bug which happens in adventure mode, no idea if it happens in fort mode.
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dennislp3

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Re: Is the constant simulation of the game world worth getting 1/5th the FPS?
« Reply #101 on: September 24, 2014, 08:15:35 pm »

I don't play adventure mode but I have seen it pop up literally 1 or 2 times in my error log in fort mode
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dwarf_reform

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Re: Is the constant simulation of the game world worth getting 1/5th the FPS?
« Reply #102 on: September 25, 2014, 09:26:09 pm »

I have no real clue, but could any of this harm fps?

*new tree animations when dropping leaves/seeds (personally curious about this one, a little science with treeless maps would provide a solid answer.. unless cavern-layer trees also drop stuff? Haven't paid any attention to those just yet..)
*the introduction of sweat/tears? (doubt this one as well, since dwarves and items have always been covered in layers of liquids.. Mostly curious because its a newer feature..)
*the new dwarven chatter? I wonder sometimes if they're not down there silently talking to each other all day long..
*the highly verbose descriptions of zombies? (I wonder about this because it seems like a zombie invasion will hurt framerate more than an equally-sized non-zombie invasion force)
« Last Edit: September 25, 2014, 09:43:48 pm by dwarf_reform »
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smjjames

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Re: Is the constant simulation of the game world worth getting 1/5th the FPS?
« Reply #103 on: September 25, 2014, 10:09:49 pm »

*the highly verbose descriptions of zombies? (I wonder about this because it seems like a zombie invasion will hurt framerate more than an equally-sized non-zombie invasion force)

This existed in the previous version.
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MDFification

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Re: Is the constant simulation of the game world worth getting 1/5th the FPS?
« Reply #104 on: September 26, 2014, 07:02:38 am »

*the highly verbose descriptions of zombies? (I wonder about this because it seems like a zombie invasion will hurt framerate more than an equally-sized non-zombie invasion force)

This existed in the previous version.

I think the greater FPS drain in zombie  sieges is because they're all building destroyers and thus path to buildings alongside dwarves.
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