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[Toady One]

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Release notes for 50.09 (June 28, 2023):

In this release, we're updating the engine from SDL to SDL2, and there are many optimizations to go along with it.  Aside from the optimizations, SDL2 is also the stepping stone to ports.  We have Linux compiling and playable; it just needs some testing.

Moreover, there is now a(n experimental) multithreading option in the game settings that makes the game even faster!

We also have some new individual tree graphics, and an update to grass ramps as well.

This has been mostly the hard work of Putnam!  Meanwhile I've started up on adventure mode - the long work of updating menus and adding audio has begun!  Hopefully we'll have some progress to show their soon, as we continue updating fortress mode as well.

New stuff
   (*) Updated to SDL2 and made many surrounding changes.  Various performance gains!
   (*) Experimental multithreading is available from game settings.

Graphics additions/changes
   (*) Some more trees now have individual graphics (maple, willow, cedar, larch, kapok, papaya, macademia.)
        (*) Updated some ramp images.

[GM-X]

(*) Experimental multithreading is available from game settings.

Wow! Congratulations on this one. Thinking adventure mode may not release in 2023?

[Justiceface]

The game uses huge amount of CPU and heats up the machine quite a bit in 50.09. I reverted to 50.08 so I can still play. I did try flipping on the multithreading to see if that helped but it didn't seem to.

[mikekchar]

I haven't tried the release version, but based on the experimental and beta builds, I think this is due to the increased graphics performance.  I ended up reducing my graphics frame rate to compensate.  YMMV.  I'm looking forward to giving the release a try as I ran into text input problems in the experimental and beta builds (which might be a wine/linux only thing).  Hopefully it's fixed in the release. #fingers-crossed

[mikekchar]

Just a quite heads up for others on Wine, you will need to get a copy of msvcp140_atomic_wait.dll and then run winecfg to use it.  If you search the Steam forums, you'll see some instructions.

Another quirk of wine seems to be that the sound volume is *very* low. Now sure why.  I noticed it in experimental, but thought it was fixed in beta.  I might be mistaken, though (I often play with the sound turned off).

I guess the Linux release is imminent, though, anyway.  However, I think this is all relevant for Mac users.

[lethosor]

The game uses huge amount of CPU and heats up the machine quite a bit in 50.09. I reverted to 50.08 so I can still play. I did try flipping on the multithreading to see if that helped but it didn't seem to.

Can you share some details about the hardware you're using?

Just a quite heads up for others on Wine, you will need to get a copy of msvcp140_atomic_wait.dll and then run winecfg to use it.  If you search the Steam forums, you'll see some instructions.

Could you link to or share some of these instructions?

From the DFHack team's experience, Wine 7 seems to work out of the box, but many of us weren't able to get Wine 8 working. Curious what you're using.

[mikekchar]

Argh!  I can't find the post now :-(  I'm using wine 8.11.

It's pretty straightforward for Wine directly.  You get a copy of msvcp140_atomic_wait.dll (from various places on the internet).  You put it in the Dwarf fortress folder.  Then you run winecfg.  Go to the "libraries" tab. In the "New override for library" drop down you select msvcp140_atomic_wait.dll and then hit the "Add" button.   Finally "Apply" or "OK".  After that wine DF will work with wine.

For doing it with Proton, it's a bit more complex because you have to run winecfg specifying the the directory that Proton is installed in.  Also, the default prefix seems to have problems for me, so you have to find the DF prefix (which is in the Steam folder somewhere) and update that.  After that, it's the exact same procedure as per normal wine.

There are definitely some instructions somewhere on the internet for doing winecfg for proton, but my google-fu seems weak today.  Hopefully that's enough to get started with.  But if it works for Wine 7, that's probably fine for most people (I'm on Arch Linux so everything is bleeding edge).

BTW, on totally unrelated topic -- dead plant graphics are here!!! I'm so happy!

[Justiceface]

The game uses huge amount of CPU and heats up the machine quite a bit in 50.09. I reverted to 50.08 so I can still play. I did try flipping on the multithreading to see if that helped but it didn't seem to.

Can you share some details about the hardware you're using?

I suppose most would consider my hardware out-of-date, heh. I'm running a Dell Inspiron 5559 that's about seven years old. I thought it was a quad-core but lshw says it's got two cores but can run four threads. (I was a computer science student but my knowledge of hardware is shaky in certain places, particularly with laptops). 8 GB RAM. What other details will be useful to you?

I -am- running an old version of Ubuntu (16.04 don't hit me!) which is out of support and I am a bad Linux user right now I know. I can't actually run the classic Windows version because my wine is out of date. Proton runs DF okay but for excessive memory usage but I'm aware of that.

[Clatch]

Can't wait to test the Linux build.   Seems to work in Proton 7. 

[Chaosegg]

The game uses huge amount of CPU and heats up the machine quite a bit in 50.09. I reverted to 50.08 so I can still play. I did try flipping on the multithreading to see if that helped but it didn't seem to.

Can you share some details about the hardware you're using?

I suppose most would consider my hardware out-of-date, heh. I'm running a Dell Inspiron 5559 that's about seven years old. I thought it was a quad-core but lshw says it's got two cores but can run four threads. ... 8 GB RAM. What other details will be useful to you?

Exactly what processor model? Your GFX card; any idea of the brand and/or how much RAM? Probably a moot point if it's a lappy, but the exact model & thus specs might shed a little more light.
Monitor type/size, and more importantly, desktop resolution?
The general RAM type in your machine; DDR2? 3? 1?

Spoiler: Gfx cards 101 & some bragging/story-time related to my computer(s) (click to show/hide)

Just in case anyone was not aware, each gfx card brand tweaks their build a bit differently,
so one made by AMD vs Asus vs Alienware vs Sapphire vs whoever else slaps their name on the card...
will all have a little difference in their speed numbers, RAM and cache(s) even if they are all the same base model of Radeon-whatever or Nvidia-whatever-card.
Often they have different heat sinks and fan setups as well as paint jobs and other style points (maybe even size/shape and placement of certain wiring/plug-locations?).
i read all the fine print under the specs on stuff before i buy, and even if i don't really know what it all means exactly, hehe, it's still useful for comparisons since over the last 25 years I've built all my 4-5 "quiet" PCs; from weeks of research, to ordering each component, customizing cases, replacing stock heat-sinks & fans, and installing each piece of hardware & software.
Ahhh, I can still remember 'the good old days'... when Win (XPish?) wasn't quite totally evil yet, and Google was the stock pick I was recommending to everyone (since they were basically uncontested, also weren't evil yet, and still the New Benevolent King Of Da Errf). Back when the biggest concern was what mobile phone to get, what build to use in your online game of choice, and the "ai singularity" was just a conversation nugget for tech & philosopher snobs at parties.... /sigh Weltschmerz++ but hey, on the bright side, this just means even more glory when we fix the giant mess, right!

My box is probably that old as well (7~8 years-ish i'd have to dig around to find out).
8gb RAM here also (started with 4gb iirc),
but i've got an Athlon II x2 270, 3.4ghz quad-core along with an ASUS GF GTX 660 Ti (2gb RAM iirc?)
This box has lasted me a long while running Win, & the stock GFX card fans have only started to sound a little noisy when running hot in the last year or so but still do the job if i crack the case open a bit to let more heat out.
The monitor was actually the first thing to die on me, and it served me perfectly well for a very long time, plus i'm pretty sure all i need to do is replace a dead capacitor or two and it will work again
(just as soon as I feel like it's worth my time to get the tools and clear a workshop space).
i really don't like loud computers and have been either too cheap or lazy in the past to go for stuff like water-cooling.
Fortunately now I can afford whatever... I just have to decide when/if I care about newer software/games enough to upgrade.
Then decide how much research is worth my time at this point in my life when I've gone from 5-10 hours, down to less than 1 hour of gaming per day on average in the past few years...
it's weird how things change when you get older.
Anyway.
i've been planning to go Linux for years, but I put it off until the time I figured building a new box made more sense... and then the world went insane and the supply chain issues made prices go through the roof, so i put that plan on hold for a while hehe... soon though... soon.

[SeeSchloss]

The game uses huge amount of CPU and heats up the machine quite a bit in 50.09. I reverted to 50.08 so I can still play. I did try flipping on the multithreading to see if that helped but it didn't seem to.

Performance has also become abysmal for me. I run the game under wine, and went from 50 FPS to about 7 FPS.

Exactly what processor model? Your GFX card; any idea of the brand and/or how much RAM? Probably a moot point if it's a lappy, but the exact model & thus specs might shed a little more light.
Monitor type/size, and more importantly, desktop resolution?
The general RAM type in your machine; DDR2? 3? 1?

I don't think it really matters but in my case it's on an AMD FX-6300 CPU with 16 GB DDR3 and an AMD Radeon 5870. It displays on an Xvnc instance (so I can play it on my M1 mac running Linux, through VNC) at 1510x923 resolution.

[Rumrusher]

Hmm ok so there's an oddity with the settings on classic as it forces you into premium graphics after messing with the settings and closing then restarting the game, the workaround to this is to make the changes you want in the data/init folder and possibly deleting the pref/init file or renaming it as it seems the rest of the pref folder files still work but the one that checks if you want ascii mode toggled on. hope this helps anyone on the classic build of DF50.09

[Justiceface]

The game uses huge amount of CPU and heats up the machine quite a bit in 50.09. I reverted to 50.08 so I can still play. I did try flipping on the multithreading to see if that helped but it didn't seem to.

Can you share some details about the hardware you're using?

I suppose most would consider my hardware out-of-date, heh. I'm running a Dell Inspiron 5559 that's about seven years old. I thought it was a quad-core but lshw says it's got two cores but can run four threads. ... 8 GB RAM. What other details will be useful to you?

Exactly what processor model? Your GFX card; any idea of the brand and/or how much RAM? Probably a moot point if it's a lappy, but the exact model & thus specs might shed a little more light.
Monitor type/size, and more importantly, desktop resolution?
The general RAM type in your machine; DDR2? 3? 1?

Been a while since I gathered info like this on my machine, heh. I think I got all the important points, but let me know if I missed anything:

Processor:
model 78
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6500 CPU @ 2.50 GHz
cpu MHz 499.992
cache size 4096 KB
cpu cores 2

GFX card:
lspci says:

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Sky Lake Integrated Graphics (rev 07) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
        Subsystem: Dell Skylake Integrated Graphics

Monitor type/size
desktop resolution

System settings shows my laptop screen is 1920x1080. I might have changed this from the default when I got the machine so I could read the text but I don't clearly remember.

general RAM type:

DDR3, 1600 mHz, manufacturer SK Hynix, Data Width 64 bits, size 4096 MB, Form Factor SODIMM, clock 33mHz. configuration: driver-i915_bpo

Here's some output from lshw which I think is largely redundant but I lack the intuition on this stuff anymore:

H/W path       Device      Class          Description
=====================================================
/0/0                       memory         64KiB BIOS
/0/4/42                    memory         64KiB L1 cache
/0/4/43                    memory         512KiB L2 cache
/0/4/44                    memory         4MiB L3 cache
/0/41                      memory         64KiB L1 cache
/0/6                       memory         8GiB System Memory
/0/6/0                     memory         4GiB SODIMM DDR3 Synchronous 1600 MHz (0.6 ns)
/0/6/1                     memory         4GiB SODIMM DDR3 Synchronous 1600 MHz (0.6 ns)
/0/100/1f.2                memory         Memory controller

[Putnam]

Try setting the print mode to 2D? Possible SDL2 isn't detecting you're on integrated graphics properly

[A_Curious_Cat]

@Justiceface

What is the output of

Code: [Select]

lspci -k | grep -EA3 'VGA|3D|Display'?


Edit:  fixed single quotation marks.