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[nirodragon]

When I started my computer (Macbook, OS X 10.5.4, 2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM), followed by starting the Activity monitor, I found that my processor use is at roughly 2%/0%.

When I start Dwarf Fortress, however, it spikes to about 25%/60%.  This is just with the game sitting at the title screen.  Also, after about a minute of running the game, regardless of whether or not I actually do anything, my computer is forced to run its cooling fan at maximum, while also scaling back my processor capabilities to prevent overheating.

I read in another post somewhere that DF isn't designed to take advantage of multiple processors/cores, so I don't know why it's hitting both cores so hard, and I'm wondering if there's a way to reduce its strain on my system.

[Exponent]

Over in the 40c announcement thread (near the end), there seems to be some progress on discovering some inefficiencies in the drawing code that might eventually fixed in future releases.  I wouldn't be surprised if what you're experiencing is caused largely by these inefficiencies.

For the time being, you might try playing with the PARTIAL_PRINT option in init.txt.  It can cut down on how much the CPU is used for rendering.  You might need to play around with the number to avoid flickering, but some people have no problems whatsoever even with small numbers.

[nirodragon]

Is the game really rendering that much stuff in the title screen?

[Exponent]

I think it is using immediate mode OpenGL rendering (though I haven't looked at the available source code to confirm), which basically mean that it's really easy to program, but not really all that efficient.  I believe the result is that the CPU just waits in a busy-loop (looking like its doing stuff, but not really doing anything productive) while the GPU handles each particular render call.  More complex but efficient code would allow the CPU to continue doing stuff while the GPU is doing its thing.

Now I'm not 100% confident about this, as I'm not really an OpenGL person; I've primarily just learned Direct3D, which doesn't really even have something as basic as OpenGL immediate mode.  But a lot of the same principles still cross over between the two APIs.

[Jay]

Yes, it has to render the screen...
I would assume it has to do that every frame
Exponent: NO source code is available.

[Ostsol]

What's your G_FPS_CAP set at in the init.txt?  If it's set too high then the game will start drawing a frame as soon as the previous one is done, which will of course mean that the CPU never gets a break.

[GetAssista]

OP, check it out. Might be helpful

[korora]

Exponent: NO source code is available.

False.  In the 40c announcement thread Toady released an open source game called Battle Champs that uses the same display code as DF does.  This is so people who are interested/able can work on optimizing, and it looks like they've made a lot of progress.

[nirodragon]

What's your G_FPS_CAP set at in the init.txt?  If it's set too high then the game will start drawing a frame as soon as the previous one is done, which will of course mean that the CPU never gets a break.

G_FPS_CAP is set to 40.

OP, check it out. Might be helpful

I took a look at it, but I have no idea how to get that to work.  Also, I don't have any fonts that would work with that patch-thing (if I'm reading it right, I need a 16x16 font), and I don't know how I would be able to go about getting one, or installing it.

[Draco18s]

You could try The List of User Graphics Sets.

[nirodragon]

Thanks for the tip about the graphic sets, but the ones I've loaded are all really distorted.  Is there something I'm forgetting?

I set the grid to 45x45, and the display to 720x720, using a 16x16 graphic set.  I can barely make out most of the images, and the text is hard to read as well.

Can anyone give me some help on that?

Also, once I get the graphic set working, I still don't know how to get that DF Accelerator program to actually work, as it appears that there is a significant amount of work involved, most of which I can't understand.  I'm also paranoid about the possibility of messing up and losing my saves.  *again*

[Draco18s]

I thought there at least was some connectivity, but if you want an ASCII set Try these.  Kaishaku's or Klokjammer's look good to me.

[Calessa Lynn Orphiel]

45x45 grid?  I don't think the game is supposed to run with less than 80 on the horizontal dimension, but I have no idea what effect it would have

[nirodragon]

45x45 grid?  I don't think the game is supposed to run with less than 80 on the horizontal dimension, but I have no idea what effect it would have

Yup, that explains it.  Think of all of your graphics and text crushed together with bad anti-aliasing and such.  Or something.

Well, it works now - thanks for reminding me of that detail.

Now to take another look at the mod program and see if I can get it working.

EDIT:  Yeah, I have no idea how to get that thing to work.

[Yanlin]

Exponent: NO source code is available.

False.  In the 40c announcement thread Toady released an open source game called Battle Champs that uses the same display code as DF does.  This is so people who are interested/able can work on optimizing, and it looks like they've made a lot of progress.

I am unable to find that game. Link?

I searched a few days ago.

On a side note, you are at fault for making me addicted to liberal crime squad.