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[NW_Kohaku]

Actually, you might want to go into your init files and make sure that the PRINT_MODE is set to "STANDARD" instead of "2D", which it now defaults to.

2D uses the legacy type graphics, which are actually less efficient (but less likely to have problems) than the SDL stuff.

[Urist McFumbler]

All of the above and i would like to add my humble suggestion

1) Try not to uncover too many layers underground. The more layers you have uncovered (dug) the more stones the system have to keep tabs on (solution: atom smasher) and the more pathfinding options you have the more calculations need to be done (solution: smaller fortress helps)

2) Don't create too many items the more you have the more the computer needs to keep tabs on. For example just on 1 stockpile you have the bin, the items inside it which depending on the stockpile can be 5 up to 15 items. That's a lot to keep tabs on just 1 tile of stockpile (solution: follow the Just in Time method build and make things only when you know you will need them)

[Balathustrius]

Well, first of all, your hardware is old. Like... really old. As stated above, try and get some hardware if at all possible.

Wat.  He's got a 3 GHz processor, which is what I have, and I have no problems with FPS (I leave it capped at 100 and rarely see it dip below 80, even on large forts). 

OP, I don't think hardware is your problem, here.  Have you tried turning off weather/temperature in the init file?  Also, try lowering your population cap to 50 or below, shrinking your embark sites, avoiding oceans or big rivers (the flowing water eats up processor time, but brooks and such seem not to have much impact), and avoiding the creation of complicated mazes in your fort.  Also, avoid letting clutter build up; sell excess junk to caravans, melt it in magma, or atom-smash it under a drawbridge.

[dree12]

Wat.  He's got a 3 GHz processor, which is what I have, and I have no problems with FPS (I leave it capped at 100 and rarely see it dip below 80, even on large forts). 

See, this is what I get annoyed at often. FPS≠Clock Speed. My clock speed is 2.66Gz (not-overclocked), but because of better hardware, I can run a 200 dwarf fortress as quickly as he runs a 20. Even though my clock speed is slower. If I did overclock, I would get improvement, but not as much as if I upgraded to an i7 920 (which, is also 2.66Gz).

[Noble Digger]

Framerate is affected by so so so many things besides the meaningless number on your CPU. Bottlenecks can occur elsewhere in the hardware, and two CPUs referred to as "3ghz" are not the same.

[dragon0421]

Well, first of all, your hardware is old. Like... really old. As stated above, try and get some hardware if at all possible.

Wat.  He's got a 3 GHz processor, which is what I have, and I have no problems with FPS (I leave it capped at 100 and rarely see it dip below 80, even on large forts). 

Celerons are garbage, even when they were new.

I recommend getting an i5 (i7 has multi-threading, which is worthless for DF and most things). Though at that point you're likely going to need to replace everything else because the new motherboard sockets will be incompatible with your other hardware.

[Fedor]

Your hardware is extremely limited for newer versions of DF.  You can still play, but you need to set a lot of limits.

\data\init\world_gen

medium or smaller world.
CAVERN_LAYER_COUNT:1.  Going with 0 (no caverns at all), will give you a little more headroom.
LEVELS_ABOVE_GROUND:  fairly few.  Try 5 if you have no plans to build high
LEVELS_ABOVE_LAYER_1:  8 or less.  Try 5 to start with.


\data\init\init.txt

PRINT_MODE:  Try fiddling with these (but don't spend too much time)
G_FPS_CAP: Try 15.
PRIORITY:  Avoid fooling with this; it may contribute to system instability or lack of responsiveness (on some machines and OSes)


\data\init\d_init.txt

TEMPERATURE:NO  This is a huge FPS drain; temperature is a nice-to-have that you can't afford
WEATHER:NO  Smaller benefit, but also smaller downsides
INVADERS:YES  Be wiling to turn this off if you really have to
CAVEINS:NO  Doesn't help much, but it certainly doesn't hurt
PATH_COST:1:1:5:25  Change the second # from a 2 to a 1.  Helps a bit, at least according to some.
POPULATION_CAP:20
BABY_CHILD_CAP:2:10   Limit your population rigorously if you want a decent FPS.


Embarking:

Choose a 2x2 plot, possibly 3x2.  No more than 1 water tile (preferably none).  Don't choose a spot that's much above the lowest point in the 16x16 embark sector, or you'll end up with more (CUP-draining) rock layers.  Don't chose a spot with much in the way of elevation changes, for the same reason.


Gameplay:

Don't hollow out enormous areas (or, if you do, seal them off after you're done with them).  Reason:  Pathfinding cost increases with accessible area.  Burrows might (or might not - haven't studied this in detail) help here.

Replace stairs with ramps.  Stairs apparently require more pathfinding calculations.

Keep animal numbers low.  Impale pet kittens on repeating spike traps if you have to ... after a few months of coddling their owners with great food/drink/bedrooms!

Avoid keeping too many objects of any sort around (rocks, clothes, kitten skull totems, you name it).  Use traders and atom-smashing drawbridge to control the clutter.  (make a raiseable bridge; raise it; put a refuse dump under it; dump objects; lower the bridge)

Avoid flowing liquids.  You might be able to get away with a small hydraulic project, but always have a way to turn it off.

[Narmio]

 Avoiding all tame animals is one great way to keep FPS high.   I embark with one male cat for vermin duty and sometimes arrange for "accidents" if breeding pairs of pets show up.  A few pets is not really a problem, but once they start breeding...

Tons and tons of meat can be imported from the traders, and I do a little fishing for bone/shells.

But by far the biggest slowdowns for me come from mining out new layers and creating loads of crafts.  The first one is easier to handle, you mine out a layer, strip it of valuables with a legion of haulers, forbid any remaining stone and then wall the level off again.  As for crafts, I typically measure the success of a fort by how much wealth it's created, so it's tough for me to just choose not to make stuff.  But I do as much decoration as I can to keep total item numbers down and I always try to send traders away with as much low-value stuff as I can.

It's a real shame burrows don't influence the pathfinding algorithm - trying all paths within the burrow before looking outside, I mean, rather than trying paths then checking if they're in the burrow.  That way you could vastly help pathing by confining different parts of your population to different areas, and preventing the vast majority of dwarves from pathing into open spaces.

[kilakan]

seriously GFPS set it to 15, it always gives me 40-50 more fps.

[Funtimes]

For old forts, forbid EVERYTHING that you don't want to use at that exact moment in time.

Not doing masonry? Forbid every stone.
Stopped smelting? Forbid every bar.
Got a vault for your fancy items that no one can path to? Forbid them to stop them trying.
When you're mass dumping, forbid it all and then claim items at the rate they're dumped. Minimizes item count in the pathfinding.
Destroy all your crops that are less than 5 in a stack. Do the same with booze if it's in crap barrels and you have spares.

Get rid of empty stockpiles.
Get rid of useless items.
Have your refuse pit in an area you can pour magma on it, in the rare case someone puts their worn out clothes there.

Set restricted traffic designations on open space.



Item count is so much more important than pathfinding lag, in my experience. Because one seems to multiply the other.

[Tsarwash]

Is that the Bradly from the Somethingleet forums ??

[Dzenaiya]

It's the hardware! That Celery is fine for a lot of things, but it's a budget chip and if you're serious about calculating power, you should get an i5 or an i7.

Celeron processors are meant for budget systems and work just fine for a lot of things but they don't handle heavy processing tasks very well at all.

[Vulcanius]

Avoiding all tame animals is one great way to keep FPS high.   I embark with one male cat for vermin duty and sometimes arrange for "accidents" if breeding pairs of pets show up.  A few pets is not really a problem, but once they start breeding...

Is there a reason you don't just put them in cages? Or are you simply referring to tame creatures as pets?

[martinuzz]

I feel for you man. I have a somewhat better laptop (also 3.2 Ghz, but AMD, and also a ATI Radeon Xpress, but the 1100).
My forts drop below 20 FPS not really at the beginning, but when I get 60+ dwarves, I start getting near that 20 FPS as well .
Below 10 FPS is where I usually declare my forts dead.

I guess our problem lies in that we need new hardware. (My laptop is more than 5 years old, yours must be even older)

[Helmaroc]

seriously GFPS set it to 15, it always gives me 40-50 more fps.

I set mine to 10, it buys me 10-15 fps.