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[MiniMacker]

I guess I'm too used of playing at a about 100 FPS, but recently, after my second-year spring migrant wave, my FPS has dropped from 95-80 down to 60.

My total population stands at 85 (Including animals). Is this normal? Do please take note that I run a Quad Core with 3.4 GHz and two 4GB Kingston RAM. I've set Dwarf Fortress to run at Realtime. I have also set the Normal Pathing cost to 1 with no difference.
My current fortress has a stream and a few hills. The main fortress has a decent size with mostly 3-tile wide corridors. I have not broken into the first cavern.

Another thing to note is that the Graphics FPS refresh limit thingymabob is set to 20.

The game occasionally freezes for a few seconds when I'm playing, they come at complete random, which I find strange. Does anyone have a cause and solution?



halp me to answer these many questions.

[Bralbaard]

DF can even bring the mightiest computers to their knee-equivalents. It only uses one core, so it won't make optimal use of your machine. There are a lot of factors besides population size that have an influence on FPS. What kind of map are you playing on? How large, and how many Z-levels? Is there a lot of liquid flowing around? these all influence the game speed. Then there are things you can actually do to speed it up: make sure you don't have too much useless stuff lying around (mined stone, coins, anything in large numbers) having 10.000 mined stone on your map will slow the game dramatically. Also is there a lot of blood/vomit on your map? There's some kind of bug where it keeps spreading, this is also really heavy on the CPU (search the forums for more info on that)

[martinuzz]

60 FPS with 85 dwarves? You lucky ****!
I get 15 FPS, with 35 dwarves


On your random freezing issue: Do you have ghosts on your map? They are known to cause terrible periodic freeze-up lag.

[Urist McDepravity]

The game occasionally freezes for a few seconds when I'm playing, they come at complete random, which I find strange.

This can be caused by ambushes and thieves. They move hidden untill someone stumbles upon them, and hidden units are known for causing lag.

60 FPS for 2+ years fort with 85 dorfs is not too bad. You can try different FPS-saving strategies, but it will fall to 40-50 levels anyway after some time.

[beekay]

60 fps for 85 dwarves is pretty good. I might get 40-50 at that point.

Though admittedly that's normally further in than two years.

[MiniMacker]

Hmm.
Well, what graphical refresh rate do you all use?

[martinuzz]

I had to bring it down to G_FPS = 10 to maintain my 15 FPS

[MiniMacker]

Anyway, about ghosts being the reason for the random hiccups I get. I have slabs and coffins. I've had two dwarves die, and one is engraved on a slab (Because he was lost in a river, so he couldn't be carried to a coffin), the other is buried a coffin.

I've killed some kobold thieves and some goblin childsnatchers, but I believe those do not become ghosts.


I guess I could try cleaning up blood and such. I don't have much contaminant, really. No real blood spread, just the blood from the animals that has been hunted. But I guess it can be better than nothing. So how do I wipe the map for that? Is there a program I can use?

[martinuzz]

yes. DFcleanmap.exe, part of the DFHack pack. See the modding subforum, you'll find a link there.
Note: it does not remove spatters from dwarves / objects, only from floors and water.
To clean your dwarves and their equipment, you'll need a dwarfwash.

A dwarfwash + Dfcleanmap.exe =  dear FPS saving friends

on a related notice: I get the idea that bloodspatters on forbidden items (you know, all those auto-forbidden goblin clothes) add to the FPS drain. The items themselves might be forbidden, but it really looks like selectively unforbidding and dumping + atomsmashing all stuff with bloodspatters on it helps with the FPS issues.

[Sutremaine]

How I wish there were an init option for turning off blood and other coverings altogether.

[MiniMacker]

Well, I decided to roundup 2/3rds of the stone in my fortress. After a season of hauling them under a bridge, I atomsmashed them all. I gained roughly 10 FPS. (From 60 to 68), which is quite awesome.

*Goes scouring for the DFHack and instructions for a dwarfwash*


Cleaned the map using DFHack. I have yet ANOTHER question to ask. What should I do with all the broken bolt debris? I've heard they're supposed to be washed away by rain, but they're still there. Some of them has been there since I embarked. How do I get rid of them?

[martinuzz]

Not sure, but I think that building a statue or something else you can designate a room from near it, and designating a room from that, the area of which covers the broken bolts, will generate cleaning jobs for your dwarves. You might have to roof it over as well for that, so it's "inside".
Note: "clean" is a very low priority job.

Again, not sure. I've never bothered with broken bolts.

[Buttery_Mess]

knee-equivalents

Is that a Star Control II reference?

[Bralbaard]

knee-equivalents

Is that a Star Control II reference?

Most likely a case where star control II has altered my subconciousness, and forced me to type that. I'm a huge fan of SC II, but did not know I took it from there :-). Dnyarii mind control I guess...

[Buttery_Mess]

Yeah, when the Starbase commander asks 'What then?' right at the beginning, you have the option to reply, "Then, commander, we will slowly gather strength, build a unified alliance of starfaring alien races, and bring the Ur-Quan to their knee-equivelants." Or something like that.