Reduce lag from spawn pawn events?

Started by RoboticManiac, October 09, 2016, 01:32:20 AM

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RoboticManiac

Later on, the game becomes practically unplayable simply because it can take entire minutes for a band of visitors to pass through. In normal play, and after the pawns have spawned, everything runs perfectly smoothly.

Is there any conceivable means with which to reduce the amount of lag and locking up it takes to spawn a common raid, trader or passerby?

nccvoyager

In terms of anything that can be done, by a user, at the level of code we have access to?
Not really, no.
Through optimization from Tynan?
Well, also not really, no.

I would like to ask; what is the CPU you are using?
I am using a decades-old Phenom Tricore, and it takes (at most) 10 seconds for a large raider group to spawn in.
(Around 30 pawns.)

RoboticManiac

Quote from: nccvoyager on October 09, 2016, 02:38:38 AM
In terms of anything that can be done, by a user, at the level of code we have access to?
Not really, no.
Through optimization from Tynan?
Well, also not really, no.

I would like to ask; what is the CPU you are using?
I am using a decades-old Phenom Tricore, and it takes (at most) 10 seconds for a large raider group to spawn in.
(Around 30 pawns.)
Intel Core i7-6700HQ  @ 2.60 GHz. Not that I have any idea what that actually means.

Assuming that it's not the CPU proper, could it be the computer's heat? My laptop can get fairly warm when it's running.

nccvoyager

#3
Well, it is entirely possible that the CPU power is being cut down by the onboard power settings manager in an attempt to cool the CPU.
QuoteGo into the "Power Settings"
Go to the advanced option "Processor Power Management"
Change the sub-option "System Cooling Policy" to "Active"
This will make the computer attempt to increase the speed of a cooling fan in order to cool the CPU.
The computer will attempt this before it attempts to lower the CPU power.

Now, beyond that, I cannot really suggest the rest of this due to your CPU being (quite) new.
However, it is up to you whether you want to spend the time with the rest of this or not.
Regardless, I would suggest that you test the game and see if the above helped before trying anything else here.

I would also suggest opening the task manager, (Ctrl-Shift-Esc,) right-clicking "RimWorld.exe" from the task manager, and select "high" priority from the "Set Priority" drop-down list.
(Avoid the real-time option. Bad things can happen with that.)

In addition, turning off any antivirus programs while playing RimWorld (or any game, really) is also advisable; antivirus programs are useful, but can eat a lot of CPU time.

If you are running through Steam, I would suggest turning off the Steam in-game overlay.
QuoteGo to the "Steam Library"
Right-click RimWorld
Select "Properties"
Click the checkbox next to "Enable the Steam Overlay while in-game"
Ensure that the checkbox is now empty.
Click "Close"

If the game is still not running quickly enough for you, I do have one last suggestion. (This has helped me with my computer, but may not be of much help with newer CPUs.)
In the task manager, for every process using CPU except RimWorld; right-click, select "Set Affinity" from the list, and disable affinity for CPU0 for each.
This will attempt to tell the computer to not use CPU0 for any process except RimWorld.
Again, this may or may not help. In fact, with an i7 core, it is unlikely to help much, if at all.

Of course, if the game is running fine outside of these spawn events, it is (unfortunately) quite likely that none of this (except changing the cooling policy from "passive" to "active") will help much.

Drungan

Quote from: nccvoyager on October 09, 2016, 07:25:19 PM
Well, it is entirely possible that the CPU power is being cut down by the onboard power settings manager in an attempt to cool the CPU.
QuoteGo into the "Power Settings"
Go to the advanced option "Processor Power Management"
Change the sub-option "System Cooling Policy" to "Active"
This will make the computer attempt to increase the speed of a cooling fan in order to cool the CPU.
The computer will attempt this before it attempts to lower the CPU power.

Now, beyond that, I cannot really suggest the rest of this due to your CPU being (quite) new.
However, it is up to you whether you want to spend the time with the rest of this or not.
Regardless, I would suggest that you test the game and see if the above helped before trying anything else here.

I would also suggest opening the task manager, (Ctrl-Shift-Esc,) right-clicking "RimWorld.exe" from the task manager, and select "high" priority from the "Set Priority" drop-down list.
(Avoid the real-time option. Bad things can happen with that.)

In addition, turning off any antivirus programs while playing RimWorld (or any game, really) is also advisable; antivirus programs are useful, but can eat a lot of CPU time.

If you are running through Steam, I would suggest turning off the Steam in-game overlay.
QuoteGo to the "Steam Library"
Right-click RimWorld
Select "Properties"
Click the checkbox next to "Enable the Steam Overlay while in-game"
Ensure that the checkbox is now empty.
Click "Close"

If the game is still not running quickly enough for you, I do have one last suggestion. (This has helped me with my computer, but may not be of much help with newer CPUs.)
In the task manager, for every process using CPU except RimWorld; right-click, select "Set Affinity" from the list, and disable affinity for CPU0 for each.
This will attempt to tell the computer to not use CPU0 for any process except RimWorld.
Again, this may or may not help. In fact, with an i7 core, it is unlikely to help much, if at all.

Of course, if the game is running fine outside of these spawn events, it is (unfortunately) quite likely that none of this (except changing the cooling policy from "passive" to "active") will help much.

You sir have saved the life of my PC ( and my sanity ) the power settings option was what did bottleneck my system went from 5 fps to 60 even while panning ..... i can not thank you enough !

nccvoyager

No problem, and I'm glad you got it working.

Enjoy reveling in the digital suffering!  ;)

I myself have been forcing old hardware to run new games for almost ten years now.
As such, I have some experience in finding the small things that can slow down the entire system.