Will the lag ever be dealt with?

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N3XUS12
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Will the lag ever be dealt with?

Postby N3XUS12 » Mon Sep 11, 2017 11:59 pm

I'm making this as a new thread since my google searches don't encounter anyone discussing this in the last couple of months, unless I am being blind.

Anyway, I have a six core processor, and yet when my prison reaches around 500 people (like everyone else) my game just dies. Unplayable levels of lag. I've read up on the fact that the game only uses one core, thus limited how far the game can go regardless of someone's PC build.

Disappointing really, there isn't much point in playing the game when you can't build anything other than a small-ish prison!

So I was just wondering if this was something the devs are still aware of, or if it is just how it is and will remain that way
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Re: Will the lag ever be dealt with?

Postby VoiD88 » Tue Sep 12, 2017 6:36 am

N3XUS12 wrote:the fact that the game only uses one core

Incorrect since November 2013, when Alpha version 15 came out. Since then, the game does use multiple cores. However, multithreading (splitting the execution of a program across multiple threads so that multiple cores actually help) is horribly complicated. Also, in PA's case, the code simply can not be split much further. So whether you have a quad-, octa- or even higher core CPU won't avail you anything with this game and it never will.

PA simply lags because it requires a lot of raw CPU power (number of GHz). No amount of optimization will change that.

The devs have already done quite a lot in that regard. Don't believe me? Go download older versions, even the aforementioned Alpha 15; they are running A LOT slower than the current build. Introversion already said that they are nearly at the point where further optimization would just be a waste of time since it would only speed up the game by an amount unnoticeable by most players.

So while I generally agree that it would be very nice if PA ran faster with big prisons, it's simply not achievable. The only thing to do is buy a CPU with a higher frequency (more GHz).
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Re: Will the lag ever be dealt with?

Postby N3XUS12 » Wed Sep 13, 2017 6:31 pm

Thanks for the reply,

My bad on my incorrection. Either way though my basic point still stands. I was really looking forward to building a huge prison complex. How am I supposed to achieve the 1000 prisoner achievement for example, when I can't play past approx 500?

Maybe there are a few things I am not doing which could help my performance. For example, would turning off heat and weathers help? Do mods slow the game down? And how should I work with utilities?

Hopefully there are a few things I can do to squeeze a few hundred more prisoners into the mix without breaking the game!
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Re: Will the lag ever be dealt with?

Postby xander » Fri Sep 15, 2017 3:11 am

N3XUS12 wrote:Thanks for the reply,

My bad on my incorrection. Either way though my basic point still stands. I was really looking forward to building a huge prison complex. How am I supposed to achieve the 1000 prisoner achievement for example, when I can't play past approx 500?

Maybe there are a few things I am not doing which could help my performance. For example, would turning off heat and weathers help? Do mods slow the game down? And how should I work with utilities?

Hopefully there are a few things I can do to squeeze a few hundred more prisoners into the mix without breaking the game!

My understanding is that most of the computational power goes to pathfinding. Pathfinding is a horrendously complicated task. It scales very poorly---it is essentially exponential in the size of the graph that is being searched for a path, then linear in the number of actors seeking paths. Basically, the CPU power required goes like exp(squares on the map). More prisoners imply a bigger map, which further implies an exponential increase in the CPU power needed to find paths. This is parallelizable in the sense that each prisoner/guard/cook/gardener/etc can be separated into a different thread, but every 16 threads isn't going to compete with exponential complexity.

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Re: Will the lag ever be dealt with?

Postby N3XUS12 » Sat Sep 16, 2017 6:23 pm

Cheers for that,

Though I will say I don't really know what you are talking about lol. I'm a bit of a noob when it comes to technical stuff. I just wanna know if there is anything I can do settings/mods wise which would maybe increase performance, even slightly ie. remove mods or work utlities better
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Re: Will the lag ever be dealt with?

Postby dogsbody » Thu Dec 21, 2017 2:13 am

The larger the prison (by buying additional land areas) and the more sprites you have running in it (Think guards/Prisoners/doctors etc etc), the slower it will run as the computer tries to animate it all.

The more compact the prison the faster it will run.

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