Coremaximiser tool for multi core CPUs/FAF

[noms]

I currently use this but does anyone else? Would it be a good idea to promote it so that CPU lag issues improve?

[Ghoti]

now, call me crazy, but I'm pretty sure the guy who released it, said it would actually SLOW sim speed down.

edit: I remembered correctly.

There is a slight side effect where the sim runs a little slower. This is due to the nature of how GPG's two major threads work together in concert, Sim and Render. Unfortunately the game was not tuned with this kind of thread freedom expected on core 0 and when the render thread is allowed more freedom to the CPU time having huge benefits, the sim code slows down for internal reasons unknown.

http://forums.gaspowered.com/viewtopic.php?t=15556

Funny disconnect between what we expect to happen, and what actually happens.

Actually I've wanted to try it, but I'm not 100% on what exactly it's doing.

[Doompants]

I used to run this years ago on my older core duo, as did a couple friends. While it might lower the overall sim speed slightly, it DID *seem* to improve how much large games tended to slow down over time. So it was a tradeoff, but it was no miracle maker. Big games still slowed down somewhat and huge games still choked outright.

Nowadays, I have no idea how much of an impact, if any, it still has with FAF and more modern machines.

[Ghoti]

While it might lower the overall sim speed slightly, it DID *seem* to improve how much large games tended to slow down over time.

Could you resolve that contradiction for me? I don't understand. Games slowing down over time is the sim speed getting worse.

Also a read through the threads on the application were interesting. I'll give it a wing.

[ExituS]

Could you resolve that contradiction for me? I don't understand. Games slowing down over time is the sim speed getting worse.

Also a read through the threads on the application were interesting. I'll give it a wing.

Read: "id DID *seem*"
Contradiction solved.

[eXcalibur]

i use it and it forces FA to use more than one core. i also tested it in large games with 7 AIs and 1000 unit limit. after 20min in the game, i get about 1-2 fps (this is almost independent of the setting of the graphic options). WITH core maximizer i get about 10 fps. i have a laptop with an i7 @ 1.6ghz.

i have not tested the simspeed, but this is not as important to me. i want my games playable and core maximizer does this.


i would like to have an option in FAF "use core maximizer", but there should be a warning as well saying it can actually slow down the simspeed and should only get used after extensive testing.

[-_V_-]

Tried with and without. No difference or whatsover

[Ghoti]

tried as well. I think it was causing stuttering on my comp... strange.

Perhaps windows 7's thread management is better behaved?

[Doompants]

While it might lower the overall sim speed slightly, it DID *seem* to improve how much large games tended to slow down over time.

Could you resolve that contradiction for me? I don't understand. Games slowing down over time is the sim speed getting worse.

There is no contradiction. While the overall sim speed was slighty smaller to start, the game wouldn't nosedive into unplayable simspeeds in the long term.

Keep in mind, I am talking about my experiences on the first generation Core Duo processor, several years ago. Think it might've been a 6600. But to use Setons as an example, in a game where I hosted 6 of us (and 2 AI players), we could all play a nice fast, crisp game to start, but by midgame, we'd be starting to crawl kinda bad, and we'd be slogging at -4 before the experimentals started rolling. I agree it's purely anecdotal evidence, but we talked about it and we all agreed that core maximizer had the effect of dropping sim speed a small amount to start, but we could play a lot farther into the game before we hit horrible -4 sims. short term loss for long term game.

But I have no idea if there is still any truth to this, or benefit with today's CPUs, or if it was only because I was hosting AIs, or if any of the performance improvements made to FAF make a difference.

[Doompants]

Perhaps windows 7's thread management is better behaved?

Another possibilty. I was back on XP at the time obviously.