Lag: Still a problem

[Herodotus]

In another thread, Mark said that lag was not a problem in any scenario except on large maps and if you continued to play. I say that this isn't so and that it can be a problem.

I initially thought lag was just a pain when you were trying to place buildings and scan the map but it's more than that

I'm currently building the Great Pyramid. There is very little city building to be done. Just let them get on with it. It's taking incredibly long, and the frame rate is down to about 4 or 5 per sec.

Q: Does the slow frame rate mean a slow game speed (watch the clock)
A: Yes it does, Annoying isn't it!

Q: I thought I'd already set video requirements to minimum? Anything else I can do ?
A: What about the Rear Clipping Plane (Fog). I bet you set it to Max - reduce it to Min

Q: Did that make a difference?
A: Well it's like building in a pea-souper but yes the clock did seem to speed up, maybe by 50%

So am I right in saying the above or is it imagination, and is there anything else I can do? (other than new hardware)

[Herodotus]

Effect of Rear clipping plane RCP:

I ran a little test - obviously it will vary from computer to computer, (and maybe with other game events as well).
Real time to play 24 hours in game time from 1-15 am to 1-15 am, Auto save off, Max zoom out. Game speed 2.5 x

RCP Max (Fog off): Time taken for 24 hours = 6 minutes 15 seconds

RCP Min (Fog thickest): Time taken for 24 hours = 5 minutes 15 seconds


This Seems to beg the question: Does this mean there is no point in speeding the game up further by changing the ini file, as it gets limited by lag anyway?

[Keith]

Also, reducing your color from 32 bit to 16 bit in the game options menu will help reduce lag as well. Turning off items like shadows and the water effects can speed things along slightly.

[Herodotus]

Can't see 32 bit or 16 bit choice in game options, Keith.

All the other stuff (apart from fog) I set to minimum on day 1.

It has only been a problem for building the great pyramid, when there's not much to do except wait. I'm hoping it won't be an issue in other scenarios, but if it becomes so, I'll go to max fog again after starting with min fog (essential for city planning)

[Keith]

Its in the video interface menu, where you set the screen resolution. Each resolution has a choice of one for 32-bit and one for 16-bit color. I run my game at 1024x768 32-bit color, but when I started having problems with my big city of Ahketaten I switched over to 16-bit color to help things along.

If you seach back through the threads in the CotN section you should find a thread named, IIRC, "11 overseers and no one works (http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7783&highlight=overseer)". I have attached several saves of my playthrough of Mark Zimmitti's Ahketaten scenario there, with the saves near the end of the thread showing the city at it's largest.

Warning: Those latter saves really bogged my system down when loaded, on less powerful systems the save file may not even load or may crash your game.

[Herodotus]

Thanks, Keith. I should have noticed it.

That sure was an interesting thread you linked to. It raises a number of points I was gonna get to eventually. Watch this space...
(well not this one obviously) ;)

[Keith]

Using a lower resolution, 800x600 instead of 1024x768 for exmple, will also help if the game is lagging.

[wodinoneeye]

Using a lower resolution, 800x600 instead of 1024x768 for exmple, will also help if the game is lagging.



lowering the detail levels also.

Deleting alot of vegetation might also help.


I really hope they did a better job of the threading between the input and the display rendering. The lag would have been less bothersome if they didnt queue every single camera view rotation/position adjustment and have to play out all the slow frames for each one (should have combined them antomagically by groups as the frame rate dropped -- it aint rocket science (as Ive said before.....)).