Performance drops in the late game - How do you deal with them?
Moderator: Moderators for English X Forum
-
- Moderator (English)
- Posts: 4760
- Joined: Fri, 21. Dec 18, 18:23
Re: Performance drops in the late game - How do you deal with them?
If playing unmodified and suffering late game slowdown you can provide a save for the developers to look at. Bugs can cause such issues, and it could also give the developers clues as to where to optimise or place more reasonable limits.
Re: Performance drops in the late game - How do you deal with them?
How does fleet size and number of stations (plus station sizes), affect FPS and CPU performance ?
I've wondered this for a long time; several searches have not come up with much (maybe my search terms?). Many moons ago I read where it does and it seems logical that the more "things" that have to be monitored and drawn on the screen would slow things down. But, I'm not a 'puter expert fwiw.
Because of this, I've kept my fleets fairly small in numbers and I only have 4 stations (not big ones either); the 4th was just recently started in Neptune to hopefully help with Terrain rep.
Also, I don't use but one mod full time: nostardust. I'll switch on LearnAllThings(?) for a few hours to boost my crew skills (then turn it off). I used to use the ArgonNPC people mod for variety but I turned it off when CoH came out. That's my spill for the day. GL HF
I've wondered this for a long time; several searches have not come up with much (maybe my search terms?). Many moons ago I read where it does and it seems logical that the more "things" that have to be monitored and drawn on the screen would slow things down. But, I'm not a 'puter expert fwiw.
Because of this, I've kept my fleets fairly small in numbers and I only have 4 stations (not big ones either); the 4th was just recently started in Neptune to hopefully help with Terrain rep.
Also, I don't use but one mod full time: nostardust. I'll switch on LearnAllThings(?) for a few hours to boost my crew skills (then turn it off). I used to use the ArgonNPC people mod for variety but I turned it off when CoH came out. That's my spill for the day. GL HF
-
- Posts: 564
- Joined: Tue, 23. Mar 21, 06:18
Re: Performance drops in the late game - How do you deal with them?
I am not an expert but the toll all adds up. You have to consider that the computer has to take into account the scripts and actions driving each and every ship, station, asteroid, dropped item, etc. I would expect the silly "Stars" system makes things worse too since now you have up to 5 different behavior patterns that the processer has to account for for each NPC in the game instead of just one. The point is, for each item added to the game there are dozens of things the processor has to account and it grows quickly.Drumma wrote: ↑Tue, 27. Apr 21, 23:21How does fleet size and number of stations (plus station sizes), affect FPS and CPU performance ?
I've wondered this for a long time; several searches have not come up with much (maybe my search terms?). Many moons ago I read where it does and it seems logical that the more "things" that have to be monitored and drawn on the screen would slow things down. But, I'm not a 'puter expert fwiw.
Because of this, I've kept my fleets fairly small in numbers and I only have 4 stations (not big ones either); the 4th was just recently started in Neptune to hopefully help with Terrain rep.
Also, I don't use but one mod full time: nostardust. I'll switch on LearnAllThings(?) for a few hours to boost my crew skills (then turn it off). I used to use the ArgonNPC people mod for variety but I turned it off when CoH came out. That's my spill for the day. GL HF
To be honestly and realistic, often times when people are accusing the devs of a dumb AI, it isn't that they can't do a better AI, it is that they can't do a better one and make it so people with older computers can actually run the game. Then mods come in and "correct" the issues with the dumb AI but it will turn out that the cost of doing so drags the computer into acting like sluge. That is what is happening to me. I want to see huge fleets battling it out and I want the AI to act more intelligently so I am paying the price.
Re: Performance drops in the late game - How do you deal with them?
Its not bad really unless you go into high attention(In sector). EgoSoft has put a lot of work into streamlining out of sector useage.
If your game is modded, there are some mods that add a ton more out of sector useage, but unmodded, its largely inconsequential.
In sector, it can crush your cpu pretty quickly which also destroys your fps.
-
- Posts: 564
- Joined: Tue, 23. Mar 21, 06:18
Re: Performance drops in the late game - How do you deal with them?
Well that is part of the problem. One of the reason I like X4 is that I can get the cinematic fleet on fleet battle experience. That is the thing that sets X4 apart honestly, the ability to be in the thick of it either riding along plaything the Admiral or hopping in the seat of a ship and taking part in the combat. Honestly if I wanted to watch symbols on a map engaged in combat, there are a ton of games that do it better than X4.KextV8 wrote: ↑Thu, 29. Apr 21, 14:33Its not bad really unless you go into high attention(In sector). EgoSoft has put a lot of work into streamlining out of sector useage.
If your game is modded, there are some mods that add a ton more out of sector useage, but unmodded, its largely inconsequential.
In sector, it can crush your cpu pretty quickly which also destroys your fps.
Re: Performance drops in the late game - How do you deal with them?
Its a catch 22. I like that X4 is simulated more heavily than other games, but it comes at a heavy performance cost. Its kinda on each of us individually to limit our scale to what our computer can handle.Midnitewolf wrote: ↑Thu, 29. Apr 21, 20:13
Well that is part of the problem. One of the reason I like X4 is that I can get the cinematic fleet on fleet battle experience. That is the thing that sets X4 apart honestly, the ability to be in the thick of it either riding along plaything the Admiral or hopping in the seat of a ship and taking part in the combat. Honestly if I wanted to watch symbols on a map engaged in combat, there are a ton of games that do it better than X4.
-
- Posts: 564
- Joined: Tue, 23. Mar 21, 06:18
Re: Performance drops in the late game - How do you deal with them?
Yeah I honestly wish they would provide mechanisms to limit the player to be honest. I think the fact that you can reach a point where you have unlimited money and can print unlimited ships is a huge flaw in the game. I have a 350 hour long playthrough that I can't bring myself to log in an play simply because there is no challenge to the doing anything anymore. I mean I thought taking on the Xenon would be tough but just brute forced through a sector they owned with a metric ton of their ships and something like 5 stations. Took about 2 hours and I didn't even lose a single capital ship in the process. Of course I had about 80 capital ships and around 600 fighters engaging them so I guess it shouldn't surprise me they didn't put up much of a fight but that is what I mean about no limits, equaling no challenge. I have been honestly holding back and leaving my shipyard idle for hours at a time as well. I could probably have 2-3 times the number of ships if I wanted them. I am honestly at the point where I am thinking about declaring war with on every faction in the game to see if that gives me a challenge.KextV8 wrote: ↑Thu, 29. Apr 21, 22:02Its a catch 22. I like that X4 is simulated more heavily than other games, but it comes at a heavy performance cost. Its kinda on each of us individually to limit our scale to what our computer can handle.Midnitewolf wrote: ↑Thu, 29. Apr 21, 20:13
Well that is part of the problem. One of the reason I like X4 is that I can get the cinematic fleet on fleet battle experience. That is the thing that sets X4 apart honestly, the ability to be in the thick of it either riding along plaything the Admiral or hopping in the seat of a ship and taking part in the combat. Honestly if I wanted to watch symbols on a map engaged in combat, there are a ton of games that do it better than X4.
Re: Performance drops in the late game - How do you deal with them?
Please dont use words like egosoft should limit the player, youll make them nerf the game like happened to mining.Midnitewolf wrote: ↑Sat, 1. May 21, 04:32Yeah I honestly wish they would provide mechanisms to limit the player to be honest. I think the fact that you can reach a point where you have unlimited money and can print unlimited ships is a huge flaw in the game. I have a 350 hour long playthrough that I can't bring myself to log in an play simply because there is no challenge to the doing anything anymore. I mean I thought taking on the Xenon would be tough but just brute forced through a sector they owned with a metric ton of their ships and something like 5 stations. Took about 2 hours and I didn't even lose a single capital ship in the process. Of course I had about 80 capital ships and around 600 fighters engaging them so I guess it shouldn't surprise me they didn't put up much of a fight but that is what I mean about no limits, equaling no challenge. I have been honestly holding back and leaving my shipyard idle for hours at a time as well. I could probably have 2-3 times the number of ships if I wanted them. I am honestly at the point where I am thinking about declaring war with on every faction in the game to see if that gives me a challenge.KextV8 wrote: ↑Thu, 29. Apr 21, 22:02Its a catch 22. I like that X4 is simulated more heavily than other games, but it comes at a heavy performance cost. Its kinda on each of us individually to limit our scale to what our computer can handle.Midnitewolf wrote: ↑Thu, 29. Apr 21, 20:13
Well that is part of the problem. One of the reason I like X4 is that I can get the cinematic fleet on fleet battle experience. That is the thing that sets X4 apart honestly, the ability to be in the thick of it either riding along plaything the Admiral or hopping in the seat of a ship and taking part in the combat. Honestly if I wanted to watch symbols on a map engaged in combat, there are a ton of games that do it better than X4.
They just need to give the player control over max number of objects can be generated.
If you use dynamic war mod, you can see the larger ai factions build ships up to about 1000
And sectors are filled with ai factories not producing anything.
I consider it part of my game to go around destroying over crowded sectors to improve fps.
And egosoft please provide a way for those not using story, missions, or that nagging creature in the HQ since room to disable this features, i dont care for the story or missions, i just use the sandbox and cheat menu to create my own scenario of interest.
This game badly needs a user configuration page for both pre game setup, and in game run time options. Instead of ego-soft forcing a storyline, let users select what they want based on config options.
Please add option to disable missions, i need the fps instead.
Every time people critic the storyline it seems to get more involved and somehow more enforced
Now that thing in science lab wount stop nagging till you have to go there to hear her bitch about terraforming. wish i could tell i only came for the sandbox, and she not worth the fps.
Please egosoft we need config tool to allow limiting of objects and also setting other user preferences
Re: Performance drops in the late game - How do you deal with them?
Today i noticed that small satellites are the same as advanced ones, so i took some ships and replaced them, and i also took satellites just there, where yards and wharfs are.
Also i noticed the map and the game lags, depending on the sector where you are, even more if youre at a Station with many many stationparts and/or a huge battle.
If you goto another nearly empty sector the game runs smooth for sure.
But the game, i guess, is single threaded. That means even with a multi-core cpu it will lag, depending on how fast the sigles cores of your Multicore CPU are.
You also can add the following in the steam argument lines to improve preformance without loosing much quality:
-USEALLAVAILABLECORES
This i guess won't work with the game... hmm..
-sm4 -d3d10
This improves the preformance very much, it uses DX10 with shader model 4, only the shadows look a bit different, but try it, i used this arguments with other games wich where lagging, after using them the games had much more fps, but it only works with games wich use direct X11, you can force them to use DX10 now and you see if it works or helps you a bit, it nearly looks the same btw.
-high
this sets the game priority to high, means your game gets more recources, instead of other background applications.
-lowmemory
this makes the game use less RAM, if your PC hasn't much.
Open your Steam Libary, right click at your X4 Foundations, from the popup choose settings, then down below you see "Start Options"
paste there the following for DX10:
-USEALLAVAILABLECORES -sm4 -d3d10
or for DX10 and high process priority:
-USEALLAVAILABLECORES -sm4 -d3d10 -high
or for DX10, high process priority and not enugh RAM:
-USEALLAVAILABLECORES -sm4 -d3d10 -high -lowmemory
I play the game on Ryzen 7 and also i have Nvidia Titan xp, it gives me at stations and battles 15 fps... bc its the single core wich runs the others are ZZZzzzzzleeping sadly.. lol
Also i noticed the map and the game lags, depending on the sector where you are, even more if youre at a Station with many many stationparts and/or a huge battle.
If you goto another nearly empty sector the game runs smooth for sure.
But the game, i guess, is single threaded. That means even with a multi-core cpu it will lag, depending on how fast the sigles cores of your Multicore CPU are.
You also can add the following in the steam argument lines to improve preformance without loosing much quality:
-USEALLAVAILABLECORES
This i guess won't work with the game... hmm..
-sm4 -d3d10
This improves the preformance very much, it uses DX10 with shader model 4, only the shadows look a bit different, but try it, i used this arguments with other games wich where lagging, after using them the games had much more fps, but it only works with games wich use direct X11, you can force them to use DX10 now and you see if it works or helps you a bit, it nearly looks the same btw.
-high
this sets the game priority to high, means your game gets more recources, instead of other background applications.
-lowmemory
this makes the game use less RAM, if your PC hasn't much.
Open your Steam Libary, right click at your X4 Foundations, from the popup choose settings, then down below you see "Start Options"
paste there the following for DX10:
-USEALLAVAILABLECORES -sm4 -d3d10
or for DX10 and high process priority:
-USEALLAVAILABLECORES -sm4 -d3d10 -high
or for DX10, high process priority and not enugh RAM:
-USEALLAVAILABLECORES -sm4 -d3d10 -high -lowmemory
I play the game on Ryzen 7 and also i have Nvidia Titan xp, it gives me at stations and battles 15 fps... bc its the single core wich runs the others are ZZZzzzzzleeping sadly.. lol
Re: Performance drops in the late game - How do you deal with them?
Thanks, hmm i see all my cores work, up to 30% is used, i also have a Nvidia Titan xp 12 GB GDDR 5X , 32 GB Ram..
I just don't know why the game has low FPS.. Can't even see something in teh task manager or ressourcesmonitor.
-
- Posts: 564
- Joined: Tue, 23. Mar 21, 06:18
Re: Performance drops in the late game - How do you deal with them?
Just because the game can use multiple threads doesn't mean it has the best optimization. As you point out only 30% of your cores are used, that is 70% not being used and that it likely because the game isn't as optimized as we would like. Then again I honestly don't know of any game that utilizes all threads and cores at 99.9999% either so that is no knock on the developers or the game.
The reality is honestly that the game just gets to the point that there is so much going on that it will bring any processor to its knees eventually depending on how many objects the player adds. The NPCs seem quite limited in just how big they can grow so I do feel performance is dependent on how big the player grows. If you are adding tons of ships, stations, resource probes, nav probes, satellites, etc., your just naturally going to see performance drop.