Certain Performance Improvement (At Least For Me)

[os79]

Hello,

I wanted to share my experiences with my computer performance. Well, when I installed RoM, I suddenly installed almost all of modmods I liked, including most of AAranda's buildings (wonders and ordinary both).

Well, I also play few other mods as well from time to time.

It irked me when other mods using the SAME MAP/SCENARIO! was faster than RoM. I like 18 Huge Map.

First off, my specs:
Acer Aspire L5100
Atheon x2 Dual Core 2.3 GHz
Radeon x1250 256 MB video Memory (I think), integrated
3GB RAM
150 GB HD memory for my drive with Vista 32-bit
CFF Explorer to make BtS .exe file address more than 2 GB memory
Increaseuserva to 3GB memory using bcdedit command line

With all that, I'm fairly satisfied with it, at least in other mods.

But not RoM... What the f---?

So I tried to lower my graphics. Turned off all sounds (I'm Deaf anyway so pointless to have them on). Then I found someone said that I needed ot shut down some nonessential programs (Firefox 3.5, ZoomText, few others). I did that.
The result: The movements of units and the screen with them are faster and crisper!
But not the waiting turns!

So the next step was: Delete all AAranda's wonder buildings. Just leave me with ordinary buildings.
Result: The waiting turns IMPROVED!

So here I'm saying this... Please consider very carefully if you want to add more wonders to the vanilla RoM because what Zappara had put in are more than enough, plus Afforess' unique wonder for his Meterology mod. More than that might slow your waiting turn down.

So there, I shared my experience. Please comment with your analysis, opinion o rwhatever below and we can work toward improving RoM's performance for all concerned.

I'm already decided to go ahead and put in Static Leaders and NoBuildingsGraphics mods so they should help a bit more.

NOTE!!!: I'm in no way going to touch the mega civs pack *shudder*!

 

[Afforess]

So the next step was: Delete all AAranda's wonder buildings. Just leave me with ordinary buildings.
Result: The waiting turns IMPROVED!

If I had to hazard I guess, it would be that your turns improved because AAranda's wonders use python. Python slows down the game, but not much usually. However, if it is poorly written, so that the game has to check all the python every turn, then the game slows even more. I can't imagine the wonders having so much python that they would cause noticeable lag, but anyways, that's my two cents.

 

[os79]

If I had to hazard I guess, it would be that your turns improved because AAranda's wonders use python. Python slows down the game, but not much usually. However, if it is poorly written, so that the game has to check all the python every turn, then the game slows even more. I can't imagine the wonders having so much python that they would cause noticeable lag, but anyways, that's my two cents.

Hmm... Maybe... I remembered to check my Python folder and found his CvEventManager.py there and I deleted it, and made my backup to real py file (the original one). We will see what happen next time I play a game.
Thanks.

 

[Dancing Hoskuld]

If I had to hazard I guess, it would be that your turns improved because AAranda's wonders use python. Python slows down the game, but not much usually. However, if it is poorly written, so that the game has to check all the python every turn, then the game slows even more. I can't imagine the wonders having so much python that they would cause noticeable lag, but anyways, that's my two cents.

Unfortunately the only python in AAranda's modmods is the bit which plays movies for national wonders and any other building with a movie defined. It is possible that this is the problem because the XML for the movie is probably not cached but I don't see it being a biggie. I am not saying it because I wrote the code either. Actually I just recycled the code and made sure it was in the correct place. If it does turn out to be the source of the problem let us know so I can look into improving the code.

 

[os79]

OK, removing the python by AAranda did not change anything. Just the movies. But it might be something else completely.

So I give up on playing 18 civs earth map, if I want fast turns early on. I will just play 6 civs on either huge or large map in custom game option menu.

I will continue playing 18 civs earth, only for maybe 15 min. or so daily and just finish it up a lot later than I planned. I can do that for GEM map too. *sigh*

I already read that even if I were to buy top-end computer, it won't really make that much a difference because it is Civ 4, not the specs, to certain extent.

Thanks for listening, anyway. At least, I learned something new.

 

[GyroLeader]

I have noticed that number of AI's is the thing that affects most in wait time. At least for me, in Vanilla and mods. I have all graphics high, and turning them to low doesnt seems affact much.

 

[Afforess]

I already read that even if I were to buy top-end computer, it won't really make that much a difference because it is Civ 4, not the specs, to certain extent.

Thanks for listening, anyway. At least, I learned something new.

Yeah, my quadcore desktop still has 3-4 sec turn times in the modern eras, so it is true that Civ4 is to blame.

I hate the movies in civ4 because it takes like 5 seconds to load, and they only add "flavor" to the game, no functionality, so I disabled them. It speeds things up some.

 

[vincentz]

Unfortunately the only python in AAranda's modmods is the bit which plays movies for national wonders and any other building with a movie defined. It is possible that this is the problem because the XML for the movie is probably not cached but I don't see it being a biggie. I am not saying it because I wrote the code either. Actually I just recycled the code and made sure it was in the correct place. If it does turn out to be the source of the problem let us know so I can look into improving the code.

A stupid question : Why does the wonders need python to play movies? I put a wonder "movie" (a picture of the relevant coat of arms) to each of my guilds, and it didnt play twice or needed any python.

Yeah, my quadcore desktop still has 3-4 sec turn times in the modern eras, so it is true that Civ4 is to blame.

Maybe you need to upgrade

I hate the movies in civ4 because it takes like 5 seconds to load, and they only add "flavor" to the game, no functionality, so I disabled them. It speeds things up some.

I like the movies, but only once or twice. After that the first I do when building a wonder is hit the Continue button... Wish there was a still picture instead of the long loading time the wonder movies take.

I have noticed that number of AI's is the thing that affects most in wait time. At least for me, in Vanilla and mods. I have all graphics high, and turning them to low doesnt seems affact much.

It definately has something to do with the number of civs. I edited the Revolution.ini to make barbcities become minor civ when size 5 instead of 2 and the result was a lot fewer civs and a lot faster turns. Another major factor could be the barbarians. In previous versions of RoM the barbs were bugged and would disappear. They dont anymore which takes a bit longer time. A third factor is the AI's movement system. They like to move out/in/out/in/out/in etc of cities without any purpose (Maybe there is a purpose, I just fail to see it). The biggest factor is however the size of RoM. ASAIK there is no mod that comes even close to the stuff added into RoM. (units/buildings/wonders/techs/promotions/resources/features etc) which all together makes the AI have a lot more options to choose from, which IMO would lead to longer AI turns.

 

[Dancing Hoskuld]

A stupid question : Why does the wonders need python to play movies? I put a wonder "movie" (a picture of the relevant coat of arms) to each of my guilds, and it didnt play twice or needed any python.

The code to decide if a movie is played is in Python in the CvEventManager in the onBuildingBuilt event. AAranda's mods add movies to national wonders so they also need to be run. The double playing was occurring because in the initial release of AAranda's mod had a small bug.

 

[Dancing Hoskuld]

Sleeping on this, I think that there may be some delay issues with the movie code. I will have a look and get back to you.

 

[civ_king]

Yeah, my quadcore desktop still has 3-4 sec turn times in the modern eras, so it is true that Civ4 is to blame.

I hate the movies in civ4 because it takes like 5 seconds to load, and they only add "flavor" to the game, no functionality, so I disabled them. It speeds things up some.

Civ4 can only use a single core, devote a core PURELY to Civ4 and you should see an improvement in speed

 

[os79]

Civ4 can only use a single core, devote a core PURELY to Civ4 and you should see an improvement in speed

HUH?! I have dual core. how the heck do I do that?

 

[civ_king]

you could try AlacrityPC, that one allows you to specify which core to run it on and how dedicated the core will be to BTS. setting it to run BTS on one core, Real Time priority, so that you have a whole core dedicated to running the OS should run fine ( dual-core, BTS can't run on more than 1 core anyway )

 

[Dancing Hoskuld]

Turns out you were right! The PYTHON code I had fixed for AAranda's mods was causing lag. I admit I was not the originator of the code just put it in the correct place. It was from a mod that did not have as many buildings as RoM.

So if you are using AAranda's mods then you probably will want it see my mods for the patch. See dancing Hoskuld's mods [MODULAR] the AAranda patch file

 

[civ_king]

It's not the number of civs that slows but rather the number of units, but more civs=more units

 

[vincentz]

It's not the number of civs that slows but rather the number of units, but more civs=more units

Im not so sure about that. I modified the revolution.ini so that there wouldnt be so many civs in late game, but instead they would be stronger (more units/better research).

If f.ex. there was (A) 10 AI's with 250 units/civ (2500) OR (B) 20 AI's with 100 units/civ (2000) my personal experience would be that A would be alot faster even though there were more units. I have an old laptop where speed can be measured quite easely as the late turn time is not in seconds but in minutes but ofcourse time is relative as no 2 games a simular.

 

[civ_king]

hehe on my comp, late game usually takes a SLOW 1 minute, but then again that's what I get for using 40 civs on a gigantic map... (slow is a relative term)
I'd upload an example but the max is 2mb and I believe mine is in the 4mb range

 

[os79]

Turns out you were right! The PYTHON code I had fixed for AAranda's mods was causing lag. I admit I was not the originator of the code just put it in the correct place. It was from a mod that did not have as many buildings as RoM.

So if you are using AAranda's mods then you probably will want it see my mods for the patch. See dancing Hoskuld's mods [MODULAR] the AAranda patch file

*tip hat*
Thanks!