Question about hyperthreading.......

That particular feature isn't working fully yet.

But you can turn on background loading.

The AI is multithreaded and makes use of hyperthreading. The undocumented feature you're talking about in prefs.ini has to do with making the interface itself hyperthreaded.

~SDC~

Thnx for replying Frogboy.By the way Gal Civ Is Awesome!

Thanks!

~SDC~

So does the game automatically make use of hyperthreading or do I have to enable it somewhere?

This should answer your question Nexworks:





~SDC~

As long as there is more than one thread running in a process that process will "automagically" take advantage of extra processors - each extra thread makes another processor useful.
A box that is hyperthreading looks like it has twice as many processors as are really there so if you have a single-proc machine with hyperthreading enabled then you effectively have a dual-proc machine (it's not that simple, but it'll do for this explanation).
Since Frogboy wrote this thing as a multi-threaded application it will take at least some advantage of your hyperthreading capabilities.
Given that a hyperthreaded processor still has to run everything within the one processor it's not as good as having a dual-proc non hyperthreaded box but it'll do.

So Multi threading makes it so you don't have to wait as long every turn. Unlike Civilization

WOW!

I had no idea that this game took advantage of my 2nd proc.
Kudos to the Programmers. I was wondering when i looked at the proc usage tab in Windows XP and saw both of them going.

You have my vote for Strategy game of the Year!

So a related question - what does background loading do? What gets loaded into background? When? What effect does this have on performance? What does this do to RAM usage?

Hyperthreading and SMP really show their advantage if you turn on background loading. Because in that case, starting up a game is lightning fast.

~SDC~

Rob,

I think the background loading goes on during the title screen, and during the New Game options screen. Its stuff that has to happen anyway to initiate a new or loaded game.

Once you're running a game, I don't think its supposed to have any affect on processor usage or memory consumption.


~SDC~

Hmmm. Brad, I'm running on a dual PPro 200/512 (512MB). Loading a Gigantic galaxy is excruciatingly slow. (Five minutes?) I can't play with music (it jumps) and explosions are painful to watch so I turn them off. Background loading doesn't seem to improve things much. W2k 2nd proc performance graph shows pretty low usage (maybe 30% peak) at Normal. Turn waits aren't too bad, given that movement is no faster than 3 grids in 2 seconds.

I hear you insisted that you be able to play on your PPro 200. Uniprocessor? How does it compare to my subjective experience?


~SDC~

My 450 uni is kinda slow, but I can't complain too much because they rated the game for 600. I'm glad it runs at all on your 200. I still can't think why it takes so long to move an 8 frame 2D bitmap around, but I think you're going to have to live with it. Programs are going to be written to run on a target machine, and you and I are now below the target.

Turn off as many of the movement animations as you can stand.

The PPro is the best chip Intel ever did! I keep trying to retire this box, but I use it every day and except for games it has more than enough HP.

I'll have to move GC over to the dual 850. And if that doesn't do it, I have some big machines in the basement.



~SDC~