Performance in 0.82a

[Zephyr]

The earlier game versions ran okish on my hardware, but the latest version 0.82a really is a struggle to run at solid 25 FPS when loading larger towns founded on earlier versions. Usually I would have at least 35 FPS with 600 people. The performace gets worse the farther the camera is zoomed out. The problem is the people running around in populated areas, since I can reach more than 60 FPS when there are no or few people on the screen. Probably it has something to do with the ne routines added in 0.82. I cannot test large towns made with the new game version since I stopped playing (wanted to wait for release to play more).

Running on a 5800X3d and 3070 RTX.

[Death Korps Commissar]

gonna bump this, same for me, where it was tolerable at 30fps before(which wasnt great) it now dropped to 20 fps on a 200 size town...such a shame...the game is really enjoyable but man, the performance issues really kill it for me. even anno runs smoother

[hugedata]

Same for me. I play pretty much every colony sim game in existence and this runs the worst. Honestly, I don't see anything in this game that should require the computer resources that it uses. This needs to be the highest priority for the developer to address.

[Floetz]

+1
Early game runs pretty smooth, but around 200 people the performance drop is ridicolous, around 20-25fps. The annoying thing is: It has nothing to do with graphic settings, doesnt matter if I put everything on ultra or on very low (even resolution)

Running on a 5800X, 32GB of RAM and 3070RTX

Edit: plaing on WQHD Widescreen

[Zephyr]

Originally posted by Floetz:

+1
Early game runs pretty smooth, but around 200 people the performance drop is ridicolous, around 20-25fps. The annoying thing is: It has nothing to do with graphic settings, doesnt matter if I put everything on ultra or on very low (even resolution)

Running on a 5800X, 32GB of RAM and 3070RTX

No, it is and was always a CPU issue in this game. You can also very easily test this. Let the game run on one or two cores and they will be maxed out (literally choking with 600 people). Use 4 cores and it will be significantly better. Above 4 cores the gains are fast diminishing---> not well optimized (perhaps not possible) for more cores. The average CPU usage will not tell you anything as is the case in most games. Single core usage is on the contrary a much better indicator for CPU bottlenecks (but also not 100 % reliable). The best indicator is when your GPU can be maxed out with the graphic settings and under certain game conditions GPU usage and FPS drop---> CPU limit.

My guess is the issue is about the new routines for the people to make them work more efficiently. I find it a little funny, 0.8 was running well/ok for me and the performance optimization in 0.81 did not change much. Now 0.82 is making things worse... . But apparently not for the majority of players. I will try the next version again in more detail I think.

[Zantai]

It's curious that you'd see any significant changes in v0.8.2. Not sure which routines you think would make such a dramatic difference. Yes, some AI logistics were optimized, but no, that would not suddenly cause a performance drop.

I any case, I've had a debug build set up for you to try. If you still have a v0.8.0 or v0.8.1 save, you can try opting into the v0.8.1 debug branch.

• Right click Farthest Frontier in your Game Library
• Choose “Properties”.
• Select the “Betas” tab.
• Enter the access code “DebugMyBuild1337”.
• Hit the “Check Code” button.
• Select the v081debug branch in the dropdown box. This will then allow you to install the older version of the game.

I'd be curious to hear whether this does in fact give you a better framerate. Please try it out and report back. Thanks!

[Legna]

Same here, i have 150 people split in two cities and i'm getting 25-30 fps, with only 30% gpu and 10% cpu load. So yeah something is wrong.

[Zephyr]

Originally posted by Zantai:

It's curious that you'd see any significant changes in v0.8.2. Not sure which routines you think would make such a dramatic difference. Yes, some AI logistics were optimized, but no, that would not suddenly cause a performance drop.

I any case, I've had a debug build set up for you to try. If you still have a v0.8.0 or v0.8.1 save, you can try opting into the v0.8.1 debug branch.

• Right click Farthest Frontier in your Game Library
• Choose “Properties”.
• Select the “Betas” tab.
• Enter the access code “DebugMyBuild1337”.
• Hit the “Check Code” button.
• Select the v081debug branch in the dropdown box. This will then allow you to install the older version of the game.

I'd be curious to hear whether this does in fact give you a better framerate. Please try it out and report back. Thanks!

Thank you for the possibility. The one 600+ people town I have runs again fine more or less between 30-45 FPS on 0.81a when there is a lot happening (around town centre). Everywhere else 60+ FPS. That is significantly better than on my first 0.82+ trials with this town. If hickups due to founding the town on 0.8 and carrying it to newer builds can be ruled out it is probably going to be interesting. I can give more details tomorrow with screenshots of GPU/CPU usage+frames and compare again with 0.82b. Perhaps it will be better when loaded again, who knows.

[Zephyr]

Ok, here we go. First three shots of 0.81a.

Max GPU load, few settlers.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2957174849

Town center, heavy strain on CPU, far less GPU load. Still very playable (could be better but totally ok for such a game).

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2957174884

"Suburbs"

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2957174956

No problem whatsoever.

Now the same with 0.82b (I realize it is not 100 % comparable, but I did my best).

Again, max GPU load, few settlers. Already less performance visible:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2957174622

Town center, just horrible. 30+% (almost up to 50 %) less performance. That is a killer at these FPS

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2957174680

Suburbs:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2957175000

Also almost 50 % performance loss (really terrible). Just note the loss of GPU usage when comparing 0.81a vs. 0.82b, please.

Both conditions with the same graphic settings and zoomed out as far as possible.
Hopefully this helps somewhat :). Again this is a "carry over" settlement from 0.8. I can provide more info if necessary.

[Floetz]

I unfortunately deleted all my old save games when I started my new one recently, so I cannot test, sorry. Also no clue how to upload a screenshot here, but its more or less similar (bit lower in current version) to Zephyr from what I can remember from the old build(s).

Having this week off for gaming vacation and I was excited to play another save as I read about the optimizations, so it makes things a bit more sad for me personally :(

Wouldnt say its unplayable at all, but reaaaaaally annoying to have these constant frame drops. If it got stuck around 30fps I think I would be completely fine, but 20-25 (sometimes jumping to 45-50 for a few seconds) currently completely destroys the fun for me. It also doesnt feel like the game mechanics are affected, so its actually smooth, only the fps drop massively more or less around 200 people. I continued playing until 300, didnt feel like it got slower

But nice to see a developer actually reading this thread, so want to take the opportunity to thank you for the great game, the content is really enjoyable

PS: Pls let us zoom out the camera more in the future ;)

[Zephyr]

Originally posted by Floetz:

I unfortunately deleted all my old save games when I started my new one recently, so I cannot test, sorry. Also no clue how to upload a screenshot here, but its more or less similar (bit lower in current version) to Zephyr from what I can remember from the old build(s).

Having this week off for gaming vacation and I was excited to play another save as I read about the optimizations, so it makes things a bit more sad for me personally :(

Wouldnt say its unplayable at all, but reaaaaaally annoying to have these constant frame drops. If it got stuck around 30fps I think I would be completely fine, but 20-25 (sometimes jumping to 45-50 for a few seconds) currently completely destroys the fun for me. It also doesnt feel like the game mechanics are affected, so its actually smooth, only the fps drop massively more or less around 200 people. I continued playing until 300, didnt feel like it got slower

But nice to see a developer actually reading this thread, so want to take the opportunity to thank you for the great game, the content is really enjoyable

PS: Pls let us zoom out the camera more in the future ;)

Well, once you reach 500-600 (perhaps far less) people it is basically unplayable for me (or at least I do not wish to suffer it) in 0.82. Compared to what it used to be for me in 0.8 and 0.81a with the same town the drop in FPS is awesome. Not a good thing :).

[Zantai]

Interesting, could you share the save(s) you used?

Saves are located in:
C:\Users\USERNAME\Documents\my games\Farthest Frontier\Save

Zip up the entire TownName_###### folder along with the .map file and .sav that reproduces the issue. If the files are too big, you can use a service such as Google Drive to share it with us.

If we can't reproduce this in our end, we might try having you run a full debug build. It will run worse, but if your game is throwing errors that we're not seeing, the log will reveal all.

[Zephyr]

Yes, ok. Look here, please.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/37rp5u4e6fkqd4c/Zwielichtbr%C3%BCck_2022179154815.zip?dl=0

Hopefully this works. In the .zip are all town saves I have from this one and all related files.

[Zantai]

We've been able to identify some errors that keep popping up in your save, but they do not in v0.8.1. So we have a good lead to go off of. Thanks!

[Zephyr]

Originally posted by Zantai:

We've been able to identify some errors that keep popping up in your save, but they do not in v0.8.1. So we have a good lead to go off of. Thanks!

Thank you. Best of luck, it is a great game. Can you say if this would be a problem for me in 0.82 with newly founded towns, too?

[highlanderanno59]

HALLO-ja bei mir auch es ruckelt und ruckelt-- im moment nicht spielbar !!!