CPU usage

[KERMITS_FINGER]

Not sure if its possible but i noticed cpu usage many times sits at 80-90% on one core. And the rest are in the 40s or lower. Sometimes cores are at 8% lol Im not a programmer but if they could fix this maybe optimization would be way better. I have no illusion about my rig. Nowadays its a high 1080p or mid highish 2k rig in most cases imo. But so many other games run so much better with just as much if not more going on. Great game otherwise! Love it!
Ryzen 1500x 3.8 ghz cpu
16gb ram
gtx msi gamming x 1080 8gb

[SkacikPL]

The game strongly favors physical cores over logical ones, with current engine design you need either few physical cores at absurd clocks or simply a lot of cores for the load to spread out.

In my case it looks something like this:
https://i.imgur.com/2PT66F6.png

So there's nothing really you could do because if those "high usage" threads cap out on your CPU it's dead end and even if the remaining logical cores are under utilized, you're still "bottlenecked" by the engines design.

[proteus714]

Originally posted by SkacikPL:

The game strongly favors physical cores over logical ones, with current engine design you need either few physical cores at absurd clocks or simply a lot of cores for the load to spread out.

In my case it looks something like this:
https://i.imgur.com/2PT66F6.png

So there's nothing really you could do because if those "high usage" threads cap out on your CPU it's dead end and even if the remaining logical cores are under utilized, you're still "bottlenecked" by the engines design.

I believe this is the main problem with SS4 performance and optimization issues is that CPU 0 cannot keep up with the workload (also running at like 100% for me) and all remaining cores are at 30-35 % (8 core, 16 thread CPU). I think this is what is causing the major slow-downs when large numbers of enemies are spawning. Can Croteam not spread out some those CPU tasks and take better advantage of the remaining cores? I'm not a developer or programmer so am not aware of what may be involved in accomplishing that however.

[SkacikPL]

Their main technical guy left somewhere around 2018 so i guess that's just long lasting fallout of that.

I'm no engine designer either but that seems to go down from very deep engine design decisions, they might be able to alleviate issues to some degree but i wouldn't bet on it ever getting truly "fixed", it is what it is most likely and people can take it or leave it.

[proteus714]

Yes unfortunate but I think that may be true. However Talos Principle and SS Fusion are so well optimized on all API's especially Vulkan, so all they needed to do was simply build on that for SS4, which is what makes all these bugs and performance issues so surprising. They already had a very stable and optimized engine in version 3.5 I think it was... and in moving to 4 somehow lost so much of the optimization they had in 3.5. That just seems odd to me.

[KERMITS_FINGER]

Originally posted by SkacikPL:

The game strongly favors physical cores over logical ones, with current engine design you need either few physical cores at absurd clocks or simply a lot of cores for the load to spread out.

In my case it looks something like this:
https://i.imgur.com/2PT66F6.png

So there's nothing really you could do because if those "high usage" threads cap out on your CPU it's dead end and even if the remaining logical cores are under utilized, you're still "bottlenecked" by the engines design.

i figured so. I cant complain my average fps with a general ultra setting is 69-75ish. Still would be nice to see it not bog down. But all is good.

[Dixon Sider]

From a hardware engineering perspective, multi threading sounds like one wire that can both input and output data at the same time. That to me sounds like it relies on something wanting to receive that data at the same time it is being processed. There could a lot of room for improvement here because I imagine the GPU and the CPU are doing a large bulk of the communication with each other. But on the flip side, I am reading online that multi threading really thrives when you have components that take longer to access data.

I think it can be improved though. We will have to wait and see.

[Warmonger]

For years people complained that games are not making much use of their beefy CPU, so Croteam handled it. Now Serious Engine can use a plenty of cores (mostly for enemy AI and particles), but for some people it turns out to be limiting factor...

[KERMITS_FINGER]

Originally posted by Warmonger:

For years people complained that games are not making much use of their beefy CPU, so Croteam handled it. Now Serious Engine can use a plenty of cores (mostly for enemy AI and particles), but for some people it turns out to be limiting factor...

could be. Its crazy how doom eternal runs at like 120fps for me. but this game is lower. Obviously two differnt teams with a way bigger budget too haha. Also when i turn gpu and cpu setting down it still seems boggy. Just to throw that out there.

[proteus714]

Originally posted by Warmonger:

For years people complained that games are not making much use of their beefy CPU, so Croteam handled it. Now Serious Engine can use a plenty of cores (mostly for enemy AI and particles), but for some people it turns out to be limiting factor...

Well in my case I have an overclocked 6900K with 8 physical cores. Core 0 is overclocked to 4.2 GHz in Bios and core 7 has TurboBoost up to 4.0 GHz enabled with 6 remaining physical cores at 3.2 not to mention full hyperthreading. Those specs are HIGHER than even their recommended CPU specs on the Steam Store of an 8 core running at 3.3. The game is also running from a 960 NVME with more than 3000 MB/s read speeds, 64 GB system ram and 11 GB GDDR5 video ram (Strix 1080 TI also overclocked). If the serious engine is being bottle necked by those specs then I think there is an issue with the Serious engine.

[kwahoo]

Originally posted by proteus714:

Can Croteam not spread out some those CPU tasks and take better advantage of the remaining cores? I'm not a developer or programmer so am not aware of what may be involved in accomplishing that however.

They are spreading as much as they can. If you open log file you will see something like this:

cat Sam4.log | grep "thread"        
21:26:53 LOG:   Created thread 000000C4(ResourceGeneration).
21:26:53 LOG:   Created thread 000000C8(TexsMipUnloading).
21:26:53 LOG:   Created thread 000000CC(ResourceStreaming).
21:26:53 LOG:   Created thread 000000D0(ResourceFreeing).
21:26:53 LOG:   Created thread 000000D4(ResourceLoader).
21:26:58 LOG:   Created thread 000000EC(VLKSupportThread).
21:26:59 LOG:   Created thread 00000108(SoftwareMixer).
21:26:59 LOG:   Created thread 0000010C(JobPool Worker).
21:26:59 LOG:   Created thread 00000110(JobPool Worker).
21:26:59 LOG:   Created thread 00000114(JobPool Worker).
21:26:59 LOG:   Created thread 00000118(JobPool Worker).
21:26:59 LOG:   Created thread 0000011C(JobPool Worker).
21:26:59 LOG:   Created thread 00000120(JobPool Worker).
21:26:59 LOG:   Created thread 00000124(JobPool Worker).
21:26:59 LOG:   Created thread 00000128(JobPool Worker).
21:27:00 LOG:   Created thread 0000012C(SyncWorkshop).
21:27:06 LOG:   Created thread 00000134(GameDataJobs).
21:27:10 LOG:   Created thread 00000138(ShaderCompiler).
21:27:10 LOG:   Created thread 0000013C(ShaderCompiler).
21:27:10 LOG:   Created thread 00000140(ShaderCompiler).
21:27:10 LOG:   Created thread 00000144(ShaderCompiler).
21:27:10 LOG:   Created thread 00000148(ShaderCompiler).
21:27:10 LOG:   Created thread 0000014C(ShaderCompiler).
21:27:10 LOG:   Created thread 00000150(ShaderCompiler).
21:27:10 LOG:   Created thread 00000154(ShaderCompiler).
21:27:17 LOG:   Created thread 00000158(WorldStart).
21:27:17 LOG:   Created thread 0000015C(WorldStart).
21:27:17 LOG:   Created thread 00000160(WorldStart).
21:27:18 LOG:   Created thread 00000164(WorkerThreadPool).
21:27:18 LOG:   Created thread 00000168(WorkerThreadPool).
21:27:18 LOG:   Created thread 0000016C(WorkerThreadPool).
21:27:18 LOG:   Created thread 00000170(WorkerThreadPool).
21:27:18 LOG:   Created thread 00000174(WorkerThreadPool).
21:27:18 LOG:   Created thread 00000178(WorkerThreadPool).
21:27:18 LOG:   Created thread 0000017C(WorkerThreadPool).
21:27:18 LOG:   Created thread 00000180(WorkerThreadPool).
21:27:18 INF:   Using 8 threads for rendering.
21:27:18 INF:   Using 7 threads for prepare rendering.
21:27:19 LOG:   Created thread 00000188(WorldStart).
21:28:43 LOG:   Created thread 0000018C(WorldStart).
21:32:52 LOG:   Created thread 00000190(WorldStart).
21:37:42 LOG:   Created thread 00000194(WorldStart).
21:45:09 LOG:   Created thread 00000198(WorldStart).

Do you use Vulkan? With D3D11 multithreading may be much more limited. From SS3 discussion

https://steamcommunity.com/app/41070/discussions/0/846945579812847461/#c846947320622373385

Just a tip... using more than 2 or 3 cores easly provoke "driver flooding" issue.
The drivers cannot cope with amount of graphics commands game is giving them so fast.

[proteus714]

Originally posted by kwahoo:

Originally posted by proteus714:

Can Croteam not spread out some those CPU tasks and take better advantage of the remaining cores? I'm not a developer or programmer so am not aware of what may be involved in accomplishing that however.

They are spreading as much as they can. If you open log file you will see something like this:

Do you use Vulkan? With D3D11 multithreading may be much more limited. From SS3 discussion

https://steamcommunity.com/app/41070/discussions/0/846945579812847461/#c846947320622373385

Just a tip... using more than 2 or 3 cores easly provoke "driver flooding" issue.
The drivers cannot cope with amount of graphics commands game is giving them so fast.

I am using Vulkan actually I find it runs the best for me once I tweaked some of the settings, in particular Max shadow size. I am getting a little over 100 Avg FPS at the moment in the Death from above benchmark. What I am referring to though in my case is close to 100% CPU 1 usage but just 23% CPU utilization overall.

I must say I am having a blast playing SS4 and can tell it is going to become one of my favorite games right up there with Talos Principle and SS fusion. The game is running smoothly most of the time its just the periodic slow downs when a lot of enemies spawn or when in the middle of a huge battle with hundreds of enemies on screen at once that the drop in frame rate can really affect your performance in the game, and I think those drops are due to CPU 1 not being able to keep up with the workload.

See attached screenshot with just normal gameplay, not even in a challenging setting, CPU 1 has been running at close to 100% but overall CPU usage is only 16% (or 23%) when all cores and threads are counted (depending on if you are looking at Windows Task Manager or Corsair Link). I think there is definitely room to spread that workload more evenly; however I suspect it would not be easy to do

https://postimg.cc/hX143pSK

[↑↑↓↓←→←→BASelect]

I'm only getting 12% cpu usage. And none of my cores are maxed out. Weird.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2254520517

[proteus714]

Originally posted by Rigor Mortis:

I'm only getting 12% cpu usage. And none of my cores are maxed out. Weird.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2254520517

Yea I'm surprised that your first core isint running higher than it is. Are you running DX11, 12 or Vulkan?

[↑↑↓↓←→←→BASelect]

12.

Edit: I was wrong I'm running in vulkan.

[PR0TON]

Originally posted by Rigor Mortis:

I'm only getting 12% cpu usage. And none of my cores are maxed out. Weird.

So what's your GPU? Seems you being GPU bottlenecked.