How to speed up simulation? (City 176k)

[Stiffler SK]

any help with performance issues? i tried FPS/Balanced/Simulation, really no change.
When i click 2x it speeds cars for few seconds, then slows, the same on 3x speed.
So its not playable the cars goes slow like snails :(

I have 100% CPU usage: i9 10850k (5Ghz): 10 cores / 20 threads all to 100%,
64GB RAM, NV 3080Ti. (almost everything to HIGH/max)
FPS is relatively OK 25-45 (depending on scrolling) but the animation is crazy slow...

any hints?

screenshot: https://prnt.sc/bzDWHUdt90B7

[Lick Rimmington]

Same size and sam eissues after patch.
They buggered something up again trying to "fix" performance. Looks like they nerfed the cim speed multipliers so the cpu and gpu have time to deal with it and the perf isn't as choppy/low fps as before.
Dropped the game again yesterday. No fun watching a house get built for 5 minutes irl I tell you hwat.

[Major Kudos™]

All settings on low and turn off clouds and fog and use the new "sunny" map, that's about it.

I have similar hardware to you and the SloJam didn't start till 200k.

No fix coming to PC untill they publish the console release. That's where the money is just sitting waiting.

[Stiffler SK]

thing is that low/high details has not that big impact for FPS, thats not the issue (even i'm horified how few fps i have :))
, the issue is simulation speed :(

[Stealthy]

Have you tested with and without hyperthreading?

HT gives 2 threads per 1 physical core and in some cases it does offer speed boost but when all threads are loaded and you got 2 x 100% going into 1 core which can only handle so much, processing speed for both threads will be slowed down substantially. It may help to disable HT. Or not. But I'd say worth testing.

[pete1051]

I am sorry, but you are entering the slow zone. Things will only get slower the bigger your city gets.
I have been troubled by this too. The higher the population gets, the slower the cpu load gets. City vehicles make it worse, new services will only add to the slow down, garbage, ambulances, transit routes...

It's the path-finding. It gets bogged down and clogs up and pauses. I have been studying this for a bit.

I usually reach this just before 300k, you seem to have hit it early. What services do you have?
For context with these times... the problem appears no matter what multiplier.

All my experements are dev mod 8x speed, double that of the regular full speed which is 4x. And I increased the birth rate to max, and education fees to max, in dev mode for testing purposes...
One city I got to nearly 400k, still at 1 min per game hour.

Game default at the start, population 4... 30 sec per game hour at 8x.

100-250k on average is 40sec-1min

300K 1min 30 sec

350k: 4min 30sec

400k: (on just one game I sat and watched, too stutterly to do much at this point...)
7min 14sec per game hour

determined to see "how bad it will get"... I push on through the molasses....

500k: 11m 40s / game hr at 8x

550k: 14m 10s / game hr at 8x

600k: 17 miniutes and 58 seconds per game hour !!!!

wow, I wonder when it will be 1 hour per in game hour?

oh, and I'm using a 13th gen i7 with 12 cores/24 threads,64 g ram, 4090GTX

I am afraid we are just have to learn to live with this. It may be a deeper shortcoming in Unity. I think for a 'optimal'city simulator, one would need to build an engine for that specifically from the ground up to handle bigger cities. I don't think C.O. can even do too much with enterprise service with Unity.

[pete1051]

FPS has been a stable 40-60, though the stutters are getting bad at times at 600k. hard to even build roads accurately. but mostly 40 or so, occasionally dipping.

[ekin]

Originally posted by pete1051:

I am sorry, but you are entering the slow zone. Things will only get slower the bigger your city gets.
I have been troubled by this too. The higher the population gets, the slower the cpu load gets. City vehicles make it worse, new services will only add to the slow down, garbage, ambulances, transit routes...

It's the path-finding. It gets bogged down and clogs up and pauses. I have been studying this for a bit.

I usually reach this just before 300k, you seem to have hit it early. What services do you have?
For context with these times... the problem appears no matter what multiplier.

All my experements are dev mod 8x speed, double that of the regular full speed which is 4x. And I increased the birth rate to max, and education fees to max, in dev mode for testing purposes...
One city I got to nearly 400k, still at 1 min per game hour.

Game default at the start, population 4... 30 sec per game hour at 8x.

100-250k on average is 40sec-1min

300K 1min 30 sec

350k: 4min 30sec

400k: (on just one game I sat and watched, too stutterly to do much at this point...)
7min 14sec per game hour

determined to see "how bad it will get"... I push on through the molasses....

500k: 11m 40s / game hr at 8x

550k: 14m 10s / game hr at 8x

600k: 17 miniutes and 58 seconds per game hour !!!!

wow, I wonder when it will be 1 hour per in game hour?

oh, and I'm using a 13th gen i7 with 12 cores/24 threads,64 g ram, 4090GTX

I am afraid we are just have to learn to live with this. It may be a deeper shortcoming in Unity. I think for a 'optimal'city simulator, one would need to build an engine for that specifically from the ground up to handle bigger cities. I don't think C.O. can even do too much with enterprise service with Unity.

Thanks for the test results and a great analysis. Including what CO can or cannot do. You are correct, unfortunately they don't even have the competence to use Unity properly.

[pete1051]

My advice is be sparing with the hospitals and garbage services. Those add a huge burden to path finding. And cause major jams.

[pete1051]

And for those a not averse to 'tailoring a single player game to taste' eg "cheating" in dev mode... more city fees can be adjusted for desired economy ;) .... free power and water with full price for education goes far. You get a happy bonus for for fre eutilities, ad they nevr complain about paying 1000 credits per student per month.

Bump up the 'birth chance' to desired rate (it does vary in reality), and they have no choice but to put all those kids in the school, funding the city.

At this point, after about a half dozen elementary school full, the city will start make money off just education, and then you can go for negative tax rates to incentiveize at will.

make up a story to "excuse" the dev mode adjustments ;P

...for those who do not look down on those who color(colour) outside the lines.

[pete1051]

oh, and slightly off topic, but want to force your cims to walk? all gravel roads, expensive, minimal parking lots. Not enough lanes for major jams, no traffic lights reduced speed. they all walk on the side. Still carries utils. Ugly, but functional.

Put all your homes and work in clusters apart for more pedestrian fun ;P

[pletus]

Originally posted by pete1051:

oh, and slightly off topic, but want to force your cims to walk? all gravel roads, expensive, minimal parking lots. Not enough lanes for major jams, no traffic lights reduced speed. they all walk on the side. Still carries utils. Ugly, but functional.

Put all your homes and work in clusters apart for more pedestrian fun ;P

I'm at 350k and all that is totally unnecessary, just build good road hierarchy and spot traffic problems. Cargo is a big issue, (actually it's 90% of traffic issues)

Ever get the feeling you have a "roaming swarm of traffic just trying to cause problems"? It's either people looking for a place to park or drop cargo, and there's no place for them to go, so they just seemingly cruise around.

[LarryWF]

To be fair, they did tell us city sizes would be limited by your hardware

[Rdizz]

Time to upgrade that ancient 486DX you're using.

[vlad755]

Originally posted by Rdizz:

Time to upgrade that ancient 486DX you're using.

486DX2-66 ruled baby-! I literally just hung up my Pentium Christmas tree ornament...

[pete1051]

Originally posted by pletus:

Originally posted by pete1051:

oh, and slightly off topic, but want to force your cims to walk? all gravel roads, expensive, minimal parking lots. Not enough lanes for major jams, no traffic lights reduced speed. they all walk on the side. Still carries utils. Ugly, but functional.

Put all your homes and work in clusters apart for more pedestrian fun ;P

I'm at 350k and all that is totally unnecessary, just build good road hierarchy and spot traffic problems. Cargo is a big issue, (actually it's 90% of traffic issues)

Ever get the feeling you have a "roaming swarm of traffic just trying to cause problems"? It's either people looking for a place to park or drop cargo, and there's no place for them to go, so they just seemingly cruise around.

I know it's unnecessary. That's the point. Not everyone plays this game the same way. I'm not going for a utopian city.

For instance, a dense grid of gravel roads, zoned high density residential. LOL. Sounds like a fun city, LOL.

Too many take this game too seriously and just go for the same common things.

I want unrealistic, unnecessary cities.

Maybe my next will be a giant freeway interchange.