fps drop suddenly

[bast]

Ive had this problems in a couple of my forts, game run great, but once i hit a certain playtime ( not sure atm) the fort starts running extremely slow at around 15 fps, if i pause it catches up then starts again. Im playing on 3x3 embark on a smaller world with 100 years of history, not sure what is causing it. My current one is at 100 pop and its having the same problem, but ive had forts with 250 pop and still run. Anyone know a fix or clue?

[mr_pan7s]

what kind of pc you got? cpu? ram?

[bast]

Intel Core i5-12400F
32gb ram
RTX 3070 Ti
edit : I also keep trash off my fort as well, deleting things i dont need, i block off old mining layers and such, not sure what task could cause this sudden drop in fps

[se5a]

possibly something or things trying to path somewhere it can't. have you got a cavern invasion or something that can't get to you?

[bast]

Originally posted by se5a:

possibly something or things trying to path somewhere it can't. have you got a cavern invasion or something that can't get to you?

no siege or anything that ive noticed, there was a forgotten beast that just disappeared but nothing in my others tab

[mr_pan7s]

your cpu is better then mine i would imagine you wouldn't run into this problem as hard as me. i'm on a 30 year fort and still getting 70 frames a lot of the time and never down to 15 only. I make 2x2 embarks but didn't even get that low on a 4x4

[bast]

Originally posted by mr_pan7s:

your cpu is better then mine i would imagine you wouldn't run into this problem as hard as me. i'm on a 30 year fort and still getting 70 frames a lot of the time and never down to 15 only. I make 2x2 embarks but didn't even get that low on a 4x4

yea it confuse the heck outta me, since ive had bigger forts that didnt run into this issue. Im thinking it's something being queued as either a task or pathfinding that causes it, because if i pause the game, the fps catches up to normal (100fps 60 gfps) then when i unpause it steadily drop til 15. im canceling all my tasks to see what causes it but not sure yet.

[mr_pan7s]

thats because when you pause the game it stops running it so the frames are always 100 or max. you seem like you know how to take care of long term forts but some extra tips i guess would be to use quantum stockpiles for stones especially but maybe even wood and other items. block off access to all areas you don't need on the map. atom smash old clothes and unwanted items. try to limit the area wild plants can grow. try to keep your water settled you don't want to many rivers or moving water. i keep my caves closed up with a bridge but every once and a while i clear out all the old bones as even on a 2x2 there can be 100's per cave.

[Regularity]

For me, at least, massive FPS drops are always caused by pathfinding errors. The way the game is designed it handles them very badly; it simply attempts to pathfind again immediately after, creating an infinite loop. Just the error log to see if this is the case.

As for general performance slowdown, in games like this, the main burden is each agent making decisions -- particularly pathfinding. So you can improve performance by having a few possible choices. So sealing off unused areas (thus eliminating possible choices) and using the traffic designations can help.

[bast]

Originally posted by Regularity:

For me, at least, massive FPS drops are always caused by pathfinding errors. The way the game is designed it handles them very badly; it simply attempts to pathfind again immediately after, creating an infinite loop. Just the error log to see if this is the case.

As for general performance slowdown, in games like this, the main burden is each agent making decisions -- particularly pathfinding. So you can improve performance by having a few possible choices. So sealing off unused areas (thus eliminating possible choices) and using the traffic designations can help.

can you tell me how to open the error logs? or do you mean the job cancel notification?

[bast]

Originally posted by mr_pan7s:

thats because when you pause the game it stops running it so the frames are always 100 or max. you seem like you know how to take care of long term forts but some extra tips i guess would be to use quantum stockpiles for stones especially but maybe even wood and other items. block off access to all areas you don't need on the map. atom smash old clothes and unwanted items. try to limit the area wild plants can grow. try to keep your water settled you don't want to many rivers or moving water. i keep my caves closed up with a bridge but every once and a while i clear out all the old bones as even on a 2x2 there can be 100's per cave.

good tips, ive made a running brook through the first floor of my fort and drain, since in winter the water freeze taking access from water away. I'll have to try quantum stockpiles, never really used it in classic.

[Kooba]

When not in edge-cases, pathfinding is not the major issue for fps-deaths. To a big part it's checking line of sight between entities. The more dwarfs, dead dwarfs, ghosts, pets/animal, invaders/beasts...the heavier the impact. See also: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=180561.0

Also embarks with a lot of trees (growing branches, falling fruits and leaves, rotting fruits and leaves) and temeperature related calculations are a major cause...

Keeping the amount of living things low helps, but ultimately at the moment a fps-death will occur at some point.

[Regularity]

Originally posted by βast:

can you tell me how to open the error logs? or do you mean the job cancel notification?

It's a file called errorlog.txt in the game folder.

[mr_pan7s]

I always do this with stones and ores. i make a single tile dump next to my work shops and dump them all there. i have over 4k stones and ores on 1 tile. i can't imagine the stockpile space i would need. i then make smaller stones or flux stone stockpiles closer to the workshop if i am feeling extra. if you leave the stones all over they need to calculate paths to them all. not sure if this is a huge help or not but it can't hurt. whenever i want to switch between my atom smasher or stone dump i just make sure i'm not dumping stones and delete the dump zone and make a new one under the smasher. once i'm done smashing i delete that dump zone and remake the stone one