A4 Windows 99% cpu time

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Author	Topic: A4 Windows 99% cpu time
Dexter Apprentice Member # 6855	written Sunday, March 5 2006 04:30 Profile #0 The demo version of Avernum 4 for Windows takes 99% of my 2GHz AMD64 Venice Core, rendering the game very sluggish. I've tried reinstallment of the game, as well as the latest nVidia drivers. What to do next? Posts: 2 \| Registered: Sunday, March 5 2006 08:00
& BANNED Member # 6655	written Sunday, March 5 2006 10:44 Profile #1 The problem may be an old computer. Which windows version is it? If your on an XP, you shouldn't be having any problems. [ Sunday, March 05, 2006 10:45: Message edited by: Pokemon ] Posts: 275 \| Registered: Sunday, January 8 2006 08:00
Thuryl ...b10010b... Member # 869	written Sunday, March 5 2006 11:47 Profile Homepage #2 Does this happen even when you don't have any other programs running? -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 \| Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
Dexter Apprentice Member # 6855	written Sunday, March 5 2006 16:54 Profile #3 The computer is quite new, hence the AMD64 Venice Core @ 2GHz. I also have 2 gigs of RAM and SATA-disks, as well as a kick-ass GPU. I'm running Windows XP. I would guess it is an unpaused thread in the game that is causing this problem. However, it is most strange that no one else have reported this "bug" or whatever it is. I'll look into what might be the problem, it's probably software related since I notice the same sluggishness on my other (fairly new) computer. Good news though: For some reason, the sluggishness stopped somewhere in the first little Goblin Lair. Very strange. Posts: 2 \| Registered: Sunday, March 5 2006 08:00
Inthrall Warrior Member # 6629	written Sunday, March 5 2006 17:54 Profile Homepage #4 I have a similar problem occasionally. The game was sluggish when doing anything. I solve it by either: a) Re-setting my computer b) Leaving the computer or c) Closing all other programs -------------------- "When everything is coming your way, you're in the wrong lane." Posts: 120 \| Registered: Sunday, January 1 2006 08:00
Cyglade Apprentice Member # 5728	written Sunday, March 5 2006 21:59 Profile #5 The Avernum 4 demo also goes rather sluggish on my computer as well. It's a new computer with Windows XP, AMD64 1.8ghz, 1gb RAM & Geforce 6800 256mb. The worst part is clicking on the menu button to save or load the game because it freezes for a couple of seconds. I tried closing all other programs but there was no difference in performance. -------------------- Stop clicking on that pixel. Posts: 7 \| Registered: Tuesday, April 19 2005 07:00
Redstart Shock Trooper Member # 6666	written Sunday, March 5 2006 22:04 Profile #6 I haven't had time to actually play the game yet, but I did a test, and my cpu is pushed to 100 % usage during A4 as well. I didn't see any sluggishness, however. Nothing beyond what geneforge displays anyway. How is the sluggishness displayed? Does the game actually take time to react to your commands, or does it only display a kind of "lazy" movement all around? If it's the latter, then I believe all is running as well as it can. My system is very similar to that of Dexter (2,2 GHz AMD64, 2 GB RAM, good graphics card, Windows XP SP2). Posts: 353 \| Registered: Monday, January 9 2006 08:00
Cyglade Apprentice Member # 5728	written Sunday, March 5 2006 23:09 Profile #7 I'm sure I get the "lazy" one but clicking the menu to save and load freezes the game for a few seconds. Geneforge 3 has a very similar behavior. But I'm confused because my new computer can easily handle new games like FEAR and Black & White 2. -------------------- Stop clicking on that pixel. Posts: 7 \| Registered: Tuesday, April 19 2005 07:00
Jumpin Salmon ? Man, ? Amazing Member # 5755	written Sunday, March 5 2006 23:50 Profile #8 I checked as well, 100% usage. Something is desperately wrong with this game and how it interacts with the CPU on Windows computers. -------------------- quote: Originally written by Kelandon: Well, I'm at least pretty sure that Salmon is losing. Posts: 4114 \| Registered: Monday, April 25 2005 07:00
ef Guardian Member # 2476	written Monday, March 6 2006 00:18 Profile #9 Same problem here. It also freezes for some seconds when I move the party more than just a few steps. I'm on a 2.5GHz Athlon with Win2k. -------------------- Polaris Rache's A3 Site reformatted 2/3 done Rache's A3 Site, original version Posts: 1828 \| Registered: Saturday, January 11 2003 08:00
Arancaytar Law Bringer Member # 2984	written Monday, March 6 2006 00:41 Profile Homepage #10 Unfortunately, I've found that A4 (in Windows) hogs the CPU like crazy - even when its in the task bar. Not 99%, but just as much as it can get with Firefox and Google Desktop running - which is still around 60%-70% on occasion. It doesn't freeze usually, however - only pauses briefly when changing levels, and when autosaving. It does freeze when I've got a lot of things open, but that is to be expected. [ Monday, March 06, 2006 00:54: Message edited by: When in the course of Nathan Ashby ] -------------------- Encyclopaedia Ermariana • Forum Archives • Forum Statistics • RSS [Topic / Forum] My Blog • Polaris • I eat novels for breakfast. Polaris is dead, long live Polaris. Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair. Posts: 8752 \| Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00
Nikki. Shaper Member # 3442	written Monday, March 6 2006 03:53 Profile Homepage #11 quote: Originally written by When in the course of Nathan Ashby: It doesn't freeze usually, however - only pauses briefly when changing levels, and when autosaving. For me, it's only that it pauses for a second whilst autosaving, and loading new scripts. Everything else is fine, and I'm using far worse computers than you for running it. Is it something to do with how scripts are loaded? With the scrolling nature, they need to be loaded and unloaded for more rapidly, and now during game play, than before. -------------------- And when you want to Live How do you start? Where do you go? Who do you need to know? Posts: 2864 \| Registered: Monday, September 8 2003 07:00
Frobozz Warrior Member # 246	written Monday, March 6 2006 10:02 Profile #12 quote: Originally written by Few probed waitress: I checked as well, 100% usage. Something is desperately wrong with this game and how it interacts with the CPU on Windows computers. I've written small and short programs in C++ myself and I've noticed something similar. I believe it is more of a problem with Windows than with the game. Really it is not a serious problem. How many people are going to run an intensive program in the background while playing the game? :P Like others it has paused temporarily for me while autosaving and loading difference sections of the map. Good reason too - the save games around around 20MB and up! [ Monday, March 06, 2006 10:04: Message edited by: Frobozz ] Posts: 117 \| Registered: Friday, November 2 2001 08:00
Jumpin Salmon ? Man, ? Amazing Member # 5755	written Monday, March 6 2006 10:51 Profile #13 The problem with heavy loads on the CPU is the intense heat that is generated. Make sure that your fans are working and that there is a minimum of dust accumulated inside the box. -------------------- quote: Originally written by Kelandon: Well, I'm at least pretty sure that Salmon is losing. Posts: 4114 \| Registered: Monday, April 25 2005 07:00
& BANNED Member # 6655	written Monday, March 6 2006 10:57 Profile #14 quote: Originally written by Few probed waitress: The problem with heavy loads on the CPU is the intense heat that is generated. Make sure that your fans are working and that there is a minimum of dust accumulated inside the box. Ah yes, this happened with me on BoA. My computer was so hot, I actualy endded up staying away from it, just to be on the safe side... :) [ Monday, March 06, 2006 10:59: Message edited by: Pokemon ] Posts: 275 \| Registered: Sunday, January 8 2006 08:00
Wise Man Master Member # 1046	written Monday, March 6 2006 15:08 Profile Homepage #15 Yea, I also noticed that the savegames are close to 20 Mb. A4 seems to be very inefficient in CPU usage as well. Even while idling and typing this post, A4 managed to eat up just under 50% CPU time. Saving also produces some sort of lag spike, but I expect that. -------------------- Polaris - owns you. Undead Theories - double U slash E Posts: 3323 \| Registered: Thursday, April 25 2002 07:00
Terinol Apprentice Member # 6853	written Tuesday, March 7 2006 06:38 Profile #16 I had an issue of the game running incredibly slow on the character stats window and dialog screens while having random slow downs during the game. I checked the task manager and it seemed the game was constantly sucking up more memory. I killed the game when it had over 100MBs of RAM allocated :P . Then I turned off my second display and tried again and everything ran fine. So I'm guessing the game doesn't handle several displays right and leaks memory like crazy if you have more than one display set up. Not sure if it is your problem but if you have more than one display set up turn off all but one when running the game. Posts: 3 \| Registered: Saturday, March 4 2006 08:00
The Lurker Shock Trooper Member # 6821	written Tuesday, March 7 2006 07:16 Profile #17 This has nothing to do with Avernum 4, but I too remember having problems with Geneforge 3 in Dhonal's keep in town mode : sometimes the game paused and the characters started moving extremely slowly for seemingly no reason for a few seconds (especially when I was near a golem). [ Tuesday, March 07, 2006 07:19: Message edited by: The Lurker ] Posts: 363 \| Registered: Wednesday, February 22 2006 08:00
ef Guardian Member # 2476	written Tuesday, March 7 2006 07:57 Profile #18 quote: The problem with heavy loads on the CPU is the intense heat that is generated. Yes, and that can kill your motherboard, if you don't take care. So this is something that should be looked into, especially if it is true that a lot of JV's customers are young kids, who wouldn't know about such things and how to handle them. edit: I checked again: I had A4 just sitting minimized in the taskbar and nothing else running. Even so it eats the full 100% of my CPU. [ Tuesday, March 07, 2006 08:14: Message edited by: ef ] -------------------- Polaris Rache's A3 Site reformatted 2/3 done Rache's A3 Site, original version Posts: 1828 \| Registered: Saturday, January 11 2003 08:00
Niemand Infiltrator Member # 5576	written Tuesday, March 7 2006 10:40 Profile Homepage #19 I would like to make note of the fact that the mac OS X versions of Avernum 2, Blades of Avernum, and Avernum 4 all behave in this same way; when sitting totally idle, they use up all available cpu time. I noted that the BoA Editor was doing the same thing, and possessing the source code for that program I was able to fix the problem by altering it to not poll constantly for events. I suspect that Jeff used similar event handling in his other programs. -------------------- Überraschung des Dosenöffners! "On guard, you musty sofa!" Posts: 627 \| Registered: Monday, March 7 2005 08:00
Red_Sage Apprentice Member # 374	written Wednesday, March 8 2006 07:50 Profile #20 I'd just like to point out that all games by their nature use ~100% of the CPU time because they are either using most resources exclusively when in focus and even when idle, run a nonterminating main loop. Hence the CPU usage. Not a bad thing. The CPU usage is likely unrelated to your problem. Posts: 32 \| Registered: Tuesday, December 11 2001 08:00
Thuryl ...b10010b... Member # 869	written Wednesday, March 8 2006 13:49 Profile Homepage #21 A turn-based RPG designed to work well on older computers has absolutely no reason to hog the CPU of a modern computer. In fact, hogging the CPU too much on modern computers can be counterproductive, since the OS will try to take back CPU time by hook or by crook. -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 \| Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
Terinol Apprentice Member # 6853	written Wednesday, March 8 2006 21:24 Profile #22 quote: Originally written by Red_Sage: I'd just like to point out that all games by their nature use ~100% of the CPU time because they are either using most resources exclusively when in focus and even when idle, run a nonterminating main loop. Hence the CPU usage. Not a bad thing. The CPU usage is likely unrelated to your problem. Not all games. Decently developed ones cap the framerate and sleep inbetween finishing one frame and starting the next if there is spare time in between. Granted most games just take every cpu cycle they can get and if you want them to cooperate with other apps you need to drop their priority. Posts: 3 \| Registered: Saturday, March 4 2006 08:00
Jumpin Salmon ? Man, ? Amazing Member # 5755	written Wednesday, March 8 2006 22:45 Profile #23 I just checked A1 and A2, they both are sparing in their use of resources. G2 hogs the resources, and G3 crashed while I was checking, but it was around 96%. My sense is that somewhere around A3 things started getting used differently. It may be with more stuff happening within the game the engine isn't being as efficient as possible. Or Jeff doesn't think it matters too much. And he may be right. -------------------- quote: Originally written by Kelandon: Well, I'm at least pretty sure that Salmon is losing. Posts: 4114 \| Registered: Monday, April 25 2005 07:00
Frobozz Warrior Member # 246	written Thursday, March 9 2006 02:48 Profile #24 quote: Originally written by Bored flak: I just checked A1 and A2, they both are sparing in their use of resources. G2 hogs the resources, and G3 crashed while I was checking, but it was around 96%. Think of it this way. How much does the Avernum engine update in the background when you aren't moving? And how much does the Geneforge engine? Also take into considering that the mouse is software-based meaning everytime you move it, the screen has to do a complete redraw. Redrawing isn't a quick and low-resource application when you have so much on the screen. ;) Edit: The above is taking into account that the software doesn't refresh unless input is received. I doubt that's the case - it probably refreshes constantly. :P [ Thursday, March 09, 2006 04:10: Message edited by: Frobozz ] Posts: 117 \| Registered: Friday, November 2 2001 08:00