Cities XL has no multicore support?

[tjh876 31]

I have an i5-520m, and my computer only shows that it is running on one thread of the 2 on my first core, and nothing on my second core? Has anyone else noticed that? Is there a way to enable multicore support?

More PC info:

Ati Radeon 4570

4gb of 1333mhz ram

7200rpm 500gb segate drive

Modeel- Dell Studio 1558

[tjh876 31]

Some more info, I am running 64 bit Windows 7, so i checked about the selected cores, and all of them are, so what is with this, this game can perform MUCH better than it is. Anyone else notice this?

[Hail91 0]

I too have this problem on my laptop's quad core, can't get it to use more than 1 fricken core. Really Annoying, anyone know about this issue? last I checked though...CXL didn't support multi's which was one reason why sales went down.

[Mootilda 76]

Multi-threaded programming is hard and therefore bug-prone. It's quite possible that MC decided that it was safer to avoid trying to make Cities XL multi-threaded.  What's the use of running on multiple CPUs, if you crash on a regular basis?

[mr-tom 2]

There are core balancer apps out there, so you could happily set CXL to run on a core which isn't busy doing anything else. I suspect that by default, it is running on Core 0, along with everything else that doesn't like multicore.

It's a long time since I used such an app, so google will have to be your friend, I'm afraid.

[tjh876 31]

Well thank you mr-tom, and yes, because when i leave CXL, there is only one core (well, in my case 1 thread of 2, in 1 of my 2 cores) so it can only run the game (stock that is) up to 25% of my computer's power. Kinda annoying to me.

[kingBosko15 1]

i have also that problem. i got intel core quad Q9550 2,83GHz

and when i go to task manager and go to "PERFORMANCE" i see that only one core is in use. (100% in use) other are idle

[tjh876 31]

Yup, thats the issue, i am having issues finding a program to balance processor use though, post a link when i find something.

[tjh876 31]

Well, it occurred to me what this may mean to some who have used computers with 1 and multiple cores. It seems like that I should just install CXL to a computer with a 2.8ghz Pentium 4 (did beta testing on CXL with this processor) because it won't make any difference if I can't make it use all cores. The game is set in my task manager to use all cores so...

[Damastius 5]

Yeah I have 2 cores, and it uses 1 -.- So my laptop is more likely to get laggy...

[mr-tom 2]

My old prog was an AMD one so not used since I got my i7.

You may well find the progs are manufacturer specific.

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/179198-10-processor-affinity-automatically

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/bang-dual-processing-buck,815.html

This should help.

[mr-tom 2]

Sorry - download is dead. Searching for another.

[mr-tom 2]

This is much more current:

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/229129-10-affinity-prior-launch

Sorry - have a million things to do tonight, so you'll have to do some exploring of the options presented in the thread yourself, but hope it helps.

Can I possibly ask a favour - if you find something that works well, post it back here as it'll be useful for everybody who has a computer that wasn't built by Fred Flintstone.

[Mootilda 76]

There's nothing that you can do to make a single-threaded application run on multiple CPUs at the same time. The only thing that you can do is to set the thread affinity to choose which CPU you want the game to run on.  I have a program which I wrote myself which will do this; I'm sure that there are a number of such programs available.

The only way to get Cities XL to use all of your CPUs is to convince Focus to hire enough senior programmers who are experienced enough in multi-threaded programming to do it correctly. Then, wait a year or two while they make the required changes. I doubt that Focus will consider it worth the money.

[kiwispanker 1]

Originally posted by: Mootilda

There's nothing that you can do to make a single-threaded application run on multiple CPUs at the same time. The only thing that you can do is to set the thread affinity to choose which CPU you want the game to run on.  I have a program which I wrote myself which will do this; I'm sure that there are a number of such programs available.

The only way to get Cities XL to use all of your CPUs is to convince Focus to hire enough senior programmers who are experienced enough in multi-threaded programming to do it correctly. Then, wait a year or two while they make the required changes. I doubt that Focus will consider it worth the money.

quote>

No need for a program, use the processes tab in your task manager. I wrote this solution not to long ago in another thread. This time I'll use pictures:

   

Step 1: while CXL game is loading, open task manager, go to the processes tab, right click on the game, and then select Set Affinity.

Step 2: dlselect CPU 0  and click OK

Step 3: redo step 1 and set the affinity for the game; this time select or individually select all cores. Click OK.

You will now see that although my Core1 dropped from 100% to about 6%. The other cores picked up the slack. The overall (average) CPU Usage dropped from the 30-40% to 20-30%.

Sadly, you will have to complete these steps each time you open the game. Once you understand the steps, it can be accomplished with ease while the game is loading (with the CXL rio map splash screen).

Hope this helps.

[mr-tom 2]

I think the holy grail is an app that auto assigns the process on launch rather than having to alt-tab out, fire up the task mgr etc.

The link I posted above did have a good solution - I've just not yet had time to test it.

[kiwispanker 1]

you don't need to alt-tab out; it takes only a few seconds while the game (splash screen) loads.

i just thought less programs the better. if the other affinity tools can save profiles for each game, then that could be good!

[Mootilda 76]

Originally posted by: kiwispanker

No need for a program, use the processes tab in your task manager. [...] Sadly, you will have to complete these steps each time you open the game. Once you understand the steps, it can be accomplished with ease while the game is loading quote>

That's why we use a program: so that we don't have to complete the steps each time.

[tjh876 31]

Either way, works. I was trying the CPUCount, but no luck, core 1 is running at full throttle, and the longer you play the game, the worse it gets.

[Xidillon 0]

Monte Cristo stated that the game was designed to use one core and part of a second.

Setting afinity only lasts for a few seconds and then falls back to one core. Sorry, but there is no way around this. This and many other things make us fans unhappy about the city building future.

[mr-tom 2]

Arguably there is a way around it. If CXL insists on running on the first core, then set everything else to run on another one...

Although that could be a rather tiresome process.

[jim 546 43]

Actually, for Windows users, there is a way to make the system select the number of cores used on startup. You change the target to load sys32 and then it loads a program with a set number of cores. Here's my example for SC4: C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /C START "SimCity 4" /high /affinity 1 "C:\Program Files (x86)\Maxis\SimCity 4 Deluxe\Apps\SimCity 4.exe".  The first section loads sys32 and tells it to load an item called "Simcity 4" which runs on one core.  The second section is the target of the Simcity 4 .exe file.  I believe "affinity 0" will set the program to run on all cores.

[tjh876 31]

I understand what you are trying to say, but I still think that I have a machine that can hands down run this game on high settings, and here I have issues running it on medium. The other issue is that the memory leak produced by this game is just so horrific, that you need to restart every hour or so. And that was with the beta too.

[tjh876 31]

Just to bring this back, my computer has an Intel i5-520m, which is 2 cores (but windows thinks its 4, multi-threading).So technically, in the eyes of Windows, its running on 1 of my cores, but it reality, its only running up to half. My point here is that if I were to go up to the producers of Cities XL, they would go and say it is using one core, through the same way Windows does, but its not. I think that there can be a catch with the new processors by Intel, as in you are not really using 1 core, but instead only half of it. And technically you are, but still, my computer said it came with a DUAL CORE processor, not a QUAD CORE.

[mr-tom 2]

Practicalities. The game can be set to run on an idle core, so that at least your machine is using more of its capability. I find it unlikely that focus will have the wherewithal to make the game work with multiple CPUs. Even if MC had not died, this would have been optimistic. What we could do is to ask them to set the game to run on one of the latter cores, which it seems reasonable to assume will be significantly less utilised on most people's machines.

I think this is likely to be the best that we can reasonably look forward to.

[tjh876 31]

After thinking about what you said mr-tom, I believe that you are right. Running on a quiet core will increase peek performance, but also, you will need to restart the game every so often due to the memory leak. I think we have settled upon a solution that can help.

[mr-tom 2]

Yep. No way around that, and expecting it to be the same in CXL 2011 when that launches too, so don't go getting your hopes up!

[tjh876 31]

Yeah, I think as good as a game this was, it had a lot of issues, memory leak being a real big issue here, and I believe there is no way to prevent it. If the non-multicore support doesn't boter you, than the memory leak will.

[tjh876 31]

I have a follow-up, and this is now about the 1 and a half core that xidillion, which I find not to be true, unless its all covered up. I seem the be running 100% on the first core still, and all my others are at 10% or below. My RAM is under 75% and this is on low. If I or anyone finds anything that seems to help, it be gratefully appreciated, as we can all enjoy this game a bit more.