Plugin causes extra lag?

[MayorAwesome 12]

Hey guys

I have a question:

Is there a particular plugin that causes extra lag?

Cause im playing with around 1000 plugins on a new gaming PC with a new graphics card, on my old PC i had 3700 plugins with a much weaker PC, and there was not much lag at all. But now i get a TON of lag without a ridiculously huge amount of plugins.

If anyone would answer the question, i would be very happy

  Edited May 15, 2011 by MayorAwesome  

[legoman786 1]

Have you tried running the game in software mode?

Also, DatPacking really helps, especially when you have 5k+ plugins like me.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

You are in the right thread to ask, but you need to be a lot more specific.

To the best of my knowledge plugins do not cause in-game lag. Size of plugins and datpacker only affect initial game load time. The maintenance problems with datpacker stop me from using it. I like to be able to monkey with plugins individually.

Now, let us see this fancy new machine of yours. Please tell us all about it including

CPU(s)

GPU(s)

RAM

Virtual space (swap file size)

Operating system version and updates

Game version (should be at least 1,1,638,0)

And now some comments.

This is a legacy game written in 2003.

It is a simulation, and not a situational FPS.

Because it is old, it does not multi-process, so a really fast processor is more of an asset than multiple cores.

It is a simulation, and looks at each object in the map every time around. This means that the more stuff you have in your tile, the slower it will go.

If you run the simulation flat out (cheetah mode) you will notice that it can't keep up more often than if you run at a lower speed. It is not a race, and there is a lot of good animation you wont see in cheetah mode. After all, it is a leisure time activity, and not a race to a goal. There is no goal.

Plugins are all put in a able, and are used though a system of pointers. Table entries are created pointing to them each time you place one, as they become members of the object you placed. Pointers are dereferenced by the hardware in one or more CPU cycles, so this is usually not a source of lag in itself. Lag is caused by heavy population of objects. Can't be helped.

Graphics lag can have several causes: Not enough buffers; wrong settings on the graphics card (all should be off); Not enough memory in the graphics card.

So tell us about your environment and what you think may be the problem, and we can discuss it further.

[MayorAwesome 12]

As Legoman786 said, im running the game in software mode right now. I havent really been able to see if it actually does any difference, and if it dosnt, ill be sure to provide you information about my fancy machine

EDIT: Running the game in software mode seems to work, thanks for the help Legoman786 and i thank you aswell, A Nooney Moose, for giving me a valuable lesson in how it works

  Edited May 16, 2011 by MayorAwesome  

[Terring 6,476]

Some plugins, like XX Turbo (https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=2462), can slow down the game during playing and even crush it after too much lags.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Some plugins, like XX Turbo (https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=2462), can slow down the game during playing and even crush it after too much lags.

Why? Does it do something to the code?

[Terring 6,476]

Some plugins needs more memory to run, like XX Turbo and some heavy detailed buildings.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Some plugins needs more memory to run, like XX Turbo and some heavy detailed buildings.

In other words, they are large enough to cause virtual memory thrashing in small machines. I have 4GB of RAM and have never seen this game go over 2GB, but if you have multos gigs of plugins, then you get what you get. It has nothing to do with the game, it has to do with the loose nut holding the mouse.

I run multiple desktops and can run my system monitor while the game is running.

Later: Loaded up my biggest city and the memory occupancy is 550MB, and the CPU usage is about one processor out of two, including all the system overhead. This is on a large tile that is about half full. Population > 500K. Number of loaded processes is around 100, mostly sleeping in the rest of memory.

  Edited May 18, 2011 by A Nonny Moose