Why this game is lag?

[SackMaggie]

Why this game is lag ?

answer is The more you play = more lag you will get

Well It look like that because this game require a ton of calculation that will put to your both CPU/GPU. I will explain why
Note : 1. I'm not dev of this game but as a programmer. This is what i think It may or may not correct 

2. CPU will process all command in this game (like what gas is this , what need to change , all If command , how can i let GPU know what to display, etc)

3. GPU all numerical calculation will be done by this guy (mass , temperature ,etc)

Cause of lag

1. Gas in each tile have a mass and temperature that need constant calculation (and weight too)   

Spoiler

it will exchange mass and temperature in 8 adjacent tile(to stabilize all tile) IF it was same gas (gas and liquid in this game is not merge together)

If it not i think it will ignore that tile and use weight to get gas direction and swap tile
[it have more calculation than this like gas stage change too]

Then what if you generate/consume gas ? This calculation will need to proceed over and over

This is why they add Abyssalite to block temp change to other biome (To reduce not necessary temp calculation until player discovered)

2. Storage compactor Yes it storage this guy is real deal if you have significant amount of this

Spoiler

Why ? Storage compactor it self have temperature and contents inside it have mass and temperature 

those item can emit gas (slime, polluted dirt, oxylite) need to exchange mass to outside storage

and all content inside need to stabilize temp too

When dupe sweep something to storage it must need to calculate which one to put it in  and how much to put in (in case of almost full the leftover need to put in next storage)

3. More Dupe more Fun!

Spoiler

It have lot of attribute that always change Stress, Bladder, Stamina, Calories, Temperature, Decor (Heath and Breath is when condition triggered)

What dupe will do? where is it? how to go there?(jump or walk) what path to go? what action needed to do when reached?

Path finding i don't know what they use but it maybe Dijkstra's algorithm or A* algorithm (If game was created in unity it should be A*)

4. liquid/gas pipe

Spoiler

Have you ever try to snake this pipe around your base to remove heat? That a lot of lag!

liquid/gas from tile to tile is using FIFO algorithm for detail ask google

each liquid/gas have temp to exchange but in case of mass(if i was dev i'll use linked list instead of moving actual liquid/gas) and i don't know what they use

Spoiler

why linked list i just need to change object position and call for stuff in it if i need to use (mass,temp,object type)

imagine if we move this 4 attribute instead of 1

 

5. Germs in next update will add as attribute of gas and air(polluted) will help it spread around your base take a good care of that or your game will more lag

6. other stuff i don't think it affect much performance

How to reduce lag

1. play small base

2. block off place u don't need

3. don't put storage too much

[Moggles]

I have long wondered if people who get to 50 dupes would be able to reduce lag by isolating small groups in to regions using airlock permissions. Have 5 self sufficient colonies of 10 dupes rather than a sprawling colony of 50 dupes all path finding the entire map. I have not had time to create such a colony and I haven't seen anyone post some experiments about this.

[Oozinator]

" 1. Play small base" that would be very bad and gamekiller for me. I like big bases and what sense would it make to build those networks, when you have to stay small..
Biggest lag ingame i get, when i click on the priority button.

[Scorpio King]

Give it time, optimization will come, slowly.

[Rily]

I would not expect some huge performance improvement, the game is quite demanding as concept, there is a lot of things moving on screen and a lot more being calculated offscreen, I agree, the lag and framerate issues are annoyng on late colonies but I would be satisfied if the devs add some performance options, options for the quality of the gases textures, vsync, blur, etc. These options may have a good impact on low end computers like mine and maybe in the future some performance mods from the community itself

[Scorpio King]

15 hours ago, Rily said:

I would not expect some huge performance improvement, the game is quite demanding as concept, there is a lot of things moving on screen and a lot more being calculated offscreen, I agree, the lag and framerate issues are annoyng on late colonies but I would be satisfied if the devs add some performance options, options for the quality of the gases textures, vsync, blur, etc. These options may have a good impact on low end computers like mine and maybe in the future some performance mods from the community itself

That darkening effect for example, there is none if you go into screenshot mode (Alt + S). Would be nice if it was in options/graphics as well.

[AlexRou]

Graphics lag is the least of your worries, any graphics option will do little to nothing relatively to how much the game itself lags. It's like asking stardew valley for graphics options saying you want more FPS.

The game is lagging because of how complicated the simulation gets the bigger your base is, that is a CPU thing not a graphics thing.

[Xadhoom]

my own thoughts is if they could utilize multiple CPU cores better, i mean on my cpu, i only have 50% CPU usage, but the game still feels laggy. i dont know how well threaded the game is, but maybe they could make more threads to handle different aspects of the game. gas, water and temperature is things i think each could use their own threads to be calculated, but i'm no computer programmer so i have no idea how that would be solved.

[Risu]

Threading does not make a program that depends on everything else any faster. Multiple cores only benefit unrelated processes that need to be done at the same time, such as other programs running in the background, or breaking up a list full of unrelated tasks that do not need to reference the other tasks, like doing work on a single file.
 

[Zakthefallen]

There's a small bit of optimization coming in the next update. Dupes will no longer automatically go fetch water from any water source. You have to build a manual water pump that they use like any other machine. The devs talk about it on their twitch streams lately.

This results in dupes not having to waste so much cpu time on calculating the best spot to get water from, and let the player control where they're allowed to do it.

On large colonies with a lot of dupes, this could add up to a fairly noticeable reduction in lag. It also helps that terrariums will now be able to absorb water directly if they're partially submerged in it, so even less need for dupes to run around gathering water.

Also, Xadhoom, the devs answered some questions about lag and game performance on their twitch streams. For example, the new disease system will add very little lag, It's mainly the AI pathfinding that causes the most lag.

But yes, performance improvements are coming, it's just that the game isn't finished enough to warrant a focus on optimization yet. The next update is huge, just like the Thermal update was a big game changer. But, the devs are also fixing a lot of bugs and slowly improving game performance.

If you aren't already, I highly recommend watching Klei's streams on twitch. Every Thursday they have different people on the team talking about code, design, writing, and generally showing off the upcoming updates and answering any questions from the community.

[Scorpio King]

Yeah next time will be art. Also a stream before latest one, Yog were talking about how dupes will snatch jobs if they are close to it rather than wait for dupe to come from north pole to do it.