57 replies to this topic

[trenthowell]

In the meanwhile, I've found something interesting, thanks to the folks over at TWCenter, basically the hub for all Total War modding. Its a script that actively alters CPU Timer frequencies (Don't ask me much beyond that, its slightly over my head). You'll have to forgive the guy's grammar, as it makes the program seem slightly suspect. It works with pretty much any game, though doesn't seem very (or at all) compatible with overclocked computers (Doesn't hurt them, just doesn't help them).

Anyways, I downloaded it hoping to help out a Medieval 2 Total War mod that is rather intensive, and since M2TW isn't all that well programmed for multiple cores, gives even new computers a bit of a struggle. It doesn't do anything amazing or epic, you won't see a jump of even FPS. But, from what I've seen, it does stabalize things, and I've tested it a bit with PR1.1's campaigns, and it *seems* to make a little difference in the Overmap. Can't say for sure, but I *think* its giving me a bit of a help.

Not a solution, but something that MAY mitigate things for ya, but figured it was worth mentioning as an interesting little tool.

http://www.twcenter....ad.php?t=270604

[Tropical Bob]

I have the same script, but I didn't notice any difference than playing without it.

[Phoenix Rising]

Its a script that actively alters CPU Timer frequencies (Don't ask me much beyond that, its slightly over my head).

I can't make sense of the grammar either, but isn't that the same thing as overclocking ?

[Tropical Bob]

I thought overclocking was altering it manually to give yourself more power than your CPU's standard? And this, I supposed, was letting your computer alter it for better stability or something...

I don't know...

[Phoenix Rising]

Manually? No - you do it in the BIOS, but a background program can produce the same effect. That's in fact the only way I think you can overclock video cards, since they won't show up in BIOS.

[evilbobthebob]

Right, this is what it does:

The timer in windows that tracks CPU usage is pretty lousy. This means
you're seeing false CPU usage from your servers. They're only fooling
themselves if they think full 32 TF2 will only use 5% of one of their
cores. When windows media player is running, a multimedia timer is
started for WMP. Because a multimedia timer is running with a fine
grained precision of latency, task manager will start using that that
high precision timer for CPU usage tracking. This also seems to help
srcds to be able to run at a higher FPS. By enabling it, we see a
typically truer representation of CPU usage.


The technical way to think about it is that CPU utilization is done
using a low precision timer which checks which process has the CPU at
that given moment in time. (for example, every millisecond) srcds
has a tendency to not be using the processor at that given moment,
probably due to the dynamics of srcds doing most of its work on the
tick. This effect is known as aliasing. (See "Aliasing" in wikipedia)
The multimedia timer created by WMP or srcdsfpsbooster increases the
sample frequency of the system, thus giving a better picture of utilization.

From http://forum.i3d.net...core-usage.html

It seems that all the script does is increase the rate at which Windows measures CPU usage, which I assume gives Windows a better idea of task priority.

[Tropical Bob]

That makes sense. Maybe I'll use it more than I have...

[trenthowell]

Right, this is what it does:

The timer in windows that tracks CPU usage is pretty lousy. This means
you're seeing false CPU usage from your servers. They're only fooling
themselves if they think full 32 TF2 will only use 5% of one of their
cores. When windows media player is running, a multimedia timer is
started for WMP. Because a multimedia timer is running with a fine
grained precision of latency, task manager will start using that that
high precision timer for CPU usage tracking. This also seems to help
srcds to be able to run at a higher FPS. By enabling it, we see a
typically truer representation of CPU usage.


The technical way to think about it is that CPU utilization is done
using a low precision timer which checks which process has the CPU at
that given moment in time. (for example, every millisecond) srcds
has a tendency to not be using the processor at that given moment,
probably due to the dynamics of srcds doing most of its work on the
tick. This effect is known as aliasing. (See "Aliasing" in wikipedia)
The multimedia timer created by WMP or srcdsfpsbooster increases the
sample frequency of the system, thus giving a better picture of utilization.

From http://forum.i3d.net...core-usage.html

It seems that all the script does is increase the rate at which Windows measures CPU usage, which I assume gives Windows a better idea of task priority.

Thank god you're around to properly explain it, I'd have never found something so accurate to even try.

[Tropical Bob]

Well I might just be crazy. But I used the script while playing PR with shadowrevan last night, and it seemed smoother than usual.

But I might be crazy.

[evilbobthebob]

I expect the placebo effect plays a massive part in how this script "improves" smoothness. Unless you can do a test that accurately compares min/max/average FPS over set periods with and without the script, you can't be sure it improves anything at all. Of course, with the nature of computers, tests like that are very difficult to accomplish. Simple things like heat accumulation from the first test can affect the outcome of the second.

Then again, the script may well improve minimum FPS.

[Phoenix Rising]

It sounds suspect to me. If it were truly a universal improvement, wouldn't CCC or whatever display software you have already be running such a thing?

[Phoenix Rising]

Err, no. Respectfully, none of that makes any sense. The AI, for one, does upgrade in galactic (if it's not outnumbered in space forces). Besides that, it wouldn't even be active while loading a campaign - how could it be? Everything it needs to consider - planets, structures, units - haven't yet loaded themselves. Finally, the evidence simply does not support your assertion that the AI is repeatedly trying to do something such that it creates a memory leak. I don't have a perfect understanding of the AI - I doubt anyone does - but the goals seem to impose a limit on how often the AI can check a perception, and upgrading has a time limit of 120 seconds. Even if it were checking nonstop, the only way there'd be a memory leak was if something in the code wasn't being cleaned up properly, and I highly doubt that. AAA games should not have memory leaks.

[Kitkun]

AAA games sould not have memory leaks.

What game have you been modding for years?

[Phoenix Rising]

You think EaW leaks? I doubt it... the slight increase in memory usage after running it is likely from the OS.

[Kitkun]

Just meant that in the vastly less time I've modded EaW, I've come to expect nothing more than the worst from Alamo.

[Phoenix Rising]

Ah, right. I'd love to see what it's doing in galactic...

[Tropical Bob]

I don't think there's a memory leak. The most RAM FoC takes up on my system is around 660MB. A comparison: the 7 Deadly Sins mod had a memory leak at one point, and went upwards of 1.7GB.

Edited by Tropical Bob, 14 February 2010 - 06:26 AM.