High CPU usage since using steam?

[King_Geedorah]

I don't have a great computer, probably below average in fact. However on the Desura build my CPU usage would rarely climb above 45% but in the steam beta build it regularly pushes 85-95 with not a single zombie in sight.

A pretty basic overview of my specs:

 

Windows 7 64-bit 

 

Processor: 

AMD Turion II P540 Dual-Core Processor

2.4 GHz

 

Video Card:

ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4200 Series 

256 MB dedicated memory, 1.9 GB total memory

 

Memory:

3.8 GB

 

Sorry for all the problems, I realize this is an alpha game and not everything is going to be perfect over night. I just really appreciate the work you developers and moderators put forth on such a quality game. 

oh and if you need anything else from me let me know, thanks.

[harakka]

It's not the high CPU usage that is causing lag, but some yet to be unidentified issue with the latest batch of releases. Once that is issue is found and resolved, high CPU usage allows the game to do more work than it would have been able to do with lower CPU usage.

[EnigmaGrey]

And is it a problem?

[harakka]

There is no problem here. PZ is now using more of your available CPU power, thus bringing you a better gaming experience than if it used less of your available computational resources.

[Batsphinx]

You can turn off the magic extra processor multi-thread doodle-flip in the options menu I think? If you want?

[King_Geedorah]

Sorry I should have mentioned that the high cpu usage is causing pretty bad lag. It's cool though, I see lots of people are having performance issues. I only thought to check here because I thought it was odd that from one build to the next my cpu usage almost doubled. Now I see it is by design, thank you.

[King_Geedorah]

Okay thank you. Good to know it's not just me

I thought I might have procured a virus or something.

[TheBuzzSaw]

I need to emphasize: higher CPU usage != more work being done and/or better game performance. I've played games that have 500x the graphics and stay below 40% CPU usage. I've lost count of how many times I've seen people reply to 100% CPU usage concerns with "100% is good because it's a game, and it's doing lots of stuff". High CPU usage just means the software is acting irresponsibly with its resources.

 

Zomboid has two aspects working against it: (1) It uses Java (slave to the whims of JVM updates), and (2) it simulates a whole city (with a large quantity of zombies). So, higher than normal CPU usage isn't the end of the world, but any game absolutely should NOT be grinding near 100% usage ever.

[harakka]

I've played games that have 500x the graphics and stay below 40% CPU usage

Your understanding is common but flawed. In most games with "500x the graphics", the GPU that is doing all the work and there is very little for the CPU to actually do aside from figuring out which bits of the scene to send to the GPU for rendering. There are very few games especially in the AAA world that'd tax the CPU, especially a multicore one, significantly, because they don't have much world state to simulate.

 

PZ is opposite to this, as currently almost all of the graphics work is done by the CPU, in addition to there being a lot of work to be done to simulate all the stuff that is going on.

 

A game grinding near 100% CPU usage could either just be running busy loops to make it look like it's doing something, or, it could actually be running some very nicely multithreaded code, thus utilizing all of your cores and thus yes, actually getting more work done.

 

Edit: there was an excellent post on this by Lemmy that I promised to always link to in these threads, but seems I can't find it any more... What a shame.

[TheBuzzSaw]

 

I've played games that have 500x the graphics and stay below 40% CPU usage

Your understanding is common but flawed. In most games with "500x the graphics", the GPU that is doing all the work and there is very little for the CPU to actually do aside from figuring out which bits of the scene to send to the GPU for rendering. There are very few games especially in the AAA world that'd tax the CPU, especially a multicore one, significantly, because they don't have much world state to simulate.

 

PZ is opposite to this, as currently almost all of the graphics work is done by the CPU, in addition to there being a lot of work to be done to simulate all the stuff that is going on.

 

A game grinding near 100% CPU usage could either just be running busy loops to make it look like it's doing something, or, it could actually be running some very nicely multithreaded code, thus utilizing all of your cores and thus yes, actually getting more work done.

 

Edit: there was an excellent post on this by Lemmy that I promised to always link to in these threads, but seems I can't find it any more... What a shame.

 

 

My understanding is not flawed; it is exactly my point: irresponsible resource usage. This is why they are moving toward an accelerated OpenGL renderer. Lots of code written today disregards performance.

 

Trust me. I am working on my C++ and GLSL particle engine as I write this. I am no stranger to low level details. :]

[harakka]

Good to know you're clued in, that isn't often the case in these discussions. I'm still missing where PZ is using the resources irresponsibly (bugs and it being written in Java etc circumstantial factors nonwithstanding). Do you mean because it currently does graphics on the CPU, or something else?

 

The PZ code probably isn't perfect, nor is it hand-tuned assembly written by a demoscene god from the late 80s, but it does actually use multiple cores fairly well these days (for actually doing work! gasp!). On a 2-core machine an observed increase from ~45% (assuming: mostly using a single core) to ~90% (assuming: now using 2 cores) does result in more useful work getting done by the game code.

[TheBuzzSaw]

Good to know you're clued in, that isn't often the case in these discussions. I'm still missing where PZ is using the resources irresponsibly (bugs and it being written in Java etc circumstantial factors nonwithstanding). Do you mean because it currently does graphics on the CPU, or something else?

 

The PZ code probably isn't perfect, nor is it hand-tuned assembly written by a demoscene god from the late 80s, but it does actually use multiple cores fairly well these days (for actually doing work! gasp!). On a 2-core machine an observed increase from ~45% (assuming: mostly using a single core) to ~90% (assuming: now using 2 cores) does result in more useful work getting done by the game code.

 

Yeah, I'm not saying the PZ developers are, themselves, irresponsible.

 

Everyone makes mistakes. I believe I read that the developers are addressing a performance issue that has little to do with the way they are rendering. It's just a mismanagement of resources.

 

I do find it a bit silly in this day and age to ever use CPU for graphics, but I understand the approach. Mainly, I entered this thread to put to rest the myth that "more usage is good and means the game is running more goodly".

[harakka]

I never did say using more computational resources meant the game would run better, did I? I only said it results in the game getting more work done. That doesn't always mean more FPS.

[Rathlord]

I should point out that this:

 

higher CPU usage != more work being done

 

Is 100% wrong. More work is being done. It may not be useful or helpful work, but work is being done. And successfully utilizing more CPU can mean better performance. Thus, Harakka was right: higher CPU does happen when the game is doing more work, better. Applying the reverse and saying that just because the CPU is high means the game is doing work would be false, but that's not what he said.

[TheBuzzSaw]

I should point out that this:

 

 

 

higher CPU usage != more work being done

 

Is 100% wrong. More work is being done. It may not be useful or helpful work, but work is being done. And successfully utilizing more CPU can mean better performance. Thus, Harakka was right: higher CPU does happen when the game is doing more work, better. Applying the reverse and saying that just because the CPU is high means the game is doing work would be false, but that's not what he said.

 

That's the point I went on to make. Higher CPU usage == more effort being made. I wouldn't qualify all effort as "work".