Can map design affect in-game performance?

Discussions about AI types, units, tactics & strategy.
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Sibernethy
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Can map design affect in-game performance?

Post by Sibernethy »

I was reading up on a few threads about CPU and RAM usage inside of Warzone 2100, and a couple things stood out in my mind:

One is path-finding, and it seems to be a major constituent to the stuttering problem that Nullbot often has, especially when paired with the Contingency mod.

Another is the possibility that streamlining a map and adding gateways could improve the efficiency of any AI bots that use it, resulting in less memory usage. <---- This could be completely wrong, it's just a theory.

What do you guys think?
stiv
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Re: Can map design affect in-game performance?

Post by stiv »

I'm not familiar with your particular stuttering problem, but I do know that in that past, stuttering has been caused by bad sound drivers. Yes, it seems counter-intuitive.

Some general thoughts:

The size of the map affects the cost of path finding, since the area to search varies with the square of the map size. tl;dr: double the size of the map, the cost of path finding increases by 4

Maps with bottlenecks or narrow passages will cause congestion when too many units try to squeeze through at the same time. It's just like traffic in a city.
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NoQ
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Re: Can map design affect in-game performance?

Post by NoQ »

AI-related stuttering has nothing to do with pathfinding, it's simply inefficient AI code (often due to inefficient API, but that's another story). Anyway, it grows with number of objects on the map, more with more oil and more players and more AIs.

Adding gateways increases resource usage, forcing the AIs to consider them.
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