Slow AI thinking on Panzerkrieg?

[lt1956_slith]

Hello,

I have Burma, Pacific, and Rising Sun DLC and they run pretty fast on the AI thinking, But I recently bought PanzerKrieg and was playing the first battle, and the AI takes forever toward the end, at first is fast and then get bogged down for several minutes before finally completing turn. The map doesnt look that complicated so I am at a loss as to why this DLC is doing this. I am using a 32bit XP SP3. The game as a whole is a little sluggish for such simply graphics already, but this makes the game take way longer than it should for the AI turn.

Any help or advice would be appreciated. I am thinking of skipping the first map to see if its better on later maps. But still has me concerned. I turned down Graphics etc. No effect as it seems to be in the AI calculating time.

[zakblood]

ok lets take a look at your base system and see if we can suggest something,

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[lt1956_slith]

Ok I added the DX file to the original post.

I use DX9c as I use XPsp3. Thanks!

[zakblood]

well you meet the min req, and while your system is old, and low on most things for most games, for a 32bit system with winxp on and a 1gb card, im guessing it's pushing the limits on what the game engine can do regarding speed on the AI turns etc, but would need a developers view also on it to be sure, the games gone 64bit to speed up not only because of the larger maps sizes, but the amount of units in game now, so not really sure there's much more you can do, unless you go for a pure clean gaming profile with next to nothing running to free up everything you have and see if that helps it somewhat, but guessing it won't be much, but may help a bit.

seems the minimum req needed to have been altered for the later DLC's, as the slow down maybe more from a need for more resources than a 32bit operating system can handle i'm sorry to say, but it's just my opinion, a developer would have to confirm that, AI times is down to cpu speed, plus memory installed and free resources in a given system, so on one test pc, of your spec and speed it could be slow but ok, with another using more resources for background task etc, 2 to 3 times slower, freeing up as much background and base resources really does help, but to an extent to make it like the earlier ones, is a mute point, as i'm not too sure on that part either, again i'm sorry to say, but will ask and see if anyone else has any idea's to help

[Andy2012]

My experience (not a dev) was that until I upgraded to a 64bit system which could utilise more than 4 gigs of RAM, I had performance issues with this game. Afterwards, on 64bits with sweet 8 gig RAM, no issues, runs perfectly.
This game is greedy. If you need any suggestions about how to upgrade your desktop in any way, just ask.

[Erik2]

Also, be aware that scenarios using large maps will load slower and it may cause crashes.
Official maps are usually on the medium side and should work fine using 64bit.

[lt1956_slith]

Interesting, I have a clean system nothing running on background. I did have 3.35gb of Ram which was the max I could have with XP32 But one of the modules was defective and causing issues, so I went with my 2 original sticks.

I was surprised with this game drawing so many resources when its NOT a graphically intense game. I have played Many games on this system that tax my PC way more than these graphics should. I am thinking the 64 bit issue may be it, as this game from day one was slower than it should be. But then RTW when it came out was slow and had memory leaks even with later PCs. Maybe its coding of the game?

[zakblood]

no, coding fine atm, as no issue with reported slowdowns now with the 64bit version, maybe if you went back to the more ram you had? and then seen if it really makes any difference, but can't see much help with anything else tbh

[Horst]

AI getting stuck in thinking has not necessarily always to do with the size of a map. While playing Erik’s Grand German Campaign 26Maginot map which is still quite small, I’ve also had thinking-loops twice in two different turns. I don’t get it that much with the error logs but the text showed something about re-establishing supply. I had reduced the AI's whole supply point reserve to the bottom that it possibly tried to get to nearby supply points which were hardly in reach there. No idea, but maybe something can get stuck in the supply-search routine of the AI.
The game could luckily still proceed on a reload of the auto-save (end turn) every time, so I guess the AI not necessarily comes to the same results in the same turn. I'm glad for that!
You can recognize these loops if the thinking-bar proceeds too periodically in small steps for a longer time. Restarting the whole game and reloading the last save possibly helps like me.

I remember from the past that it’s often planes that can cause such thinking-loops. Maybe they get stuck in pathfinding or something like that.
Nevertheless, size still matters how far flags or enemies are away, how far artillery can fire, or how far planes can fly and attack. Every large action radius increases the AI calculation time and possibly the getting-stuck chance.