OT: Recommendations?

[Peter Ebbesen]

Originally posted by Arryn:
We've debated this before and the time-slice argument simply does not hold water. If you slow down the time passage rate of EU/EU2/HOI to the slowest setting, which gives the AI plenty of time to think, it doesn't play any better than it does at normal or faster "turn" speeds.

You seem to be deliberately missing the point.

As you probably well know, very few game AIs are written to scale their computing to the actual processor time on the target machine. Apart from the considerable efforts involved, it would lead to the AI playing differently on different computers. This is not desirable from a support point of view.

Rather, they are written such that certain algorithms are processed in a time frame that will likely not cause slow-down on the target machine at the default speed level. It is exactly the same AI algorithms that are executed whether you run slower or faster, but if your computer is below recommended specifications [or if there are particularly many units active, each having to be handled], going slower will make for a more fluid game, and likewise going faster will likely result in a more choppy game performance.

An alternative adaptive routine that adjusts to processing power is seldom used elsewhere than pathfinding (where extra nodes may not be necessary, but may present smoother movement, thus not affecting the overall game logic) or the graphics presentation.

When writing something to run in perceived real time, processing power is ALWAYS at a premium. It is simply not an option to rewrite your core algorithms to take longer time, if you are already pushing the envelope on your target machine. Otherwise you will make the game run choppy for the target customer, and that is not a smart thing to do. Writing some smarter code, yes, that can perhaps be done, but only if you do not significantly increase the number of CPU cycles it takes to compute.

And what makes this different from turn based games, then? Only one thing: the processor time that can actually be allocated to making decisions is typically larger in turn based games and, even better, TBS's typically do not have to devote a large amount of resources to graphics while doing their AI computations.