A Civ4 idea

June 10, 2000, 17:32

Just a random thought...

I was thinking that the next version of Civ should be optimized for multiple processors. I know that right now most people only have one chip, but a lot of my friends are upgrading to at least dual processor machines fairly soon. Think about how fast and (hopefully) good an AI could be if it had exclusive use of a processor and say a quarter of the system memory. This leaves at least one processor and the rest of the memory for the engine and other game aspects. The AI could actually be "thinking and planning" while you're playing with no lag time.

Network communication could have a seperate processor and memory during multiplayer games. I don't know. I'm not really a programmer. It just seems to me that this is the way computing is going and it's worth thinking about.

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"We are all greater artists than we realize."
-Nietzsche
[This message has been edited by Spekter@Home (edited June 10, 2000).]
[This message has been edited by Spekter@Home (edited June 10, 2000).]

Hasdrubal · June 10, 2000, 18:04

Yeah!! And in Civ 24, with neuroprocessors build with fancy nano-techniques, maybe they should get the AI to telepatically read your mind and anticipate your every move. And in Civ 3016, they could...

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Ceterum censeo Romanem esse delendam.

Par4 · June 10, 2000, 22:44

I wants me an optical computer, ya know they are a reality MIT has one, doesn't work though it will melt but once they get the coolents to work it should be 300000x faster than electric conductors processor computers.

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UltraSonix · June 11, 2000, 23:50

How 'bout having designing a good game first, then putting multiple threads into it...

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No, in Australia we don't live with kangaroos and koalas in our backyards...

Spekter · June 12, 2000, 04:54

They already have a good game. That's why we're all here talking about it.

It really isn't that far out an idea. In two years time (when Civ 3 is due for release), you should be able to get a machine running dual 800MHz processors with say 128MB of RAM for probably less than US $2500.

But hey, consider the topic closed.

Adm.Naismith · June 12, 2000, 05:59

Spekter, you aren't silly (only a bit a dreamer, but that's not bad).
The real facts are that actually very few OS are ready to take advantage of multiprocessing (usually to better work as Server on a net on Unix / Linux / NT server).

At the application level (as a game) it can be more difficult to take any advantage by separate game threads and keep up a good messaging system, just to let everything working with real game benefits.

At the moment simply Firaxis (and all the others companies AFAIK) haven't the right tools to make programming multithread code as quickly and easy as old common "monolithic" (if that's the word).

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Admiral Naismith AKA mcostant

Spekter · June 14, 2000, 05:34

Sigh, fair enough.

Dreaming...