Time for the last "Performance Tests"

In a game engine like Supreme Ruler 2010 where we have so many "no limits" elements, performance bottlenecks can become a major issue. A lot of other games solve this problem with the simple "you can't do that" solution, such as a unit maximum, a map size maximum, a buildings limit, and so on. We like to think more like that credit card commercial, "No pre-set spending limit"...

So now that most features of our engine are complete, it is time to take one more look at performance testing to see where we can make things go even faster. As an example of how important even small performance elements can be, consider the fact that SR2010 gives each unit the opportunity to react to orders once a minute - 1440 times per "day". If you have a huge number of units, say 10,000, then there are over 14 million "unit slices" in a game day. In those slices units will need to use their spotting, their supply capabilities, scan for targets, scan for opportunities, avoid threats, and respond to their commands and rules of engagement. And leave enough time for the other 14 million such scans that have to happen on that particular day.

It has required some very innovative design ideas to pull this off, and I'm pleased to say that we do a pretty good job of it. Even with our final optimizations, large maps with large unit counts will probably still end up moving a bit slow on older hardware, but I think we've taken the standard a huge step beyond anything else out there.

-- George.