Dear Devs, proper Multi-core support?

[VariousArtist]

Hello developers!

Can you please explain in detail how multi-core support is implemented?

Im afraid that this could end up to be another game where cpus arent properly utilized so the late gameplay will be crippled by hitting the performance roof of a single cpu. And/or only using other cpus for minor/non-relevant tasks (e.g. loading/saving) instead of performance critical stuff.

Can you please give some info about this?
Thanks!

(to Non-coders: Only because the requirements list e.g. a quad-core doesnt say anything about how multiple cores are implemented. You might be suprised how many games barely use more than 1-2 cores no matter how much you throw at them. Just saying.)

 

[SimonJM]

Even if multi-core support isn't as high as it could be but I'm still very impressed if it's possible to simulate 1,000,000 cims. To put that in perspective, Tropico 5 initially shipped with a maximum population of only 2,000, which was later expanded to 10,000 but in reality the game crapped out before reaching 5,000 on my computer which has a fast quad i7 with turbo boost up to 3.7 GHz.

However I'm much more interested in detailed and realistic social modelling than pure numbers alone. I want to see the cims behaving and acting in interesting, unique but realistic ways. If you want big populations as your number 1 priority perhaps simpler statistical modelling of CXXL is more your thing.

All indications from the preview footage are the game will perform well, but throwing a supercomputer at it probably won't let you model 10 million cims.

I'm really interested in not only multi-core design of computer modelling but also GPU computing. I wonder how well population modelling can be performed on GPUs given you're dealing with big numbers of individual agents. Is there any scope for some work to be highly parallelised and offloaded to the GPU? Just a thought; I'm not aware of any game that does this but it's interesting to think about.