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Lancing high CPU usage when running 5x speed

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Lancing high CPU usage when running 5x speed 14/07/2012 at 18:43 #33942
Albert
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Hello,

The fastest speed of Lancing is 5x instead of 15x which can be annoying if you need to wait hours on your first train.

When I enable that fastest speed, the sim causes very high CPU usage. My laptop's fan immediately starts spinning faster when setting this speed and the total CPU usage in system monitor goes up from 30% to 70%. (Just for information, this is an Intel Core 2 Duo T5450 CPU)

AJP in games
Last edited: 14/07/2012 at 18:44 by Albert
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Lancing high CPU usage when running 5x speed 14/07/2012 at 19:49 #33945
Quizman
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Tried a test on my lappie and no problems. Have Intel Pentium running at 2gHz.
Suggestions, get a vacuum to clear the dust from your cpu, close down programmes running in the background (see your Task Manager to find out whats going on) or buy a new computer :silly:

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Lancing high CPU usage when running 5x speed 14/07/2012 at 21:27 #33953
Albert
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That it gets hot is not a problem for me, but other programs become a bit unresponsive because of Lancing's high CPU usage.
AJP in games
Last edited: 14/07/2012 at 21:29 by Albert
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Lancing high CPU usage when running 5x speed 14/07/2012 at 21:30 #33954
Stephen Fulcher
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I would guess that the problem is down to your computer as I have none of these difficulties.
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Lancing high CPU usage when running 5x speed 14/07/2012 at 22:45 #33960
Sacro
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What operating system?
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Lancing high CPU usage when running 5x speed 14/07/2012 at 23:50 #33963
GeoffM
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" said:
Hello,

The fastest speed of Lancing is 5x instead of 15x
The fastest setting is (apart from "fastest"10:1. I think the fastest, assuming your computer can cope, is actually 20:1.

" said:
which can be annoying if you need to wait hours on your first train.
Why not enter a timetable start time when setting up the sim?

" said:
When I enable that fastest speed, the sim causes very high CPU usage. My laptop's fan immediately starts spinning faster when setting this speed and the total CPU usage in system monitor goes up from 30% to 70%. (Just for information, this is an Intel Core 2 Duo T5450 CPU)
Is that 70% of one CPU or 70% of the system as a whole? The latter should be impossible as SimSig is single-threaded (ignoring UI). But in any case, I'm running it now at max and it barely ticks up to 2%. I would suggest you have something else causing SimSig to slow down - for example, and I'm not suggesting this is the case here, anti-virus software can appear to make programs use a lot of CPU, when it's the AV itself being indirectly invoked from the program. Spyware, malware too.

SimSig Boss
Last edited: 14/07/2012 at 23:50 by GeoffM
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Lancing high CPU usage when running 5x speed 15/07/2012 at 06:49 #33965
alvinhochun
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" said:
Suggestions, get a vacuum to clear the dust from your cpu
Many do suggest that using a vacuum cleaner can generate electrostatic that can be harmful to computer electronics, although I myself also used a vacuum cleaner :sosad:

Last edited: 15/07/2012 at 06:50 by alvinhochun
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Lancing high CPU usage when running 5x speed 15/07/2012 at 09:00 #33967
Albert
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1315 posts
" said:
Is that 70% of one CPU or 70% of the system as a whole? The latter should be impossible as SimSig is single-threaded (ignoring UI).

Yes, 70% is the usage of the system as a whole. It goes up by 40-50% (i.e. Lancing using one core of this dual-core) when running at fastest speed and only becomes normal again when I press the N key to slow down Lancing. The F4 window also refuses to open when at fastest speed.
The only process listed that uses much CPU is Lancing.exe. I can clearly see a delay when typing in Firefox now that Lancing runs at fastest speed. And I counted the seconds: it takes 12 seconds for Lancing to complete 1 minute of sim time.

I have seen things like this in no other simulation.

I don't need a vacuum cleaner. My laptop has been cleaned two months ago.

AJP in games
Last edited: 15/07/2012 at 09:06 by Albert
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Lancing high CPU usage when running 5x speed 15/07/2012 at 09:24 #33968
Danny252
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1461 posts
That your computer is running slow below 100% CPU use (why would it run slow when there's 30% more CPU time to use?) does imply there's something wrong with your computer. Virus, bad cooling, bad memory, bad hard drive, etc - the list goes on.
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Lancing high CPU usage when running 5x speed 15/07/2012 at 09:33 #33969
Albert
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That doesn't explain why only Lancing has problems. I can run any other sim at full speed, then it does one minute of sim time in four seconds or less. Only Lancing has a problem here. Also I don't have other hardware issues. I will do a full virus scan though I don't think that a virus is causing this.
AJP in games
Last edited: 15/07/2012 at 09:34 by Albert
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Lancing high CPU usage when running 5x speed 15/07/2012 at 09:44 #33970
clive
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2799 posts
" said:
" said:
Hello,

The fastest speed of Lancing is 5x instead of 15x
The fastest setting is (apart from "fastest"10:1. I think the fastest, assuming your computer can cope, is actually 20:1.
I've just checked the source code.

The fastest setting is 500:1. The slider is divided into four zones; within each zone the speed varies linearly (e.g. in the second zone the speed varies from 1:1 to 4:1, and so mid-point of the zone is 2.5:1); the zone boundaries are 1:1, 4:1, and 10:1.

The core code carries out various processing (the "major cycle"at regular intervals. There are two major cycles per simulated second, so 1:1 means a 500ms gap between major cycles. Maximum speed happens when there's no gap between major cycles. On a large and busy simulation, it may not be possible to complete a major cycle before the next one is due; this effectively limits the maximum speed. For example, if a major cycle takes 20ms to carry out on your machine then you're limited to 500/20 = 25:1 no matter what the slider is set to.

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Lancing high CPU usage when running 5x speed 15/07/2012 at 09:45 #33971
GoodbyeMrFish
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My computer is only using 2% cpu useage across all programs and lancing is running at its fastest speed, with only 6,888k memory in use.
Have you tried to change the priority of lancing.exe to high or even real time? Worth a shot, If that doesnt work i dont know, maybe you have some hardware problem. Your the only one who is having an issue with it. Try a reinstall.

Richard

What are your full system specs?

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Lancing high CPU usage when running 5x speed 15/07/2012 at 09:49 #33972
Albert
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In that case, it looks like a major cycle is taking much more time on Lancing than on other sims here. I have played Euston and Stafford a lot last month; both are bigger sims and work fine. In most sims a minute of sim time takes around 4 seconds here, which is some 30ms for a major cycle if there are 120 in a minute of sim time.
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Lancing high CPU usage when running 5x speed 15/07/2012 at 10:25 #33974
alvinhochun
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Although mine didn't go up to 70%, it does show higher CPU usage than Brighton. I chained Lancing to Brighton on the same machine (127.0.0.1), then I press "F" in Brighton, the CPU usage of Brighton didn't go up much (remains at 1%+/-1) but Lancing jumps up to 7% or so.
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Lancing high CPU usage when running 5x speed 15/07/2012 at 15:57 #33980
headshot119
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Albert what are the full system specs for your computer, including the operating system you are using.
"Passengers for New Lane, should be seated in the rear coach of the train " - Opinions are my own and not those of my employer
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Lancing high CPU usage when running 5x speed 15/07/2012 at 17:26 #33985
Albert
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The laptop is an HP Pavilion dv6730ed. It has Intel Core 2 Duo CPU, 3GB of RAM and NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS graphics.

Operating system: Windows Vista Home Premium (32-bit) - here I found out that the virus scanner (McAfee) interfered. I have not yet managed to solve this.

I also have Linux on the computer, which also had high CPU usage in Lancing. I updated wine from 1.2.3 to 1.4 and the problem kinda went away. It's now running quite normal (using 20% CPU at highest speed; 4-6% at normal speed - I now also looked at Lancing only, instead of the full system). I'll be avoiding Windows for the moment.

I first noticed the problem on Linux but as Windows also had high CPU usage (which turned out to come from McAfee instead) I thought it was a general problem with Lancing.

My desktop has another virus scanner, and is running well (with either OS).

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Last edited: 15/07/2012 at 17:36 by Albert
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