High CPU usage

O'Connor · Post by **O'Connor** » 30 Jun 2010, 19:56

I find any time I run Zun Tzu its CPU usage is a pretty constant 50%. This seems excessive to me for what Zun Tzu does (what does it have to calculate?), but I don't know what is considered normal. Am I right to assume there's something wrong here?

For what it's worth the games in question have been Jena 20 and Frank Chadwick's 1940.

Bill Barrett · Post by **Bill Barrett** » 02 Jul 2010, 01:50

Hi O'Connor,

Well it does seem a little high (those are not large game boxes), but I tried them on my relatively new laptop and got about the same readings as you. My relatively higher spec desktop reports around 21%, suggesting that it is "normal". The key question is - does it matter?

Regards, Bill.

O'Connor · Post by **O'Connor** » 02 Jul 2010, 13:19

The key question is - does it matter?

Well, in absolute terms, possibly not.

In practical terms, what strikes me is:

1. 50% of CPU on my (low-spec) netbook just seems out of proportion. I can't think of anything other than perhaps running a virus scan that would normally get anywhere near that CPU load. It makes me wonder what Zun Tsu can actually be doing. I'd expect it to be using a decent amount of RAM, perhaps, (haven't checked), to make the map transitions run smoothly and so forth, but a high CPU load seems odd.

2. The practical implication is that other applications tend to slow down when I'm using Zun Tsu, which is annoying. If I'm playing Civ IV or whatever I expect to be in the game and not be alt-tabbing or using other applications. If I'm in Zun Tsu I'd like to have some other stuff open and active, Word to take down some notes, a graphics programme to store some images etc.

Basically I would have expected Zun Tsu when it's running to be just one application among others, not the dominant one.

Bill Barrett · Post by **Bill Barrett** » 02 Jul 2010, 19:18

Yup, it's basically the same old, same old.

Always get more memory, always get a faster processor

But don't forget that you can adjust the quality settings from the menu...

Regards, Bill.

Post by **Jerome** » 05 Jul 2010, 06:47

O'Connor wrote:It makes me wonder what Zun Tsu can actually be doing. I'd expect it to be using a decent amount of RAM, perhaps, (haven't checked), to make the map transitions run smoothly and so forth, but a high CPU load seems odd.

Hi! There is an explanation.
ZunTzu is not built like a desktop application, but rather like a video game. As such, it is never idle because it is constantly refreshing the screen, even when the user does nothing particularly interesting.
ZunTzu will try to maximize the frame rate to keep animations smooth and thus will use any CPU available until the maximum frame rate is reached - which should be 60 frames per second on a laptop.
I understand it's not good to have laptops get uncomfortably hot and run low on battery, so I will try to mitigate that issue in the next version of ZunTzu based on Silverlight.

O'Connor · Post by **O'Connor** » 07 Jul 2010, 13:16

Jerome wrote:
O'Connor wrote:It makes me wonder what Zun Tsu can actually be doing. I'd expect it to be using a decent amount of RAM, perhaps, (haven't checked), to make the map transitions run smoothly and so forth, but a high CPU load seems odd.
Hi! There is an explanation.
ZunTzu is not built like a desktop application, but rather like a video game. As such, it is never idle

aha! that makes sense as regards the CPU, you have a game loop. Not what I might have expected, but if in the end that's what makes things run smoothly, so be it. Look forward to trying out the next Silverlight-based version.

thanks for clearing that up!