EU4 - Development Diary - 19th of February 2019

[neheri]

Why would player even care?

Zero-content so-called "dev diary" again.

Come on guys. I understand that you didn't provide us with dev diary for 2 weeks after New Year, but it's almost March no and there still have been 0 dev diaries so far. Meanwhile games has bugs that have been around for ages. Just go try to PU Castile who has Naples and Aragon.

Pretty disappointing. I am ready to give you cash. Give me something to spend it on (but please, no 3 buttons-more to click DLC like Golden Century was).

Cheers

 

[Groogy]

Multi threading can be the cause of a desync yes for the reasons The Biso said. But they are also usually the easiest desyncs to fix because they are very "evident" in why something went wrong.

 

[JohanC1]

I like this DD.

 

[sortulv]

Imagine the data as existing as a quantum wave function. Until observed we can not know what state the data is in. When one thread needs to access and change that data the wave function collapses as it's being observed. If there were an expectation of that the data would be in a specific state before the wave function collapses it will just be garbled mess and the universe crashes.

Please don't add anything that causes our universe to crash when playing EU4. Restarting the universe from a saved state always gives me a headache... (ohh - that sounds like an idea for an event in stellaris)

 

[Groogy]

Please don't add anything that causes our universe to crash when playing EU4. Restarting the universe from a saved state always gives me a headache... (ohh - that sounds like an idea for an event in stellaris)

Some people end the universe through the task manager anyway just to avoid small inconveniences.

 

[DanubianCossak]

Much technical DD very complex.

Im surprised Groogy didnt step in to write something like: "YOU CAN EXPECT UP TO 80% INCREASED PERFORMANCES".

That would work better for us normies. We get a big number of obsess with, and you cover your bases with that "UP TO".

 

[Malecord]

The game is 32 bit so everyone plays on 32 bit EU IV for now, but about 99% of the users playing said game is on a 64 bit CPU.

Most likely it's not even the CPU as I find it hard unlikely that someone today can use one for anything good (we're talking about stuff that is out of production since almost 20 year here). Most probably is just people stuck on 32 bit OS. Usually Windows guys that only own a 32 bit legit license and never decided to fork out some grands to buy a 64 bit one or to embrace the light and switch to an open OS entirely.

 

[Sotof]

Much technical DD very complex.

Im surprised Groogy didnt step in to write something like: "YOU CAN EXPECT UP TO 80% INCREASED PERFORMANCES".

That would work better for us normies. We get a big number of obsess with, and you cover your bases with that "UP TO".

Obviously because if we got 81% INCREASED PERFORMANCES people would complain that Groogy lied and how dare he give 1% more INCREASED PERFORMANCES than promised.

 

[balmung60]

Minor question, but does this affect things like buffer overflows? A recurring problem in Clausewitz games that's often been addressed by applying a cap, is that at certain values (usually 2 million and change - IIRC, the largest value of a signed 32-bit number if you use three places for decimals), the amount will overflow to negative 2 million (and change). Will these values still be 32-bit values with this size limitation, or will they now be 64-bit values, and as such, be able to be much much larger without overflowing?

 

[xoldfashionedx]

Some people end the universe through the task manager anyway just to avoid small inconveniences.

666 Heir followed by hunting accident.
*Game crashes*
*suprised pikachu face*

 

[Enriador]

Nice DD! Now, can the game please not explode when I choose to "Exit to Main Menu" or try to change between bookmarks?

 

[$ilent_$trider]

So, @Duplo are you the one also running the Paradox IG account?
That would explain so much. Or is Paradox giving lessons on memes in general to all employees?

 

[MatRopert]

So this is main reason for Desync ?

This could be the reason behind a particular OOS yes, but not the only place it can happen.

Thankyou ... will this 64 bit be also for CKII and Imperator?

Imperator will be 64 bits from release. I can't speak for CK, HoI and Stellaris.

 

[kettch]

666 Heir followed by hunting accident.
*Game crashes*
*suprised pikachu face*

I found myself to detest hunting accidents a lot less since I started to think of it as another chance to get talented daughter.

 

[Vollwertkost]

I found myself to detest hunting accidents a lot less since I started to think of it as another chance to get talented daughter.

Is the hunting accident event chained to the heir's stats in any shape or form? At least, that's my creeping suspicion. Might just be confirmation bias, though.

 

[Dunbal]

One of the focus of us, programmers, is to try to get the best performances possible

Something I read a long time ago - the essential steps to programming:

1. Make it work
2. Make it work well
3. Make it work fast!

 

[Duplo]

For whoever may be interested in more technical details, this is a totally legit real life scenario code(*) and the resulting assembly for 32 bit and 64 bit.
*this code is fictional, no game was harmed in the making of this example

Spoiler: Example of 32 vs 64 bit output

Let's say that Sweden, after a long time of border tension, decides to declare on Russia. The Russian AI has to prepare for war, and needs to recruit the appropriate amount of troops. Let's say that it wants to recruit Streltsy. We all know that Streltsy strength is in numbers so we need a variable big enough to hold the maximum amount of Streltsy that we can recruit. Let's say at least 9,223,372,036,854,775,807 regiments.

Let's say we have this totally fine and perfectly looking code calculating the amount of Streltsy regiments to recruit:

long long how_many_streltsy_should_i_recruit(long long how_many, bool put_more_to_be_safe)
{
    while (how_many < 100000000000)
    {
        how_many *= put_more_to_be_safe ? 10 : 2;
    }
    return how_many;
}

Compiling it with clang (using "-O3 -m32" for a bit of optimizations and 32 bit output) we obtain this assembly:

how_many_streltsy_should_i_recruit(long long, bool): # @how_many_streltsy_should_i_recruit(long long, bool)
        push    ebx
        push    edi
        push    esi
        mov     ecx, dword ptr [esp + 20]
        mov     eax, dword ptr [esp + 16]
        cmp     eax, 1215752192
        mov     edx, ecx
        sbb     edx, 23
        jge     .LBB0_3
        mov     dl, byte ptr [esp + 24]
        xor     ebx, ebx
        mov     esi, 23
        mov     edi, 1215752192
        test    dl, dl
        setne   bl
        lea     ebx, [8*ebx + 2]
.LBB0_2:                                # =>This Inner Loop Header: Depth=1
        mul     ebx
        imul    ecx, ebx
        add     ecx, edx
        cmp     eax, edi
        mov     edx, ecx
        sbb     edx, esi
        jl      .LBB0_2
.LBB0_3:
        mov     edx, ecx
        pop     esi
        pop     edi
        pop     ebx
        ret

On the other hand, compiling the same code for 64 bit and the same optimizations ("-O3 -m64") we obtain this:

how_many_streltsy_should_i_recruit(long long, bool): # @how_many_streltsy_should_i_recruit(long long, bool)
        mov     rax, rdi
        movabs  rcx, 100000000000
        cmp     rdi, rcx
        jge     .LBB0_3
        movzx   edx, sil
        lea     rdx, [8*rdx + 2]
.LBB0_2:                                # =>This Inner Loop Header: Depth=1
        imul    rax, rdx
        cmp     rax, rcx
        jl      .LBB0_2
.LBB0_3:
        ret

While it is evident that the 64 bit version is definitely shorter, what is really interesting to see is why: the 64 bit version is able to take advantage of the 64 bit registers and compute it's operations without pushing/popping on/from the stack. This makes the 64 bit version consistently faster than the 32 one. And God only knows how critical is to recruit Streltsy if war happens.

Of course, this is an example made with the only purpose of showing what could happen. More work is indeed needed to get fully advantage of this transition to 64 bit in real life.

 

[Kazanov]

Obviously because if we got 81% INCREASED PERFORMANCES people would complain that Groogy lied and how dare he give 1% more INCREASED PERFORMANCES than promised.

Well, some brilliants minds did that when they increased the performance of CK2 some DLC ago. I will not be surprised if people complain about getting a faster game.

People just love to complain about stuff, its like an e-sport to them.

 

[kettch]

Is the hunting accident event chained to the heir's stats in any shape or form? At least, that's my creeping suspicion. Might just be confirmation bias, though.

I'd say the chance for this to be the case is about as high as losing your heir after getting 'heir falls ill'.

 

[Zeyon]

As a MEIOU player 64-bit EU4 is something I've been asking for a long time. Can't wait!