Incredibly slow gameplay

[tomu4ea]

I'm having real trouble playing HOI4 after about 1939/40 because it just slows down so much!

I'm playing on an i7 laptop with 16GB RAM, so I can't imagine it's my system that's the issue.

However, after approx 1939/40 on every play through, even on the fastest speed setting, the hours are taking approx 2 seconds to pass, sometimes more.

I've reduced every graphics option to zero, installed the most up-to-date drivers, and nothing works.

Is this normal?

 

[tomu4ea]

Just to clarify, each hour on the time/clock is taking about 2 or 3 seconds to tick past on the fastest setting.

 

[GoodWill(TM)]

Multisampling? Did you turn it off?
Night/Day-cycle? Did you turn it off?

I find these to be the most resource intensive settings.

 

[tomu4ea]

Thanks for the reply. Yes - turned everything off!

I've just found this thread which goes some way to explain the issues I'm having - no solution yet though!

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/any-intent-on-multithreading.945049/

 

[BigCHrome]

It's an AI problem with division spam. Everybody makes hundreds of tiny divisions that clog up the CPU. Also, laptops will always have some problems playing PDX games because their internal hard drives are slower than normal.

 

[tomu4ea]

Again, thanks for the reply. I've got a SSD, so there should be no problems there.

The issue seems to be that HOI is only using one of my seven CPU cores!! So it's running at a seventh of the speed it should be. Very strange, and Google tells me this is an issue with the program itself and not my PC.

 

[whosthebestcop]

Have u turned 3d sprites off?

 

[Dakka]

It's an AI problem with division spam. Everybody makes hundreds of tiny divisions that clog up the CPU. Also, laptops will always have some problems playing PDX games because their internal hard drives are slower than normal.

And so the AI strategy is finally revealed. If it can't outsmart the player, it will simply destroy the very means the player uses to play against it!

And people say the AI is dumb

 

[pbrowne]

I'm having real trouble playing HOI4 after about 1939/40 because it just slows down so much!

I'm playing on an i7 laptop with 16GB RAM, so I can't imagine it's my system that's the issue.

However, after approx 1939/40 on every play through, even on the fastest speed setting, the hours are taking approx 2 seconds to pass, sometimes more.

I've reduced every graphics option to zero, installed the most up-to-date drivers, and nothing works.

Is this normal?

Yes, I found it unplayable as well. Turned off all the graphics options, still the same. Once you go to war, on fastest speed, an hour in the game time takes about 15 minutes to tick over. I'm playing as Australia, in defense, not overseas, no divisions in combat. Once I joined Britain and declared war on Japan, that was when it started crawling. Still crawling, no battles as yet on my side. I'm playing on a 13 inch MacBook Pro 2016 Retina in Windows 7 using Bootcamp (no emulation...straight Windows 7...):

• • 3.1GHz Dual-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 3.4GHz
  • 16GB 1866MHz LPDDR3 SDRAM
  • 1TB PCIe-based Flash Storage
  • Intel Iris Graphics 6100

Everything else plays fast on the highest settings on this machine. HOI4 needs to be better optimised. As it is, it's a waste of money...

 

[bwc153]

Until Paradox fixes it, I recommend avoiding speed 5. I find playing on step 3 or 4 is a better experience than a laggy speed 5.

 

[pbrowne]

Thanks bwc153, I must confess that I haven't played at the lower speeds I tend to be a bit impatient, which is not the best trait for this game! Still, when will game developers learn to optimise their games before releasing them. It's not as if I'm playing on outdated specs, and the problem has been reported far and wide.

 

[tomu4ea]

Ok, embarrassing confession time. I think I worked out what the issue I was having was all about.

I had "instant_construction" turned on. The end result of this is that all AI players can build naval items at one per day, meaning that by the time 1940 comes along, there are tens of thousands of naval units out there, which causes the game to grind to a halt.

As soon as I started playing the game "honestly" all of these issues went to zero! That'll learn me.

Oops.

 

[GoodWill(TM)]

Erm ... lol?
Where the hell do you even set that option?

 

[amalric de g.]

Erm ... lol?
Where the hell do you even set that option?

Here we go. http://www.hoi4wiki.com/Console_commands

 

[B3ndolf]

was gonna say that i experience very little slow down in hoi4, i get a little in the mid 40's but nothing unexpected or even close to game breaking and my computer isnt even that high spec

 

[Highbinder]

Yea, I only experience slow downs when I haven't had my morning coffee yet...

 

[am300307]

i5 > i7

Its better to have 4 great cores than 8 ok ones.

 

[Highbinder]

i5 > i7

Its better to have 4 great cores than 8 ok ones.

I've never had an issue with my i7's.

 

[Huhhu]

I have same problem even though i play with AI Research and Division Tweaks and Hard Mode mods which makes AI to make huge amounts of divisions. For example at 1942 USSR has over 1000 divisions but still my CPU and GPU dont use them fully. Its seems like the game cant use the full potential of my computer.
Its just so painful that after 1940-1942 the speed is so damn slow. After all if u play in any other speed than speed 5 the game will take so many hours to complete that no one has stamina for it and i personally for some reason never like to reload old saves i just start new game every time i start to play.

I could accept it if my computer couldnt just run it faster but when the game only uses small amount of my performance thats just unacceptable.

 

[dr_slump]

The issue seems to be that HOI is only using one of my seven CPU cores!!

4 cores and 8 threads, not 7 cores.