Simulation runs fine, but game clock slows to a crawl

[Shadowstrike]

This is an annoying bug that's affecting my ~200k city. I'm noticing that the simulation itself is running just fine, but the game clock is super slow (i.e. 3 RLs for 1 game minute, even at the fastest speed). Is there a workaround for this problem?

Edit: Never mind, I misunderstood how the Real Time mod works.

 

[Beer Fiend]

This is an annoying bug that's affecting my ~200k city. I'm noticing that the simulation itself is running just fine, but the game clock is super slow (i.e. 3 RLs for 1 game minute, even at the fastest speed). Is there a workaround for this problem?

It sounds like it's your memory rather than the game.

 

[Ragga Muffin]

Now ive never run this game on PC, ive been xbl for years now
But i used to rag the hell out of sub par hardware, and saved a fortune not buying latest stuff

I can give you pointers
1st off, its probably your PC being "weak"
Skylines is RAM heavy, it likes lots of it, it likes it faster.
An SSD will alieviate some off those issues, a small one just for windows and the "swapfile" is ideal and prices of these are sensible
You are most likely struggling with "through put". Thats why the 1st suggestion above and from me is your RAM
Other things such as bus speeds, (the mobo ability to move sh1t) from a to b.
Maybe also CPU, at higher pops this can also be an issue. Mods like Traffic Manager, (with sim +ed) will murder CPU at higher pops
Simply put, you have a bottleneck
Laptops almost invariably have less capable mobos, they dont give ram its full speed, and then dont get full fat 100w CPUs

Do a test,
Stare at water/blank ground.
Run on fast forward,
If it still slows then its weak cpu/bus, if not then its defo RAM/Bus

NB, its always /Bus cause its always a possibility.

 

[Shadowstrike]

I'm running 32 GB RAM, the game is on an SSD, and the CPU is an i9-9900K, so I don't think it's a hardware issue.

 

[prismaticmarcus]

I'm running 32 GB RAM, the game is on an SSD, and the CPU is an i9-9900K, so I don't think it's a hardware issue.

then you might have too many assets. try paring back

 

[j4lambert]

It sounds like it's your memory rather than the game.

This happens to me, but doesn't affect me as much. That is because I use a MacBook, which has a limited amount of ram of 8GB available.

 

[Ragga Muffin]

I'm running 32 GB RAM, the game is on an SSD, and the CPU is an i9-9900K, so I don't think it's a hardware issue.

il be honest i thought someone was trying to run SL on a Lappy,

Systems with that amount of RAM and i9 are normally strong
But that still doesnt rule out 32 gig of 1300mhz ddr3 squashed in a lappy
Or there being a "light" version of i9 that goes in lappys, i dont know if there is. And im from a different era
Or the guy in shop told you i9 didnt need dedicated GPU.
Please expand on these specs, we dont need whole spec sheet, we just need to know these things

This is the equivilent of printer guy asking you to check power lead, it HAS to be done first
I just checked point 2, its a desktop, its a pretty chunky cpu. Still need to confirm other points tho

 

[MarkJohnson]

Simulation slow downs are almost always mod/vehicle limit caused.

Install Watch It! mod as it has a game limit options to see all of the limits of the game. well, most of the limits anyway.

Check your mods. Any mod that alters the AI behavior, or any graphical settings mod will both slow down the simulation.

For comparison: A single 24hour day takes 10-seconds @ x1 speed, 6-seconds @ x2 speed, and 3-seconds @ x3 speeds.

But with a 200k city, it is most likely a vehicle limit. Usually caused by too much industry and too much exports.

 

[Shadowstrike]

It's definitely not a laptop, I can tell you that. By comparison, I barely hit any slowdowns in late-game Stellaris (which tends to suck up a lot of CPU cycles). Hitting some vehicle limits seems more plausible. I'm running a few of the beefier mods (TM: PE, Realistic Population, Real Time, IPT), but I would have thought it would slow down a bit, not grind to a halt. It's not even that the simulation is having any issues (cars are wheezing along, no choppiness or anything), its that the game clock is barely moving. I don't have very many custom assets at all.

If it's a vehicle limit thing, would I be able to pare it down by just trimming out my industry? I've got a decent, but not large amount of generic industry in the city. Alternatively, is there any way to increase the vehicle limit? Try to put more people on mass transit?

 

[Ragga Muffin]

It's definitely not a laptop, I can tell you that. By comparison, I barely hit any slowdowns in late-game Stellaris (which tends to suck up a lot of CPU cycles). Hitting some vehicle limits seems more plausible. I'm running a few of the beefier mods (TM: PE, Realistic Population, Real Time, IPT), but I would have thought it would slow down a bit, not grind to a halt. It's not even that the simulation is having any issues (cars are wheezing along, no choppiness or anything), its that the game clock is barely moving. I don't have very many custom assets at all.

If it's a vehicle limit thing, would I be able to pare it down by just trimming out my industry? I've got a decent, but not large amount of generic industry in the city. Alternatively, is there any way to increase the vehicle limit? Try to put more people on mass transit?

Well i checked your cpu, and there is no way that ever goes inside 1
But i have come accross i7s running with 2 sticks of 1300mhz, so this had to be checked

im out of my depth now. Cause i have exactly zero Xp modding SL
But Id still say its defo those realisum mods, and you are reaching the edge of the engine software.
Maybe there is a extension mod similar to other games

 

[Ragga Muffin]

It's definitely not a laptop, I can tell you that. By comparison, I barely hit any slowdowns in late-game Stellaris (which tends to suck up a lot of CPU cycles). Hitting some vehicle limits seems more plausible. I'm running a few of the beefier mods (TM: PE, Realistic Population, Real Time, IPT), but I would have thought it would slow down a bit, not grind to a halt. It's not even that the simulation is having any issues (cars are wheezing along, no choppiness or anything), its that the game clock is barely moving. I don't have very many custom assets at all.

If it's a vehicle limit thing, would I be able to pare it down by just trimming out my industry? I've got a decent, but not large amount of generic industry in the city. Alternatively, is there any way to increase the vehicle limit? Try to put more people on mass transit?

a ring "road" of frieght removes stupid amount off the road
This might actually help

 

[MarkJohnson]

It's definitely not a laptop, I can tell you that. By comparison, I barely hit any slowdowns in late-game Stellaris (which tends to suck up a lot of CPU cycles). Hitting some vehicle limits seems more plausible. I'm running a few of the beefier mods (TM: PE, Realistic Population, Real Time, IPT), but I would have thought it would slow down a bit, not grind to a halt. It's not even that the simulation is having any issues (cars are wheezing along, no choppiness or anything), its that the game clock is barely moving. I don't have very many custom assets at all.

If it's a vehicle limit thing, would I be able to pare it down by just trimming out my industry? I've got a decent, but not large amount of generic industry in the city. Alternatively, is there any way to increase the vehicle limit? Try to put more people on mass transit?

Maybe you should read what your mods do? For example, you have listed some mods with REAL in their name, so maybe they are trying to alter the game to act like reality. But this s a game, not reality, so it might be messing with time, as at least one of them already imply.

 

[Ragga Muffin]

Maybe you should read what your mods do? For example, you have listed some mods with REAL in their name, so maybe they are trying to alter the game to act like reality. But this s a game, not reality, so it might be messing with time, as at least one of them already imply.

just make sure you have cash saved up if you stop using a big mod.
It could knock your big city about, traffic will be silly in different hot spots
Then death care stops working.
Is the any point of realisum @ 250k??

Save that for villages with nice local shop runs i assume?? (i dont know the mod but i assume it does this)
On a silly ++ sized map it would be great for the town + villages thing,

Export less consume more???

 

[SeekTruthFromFx]

If you are using the Real Time mod, then it has its own speed settings in its Options. Could you have accidentally changed those to their slowest point? Also IIRC that mod's FAQ mentions that 200k is the approximate upper limit, so you might have hit that.

 

[Oshawotta]

This is an annoying bug that's affecting my ~200k city. I'm noticing that the simulation itself is running just fine, but the game clock is super slow (i.e. 3 RLs for 1 game minute, even at the fastest speed). Is there a workaround for this problem?

I am having the same problem where my simulation speed stutters when I make an airport. It wasn't doing it before the update and the specs had been fine and when I delete the airport it is fine but when there is an airport my who game's simulation starts to stutter like crazy. I don't use any mods that would be causing that.

 

[Shadowstrike]

Simulation slow downs are almost always mod/vehicle limit caused.

Install Watch It! mod as it has a game limit options to see all of the limits of the game. well, most of the limits anyway.

Check your mods. Any mod that alters the AI behavior, or any graphical settings mod will both slow down the simulation.

For comparison: A single 24hour day takes 10-seconds @ x1 speed, 6-seconds @ x2 speed, and 3-seconds @ x3 speeds.

But with a 200k city, it is most likely a vehicle limit. Usually caused by too much industry and too much exports.

This was an interesting idea. Watch It is telling me that I'm actually nowhere close to the vehicle limit (13k vehicles). So I'm at a bit of a loss about this...

If you are using the Real Time mod, then it has its own speed settings in its Options. Could you have accidentally changed those to their slowest point? Also IIRC that mod's FAQ mentions that 200k is the approximate upper limit, so you might have hit that.

This is an interesting thought. I checked the settings and they are at the default values. However, I realized that Real Time itself slows down the game clock significantly - to the point where a new city runs at 1 game minute = 2 RL seconds. So my 1 game minute = 3-5 RL seconds seems like it's just a function of how Real Time works. Good to know that it's just functioning normally, albeit oddly.

 

[MarkJohnson]

This was an interesting idea. Watch It is telling me that I'm actually nowhere close to the vehicle limit (13k vehicles). So I'm at a bit of a loss about this...

Actually, you are at 13k of your 16k limit. That is around 80% full. That should be slowing your game down a lot, if you play at a normal x3 speed.