Why does EU4 run so smoothly?

[Question]

Most paradox games seem to start lagging really badly once you hit midgame. But EU4 does not appear to do this.

Even HOI4, on the same engine, starts lagging noticeably once you hit mid game and turns into a slideshow if there is a big war going on.

 

[Alfray Stryke]

Most paradox games seem to start lagging really badly once you hit midgame. But EU4 does not appear to do this.

Even HOI4, on the same engine, starts lagging noticeably once you hit mid game and turns into a slideshow if there is a big war going on.

Possibly because the later in the game you are in EUIV the fewer tags there are.

 

[Question]

Not really seeing it. Everyone is allying everyone else, Italy and Central Europe are still a collection of small states in 1700 because everyone is too scared to do anything about it. Its true that great powers tend to attack small states (mostly natives) but then the gam starts with a LOT more tags than HOI4 does, and most countries in HOI4 are not coded to do anything except sit and build some small armies.

 

[brantodb01]

EU4 just does less.
There's no pops or characters to simulate
There are fewer active army units then late game Vic2 or hoi4.

You want to see it run bad? Just play the hre game, revoke and then declare war on someone, the performance plummets when it has to worry about moving ~70 countries armies at the same time

 

[Vic3RebelUprising]

EU4 is the simplest game. CK2, HOI4 or Vic2 are more complex and do more calculations per tick.

 

[Xdevo]

I've never found late game EU4 to perform better than late game Vic2.

For the other ones its a combination of age, what amount of effort was spent optimizing the game (see CK2 after Rajas of India or every 3rd Stellaris patch), and how much the game leans to calculations that can or can't be threaded well.

 

[TheCrimsonMajor]

IDK, but I have noticed this as well. I can play EU4 well into the 1700s with no problem. Meanwhile Stellaris performs so poorly after the first 50-100 years that I have taken a break from playing it for the past 6 months or so. It is literally unplayable, it is so slow.

 

[holyvigil]

One other thing is that it is the flagship game. So being the most popular I would assume it gets the most attention from the programmers who work on optimization.

Could be wrong though. Maybe they spend more time on the laggy games but it's impossible for them to get it as good as EU4.