Dual/Quad core support, when?

[Landsknecht]

<p>Changes in gameplay are nice, but what about game perfomance? Year 2008 and Everquest2 still use only one core. Players cant get full fun with playing game on high/very high quality. When you turn on shadows game starts to lag, very low fps even on high-end computers - all of that because shadows rendered with processor and game support only one core - its always 100% busy. </p><p>So, any changes in game core in future?</p>

[Xeph]

I thought there were <i>some</i> features already able to be used on separate cores...might be mistaken, however.  That aside, I'm in full agreement with you; dual, quad, and even octo-core computers are the way of the future, and if EQ2 really wants to be "a game for the future," it needs to include actual support for multiple cores.  The game is beautiful for an MMO, but it <i>needs</i> to work well on these systems and utilize that hardware.  It can only benefit the game and its longevity.

[ke'la]

<p>The problem is to add Multi-core support, SoE would have to rebuild the whole EQ2 game engine from the ground up, that would be a HUGE undertaking, even larger then the skeletal revamp they have been working on for like 3 years. Not only that but if they are going to revamp the engine, they may as well upgrade it to support DX10 features as well, and they probly won't even start with that until DX10 has far greater market penitration then it does. </p><p>Will SoE revamp the engine for Multi-core support? Yeah someday I am shure.</p><p>Will it be anytime Soon(TM)? I doupt it.</p><p>What they will do though, and already are doing is off-loading certain some secondary proccesses to the other cores. Also their is stuff you can do to make EQ2 run better, one thing is set your proccessor affinity of all the bloatware you have running to one core and EQ2 to the other. A second thing you can do is, and this is something everyone should do, Disable about 90% of the bloatware you have running from start-up, this will make your whole comp run better. This is on top of running stanard mantaince like spyware cleaners, Defragers, and the like. I bought my Computer almost 2 years ago, and even at that time it was not a "Top of the line" comp, though it was close, Intel Core2 6400 @ 2,13Ghz, 2 GB of RAM, and an Nvidia 9750 GX2, and I can run EQ2 at Very High Quality in most cercomstances without much trouble. Though I do drop it down to High/No ShaddowsLimited partical effects when in large groups or known laggy places like QH or certain dungons. </p>

[OutcastBlade]

<p>It is a massive undertaking, but it shouldn't require an entire engine revamp. This game should already be running on multiple threads anyway(it's an online game so it's a given.) All they need to do is change what they use to do multi threaded programming.</p><p>ALso are we sure EQ2 doesnt support multiple cores? I have a d920 and it runs a heck of a lot better than it did on my amd64 3500+.</p><p>Anyway, POSIX pThread API to my knowledge supports multi-core systems, and its implementation into a game should be trivial. </p><p>Don't get me wrong, my reply is an incredibly naive one because I can't even guess which approach is currently in use, but it should be doable. And it should definitely be a priority. SoE you have to ask yourself, what are one of main reasons people play MMO X, MMO Y? More speed and stability.</p>

[Sabutai]

<cite>ke'la wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>The problem is to add Multi-core support, SoE would have to rebuild the whole EQ2 game engine from the ground up, that would be a HUGE undertaking, even larger then the skeletal revamp they have been working on for like 3 years. Not only that but if they are going to revamp the engine, they may as well upgrade it to support DX10 features as well, and they probly won't even start with that until DX10 has far greater market penitration then it does. </p><p>Will SoE revamp the engine for Multi-core support? Yeah someday I am shure.</p><p>Will it be anytime Soon(TM)? I doupt it.</p><p>What they will do though, and already are doing is off-loading certain some secondary proccesses to the other cores. Also their is stuff you can do to make EQ2 run better, one thing is set your proccessor affinity of all the bloatware you have running to one core and EQ2 to the other. A second thing you can do is, and this is something everyone should do, Disable about 90% of the bloatware you have running from start-up, this will make your whole comp run better. This is on top of running stanard mantaince like spyware cleaners, Defragers, and the like. I bought my Computer almost 2 years ago, and even at that time it was not a "Top of the line" comp, though it was close, Intel Core2 6400 @ 2,13Ghz, 2 GB of RAM, and an Nvidia 9750 GX2, and I can run EQ2 at Very High Quality in most cercomstances without much trouble. Though I do drop it down to High/No ShaddowsLimited partical effects when in large groups or known laggy places like QH or certain dungons. </p></blockquote>The original eq2 engine was designed on a dual core setup, they dumbed it down because at the time they didn't think they needed it

[Echgar]

As stated in the <a href="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?topic_id=383316" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">stickied thread</a>, this forum is for discussing changes currently being evaluated on the Test server.  Sorry, but I need to close this thread.