Indie titles often rely on smooth, consistent performance.
Indie titles often rely on smooth, consistent performance.
I don't play mainstream AAA games, which is why they rarely get popular enough. However, some creators are focused on perfecting my style, usually working alone or with a small team. I believe the key to great indie performance lies in top single-thread speed. I recently upgraded to an i5 12400 and saw a big boost in load times for my games.
Creating complex multi-threaded programs poses significant challenges. Developing robust engines in this area is especially tough. Therefore, it’s understandable that hobbyist groups often avoid it. Adding threads increases the difficulty of tasks that are already hard to manage alone.
I find it interesting how the YouTube algorithm promotes that Pentium 5 clip, especially since I haven't watched it recently and it keeps appearing. I'm curious about the ideal CPU for that performance level. My guess is my current one is sufficient. Upgrading to a higher tier seems possible, but the latest 12th-gen Intel models appear to be the limit. (Checking top passmark results online)
Based on the insight, generally they employ multiple cores, though one core consistently handles a larger share of the workload since developers haven't allocated resources evenly enough. There might be some exceptions.
It seems like a minor point, but if you sometimes use a separate thread for loading or playing music, it wouldn’t really be seen as a multi-threaded engine. Probably not enough cores to gain much advantage, and it likely stays limited to around two, without scaling well to six or eight.
Generalized a bit on the topic. Multi-core support was introduced early by indie developers before major studios adopted it. Performance varies based on the engine used, with Unity and Unreal offering distinct differences.
Multi-threading involves more than just creating additional threads; it requires careful coordination to ensure they function correctly together. For instance, AI players might benefit from multi-threading to enhance decision speed, but improper handling of data writing can lead to less intelligent behavior. This perspective comes from someone who developed an AI for Reversi during a challenging university project. While the game is straightforward, diagnosing performance issues after switching from single to multi-threaded execution proved difficult. This is only a small part of the broader challenges involved.
I'm discussing titles that weren't developed using Unity or Unreal. For instance, Starmade was built in Java. The Unreal Engine games often perform smoothly without being bottlenecked, newer titles like Flight of Nova load slowly, and appear to use their own systems. I understand Unreal games are typically indie projects, but I don’t see them as the focus here. It’s unclear how to classify creators who work solo or in tight teams on compact projects, especially when they also build the engine themselves. By the way, Flight of Nova is worth checking out. Infinity Battlescape also loads slowly but is a massive game with many features, making it less likely to feel stuck on one thread and more polished overall.