3 ms·
The modern iteration is based on SDL graphics, not text (though that is available). The game slows down because you end up with 80+ dwarves, cats, forgotten bea
by stepvhen 11y ago
The modern iteration is based on SDL graphics, not text (though that is available). The game slows down because you end up with 80+ dwarves, cats, forgotten beasts, Mothmen, kobolds, and more, all trying to pathfind to their next thing, and by that time you have dug down 60+ z-levels and there's rivers and fish and some dwarf really wants a sock from his/her dead friend and it all adds up to an awful lot of computation 100 times a second. The graphics of it all is probably one of the easiest parts.
However, this is a 14 year old, very complex codebase. Tarn has said himself that multithreading is highly improbable at this point, it's not something you can just drop in. It would probably absorb an entire release cycle.