some biter entity.set_command seems to be super slow?

[yagaodirac]

For some reason, I have to call this function every 100 ticks or even more frequently. Every time I have to call this on 10k biters. The tick I call this, the game lag for a third second. Any suggestions?

[orzelek]

Only suggestion I could give is to stagger the commands over ticks.
You are also risking pathfinder trouble when commanding so many biters since that will be a lot of pathfinding to run in short time.

[Klonan]

Every time I have to call this on 10k biters. The tick I call this, the game lag for a third second.

Well no wonder, doing 10k API calls no matter what is going to be pretty heavy

Any suggestions?

As Orzelek said, spread it out over several ticks, for instance you can say it will only do 100 units per tick

[yagaodirac]

Yes, it must be very reliable.

[yagaodirac]

I made a scenario with only control.lua file.
I tried to set command both via a lua table(directly set to every biter) or a unit group.
The direct way doesn't work in crowded situation. And if the distraction set to by_enemy, the biters disappear after 10ish seconds.
The indirect way( via a unit group) moves the biters no matter how crowded the group is. But it's way slower than the direct way.

But no matter which method, I have to write a container. Why don't you provide a container, like std::vector in cpp.


The file is like

Code: Select all

-------------- CALL BACK ----------------
script.on_event(defines.events.on_chunk_generated, function(event)
      --log(serpent.block(event))

   if math.abs(event.position.x)>100 or math.abs(event.position.y)>100
   then
      --game.print("TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRR")
      local void_tiles = {}
      local index = 1
      for x = event.area.left_top.x, event.area.right_bottom.x - 1 
      do
         for y = event.area.left_top.y, event.area.right_bottom.y - 1 
         do
            void_tiles[index] = {name = "out-of-map", position = {x,y}}
            index = index + 1
         end
      end
      game.surfaces[1].set_tiles(void_tiles)
      return 
   end



   local auto_gen_resource = event.surface.find_entities_filtered{area = event.area, type = "resource"}
   for k,v in pairs(auto_gen_resource)
   do v.destroy()
   end
   local auto_gen_enemy = event.surface.find_entities_filtered{area = event.area, force = "enemy"}
   for k,v in pairs(auto_gen_enemy)
   do
      if v.name == "biter-spawner" or 
         v.name == "spitter-spawner" or 
         v.name == "small-worm-turret" or
         v.name == "medium-worm-turret" or
         v.name == "big-worm-turret" or 
         v.name == "behemoth-worm-turret" 
      then v.destroy()
      end
   end
   local auto_gen_tree = event.surface.find_entities_filtered{area = event.area, type = "tree"}
   for k,v in pairs(auto_gen_tree)
   do 
      v.destroy()
   end
   local auto_gen_simple_entity = event.surface.find_entities_filtered{area = event.area, type = "simple-entity"}
   for k,v in pairs(auto_gen_simple_entity)
   do 
      v.destroy()
   end


end)







script.on_event(defines.events.on_tick, function(event)
   if game.tick == 0
   then 
      game.players[1].character.destroy()
   end

   if game.tick == 0
   then 
      biters = {}
      unit_group = game.surfaces[1].create_unit_group({position = {0,0}})
      for i = 1,5000
      do
         biters[i] = game.surfaces[1].create_entity({name = "small-biter", position = {math.random()*100, math.random()*100}})
         unit_group.add_member(biters[i])
      end

      --log(serpent.block(biters))

      belts = {}
      for x = -100,100,10 do
         for y = -100,100,10 do
            belts[#belts+1] = game.surfaces[1].create_entity({name = "transport-belt", position = {x,y}, force = "player"})
         end
      end
   end


   if game.tick%60 == 11111111111111111111111
   then
  

      for k,v in ipairs(biters)
      do
         if v.valid
         then  
            v.set_command({type = defines.command.go_to_location, 
               destination = {math.random()*4-200, math.random()*4-200},
               distraction = defines.distraction.none,
               --pathfind_flags = {
               --   allow_destroy_friendly_entities  = false,
               --   allow_paths_through_own_entities =false,
               --   cache = false,
               --   prefer_straight_paths = true,
               --   low_priority =false,
               --   no_break  = true
               --},
               radius = 10
               })
         end
      end
   end


   if game.tick%60 == 1
   then
      unit_group.set_command({type = defines.command.go_to_location, 
         destination = {math.random()*4-200, math.random()*4-200},
         distraction = defines.distraction.none,
         --pathfind_flags = {
         --   allow_destroy_friendly_entities  = false,
         --   allow_paths_through_own_entities =false,
         --   cache = false,
         --   prefer_straight_paths = true,
         --   low_priority =false,
         --   no_break  = true
         --},
         radius = 10
         })
   end

   for k,v in ipairs(belts)
   do 
      if v.valid
      then
         v.health = 11111
      end
   end

end)