FPS and UPS:
When in game you can press F4 and select "show-fps". This will show you 2 counters: FPS and UPS.
UPS: The number of game updates per second. Normally around 60, if it's going below 60 it means that your factory is too big and your CPU can't keep up.
FPS: The number of frames per second drawn on the screen. It can never go above the UPS.
If FPS are below UPS, it means the graphics card can't keep up, reducing the graphic settings can compensate that.
Effects of low UPS:
In a singleplayer the game will simply run slower.
In multiplayer, if the server is slower than the clients, the clients will run slower. On the other hand, if a client can not keep up with the server, he will experience significant lags, freezes and sluggishness because the server will not slow down and so he will constantly fall behind the server, catchup in the background and fall behind again, this is usually unplayable for the client.
A server admin can reduce the simulation speed with the following command to enable the slower players to keep up:
/c game.speed=v
with 0<v<1 (0.8 is usually a good compromise), v=1 will restore normal speed.
Keep in mind that with this the game will run slower for all players. Running this command will disable achievements.
How to report performance problems
You can report them as a bug if:
- You believe your hardware should run the game properly. See system requirements. Remember: High resolution sprites are only supported on high end systems.
- or you have found a feature or method of the game that performs particularly bad and can be optimized.
- (OBLIGATORY) log-file
- (OBLIGATORY) Screenshot of the game with the following debug options: show-fps, show-time-usage, show-gpu-time-usage, show-multiplayer-waiting-icon, show-multiplayer-statistics, hide-mod-guis. (press F4 and select those options. No additional debug settings may be activated!). In case of occasional FPS/UPS drops, include 2 screenshots: one when there are no performance problems and one when your FPS/UPS drops.
- save-file (located in the saves folder in the Application directory).
- mods used that are not available on the mod portal.
- For very strange performance problems that we can't reproduce, an Event Tracing for Windows (ETW) report can help us. You can use this tool to capture a report. If you include this, consider sending the report in private since it can contain sensitive information.
If the files are too big for a direct forum attachment, post a link to a 3rd party hosting solution e.g.:
google-drive, Dropbox, WeTransfer
Thank you!