Homeworld Dual CPU Support?

[patjo553]

Hi! I just found evidence suggesting that HW and HW:C support dual CPU systems. Is this true? Most people I discuss this with are reluctant to accept the possibility, tributing it to a bug or faulty hardware settings.

I submit the following screen captures
Homeworld (http://www.student.itn.liu.se/~patjo553/3d/homeworld.jpg)
Cataclysm (http://www.student.itn.liu.se/~patjo553/3d/cataclysm.jpg)

I hope no one takes offense by my choise of desk top, but to the far right you can see both CPU-meters running at full load. Kernel activity is also higher than normal.

My system is a Asus P2B-D 2x P3 500Mhz 512KB with 256MB RAM and Matrox G400 Dualhead.

[The_Assimilator]

<big guess>

Well, that high CPU usage could be due to the fact that the games DON'T support dual-CPUs?

</big guess>

Actually, you could be right - although dual 500MHz P3s ain't exactly slow, they aren't really fast. HW and Cata run slow even on quite fast systems ('fast' being 700 MHz+), so it's probably your procs. (On a side note, are P3s even designed to be used in a multi-processing environment?)

Could also be your grahics card (G400 is dodgy), or if you're running XP, it could be the compatibility prob with OpenGL. (That I doubt.)

btw, nice desktop ;)

[ÜberJumper]

What does the processes tab show for % of CPU use?

[patjo553]

Originally posted by The Assimilator
<big guess>

Well, that high CPU usage could be due to the fact that the games DON'T support dual-CPUs?

</big guess>

Actually, you could be right - although dual 500MHz P3s ain't exactly slow, they aren't really fast. HW and Cata run slow even on quite fast systems ('fast' being 700 MHz+), so it's probably your procs. (On a side note, are P3s even designed to be used in a multi-processing environment?)

Could also be your grahics card (G400 is dodgy), or if you're running XP, it could be the compatibility prob with OpenGL. (That I doubt.)

btw, nice desktop ;)

In cases were the game does not support dual CPUs, CPU usage only registers at 50% or slightly higher depending on background activity, such as this example from Ground Control (http://www.student.itn.liu.se/~patjo553/3d/groundcontrol.jpg).

As for how P3 are designed for multi processing, all I can say is that it works. Some versions (celeron?) do not.

I'm running W2k and OpenGL does not work, so I'm forced to run in d3d mode. Could be a Dualhead specific conflict. I seem to remember running Cataclysm in OpenGL in W98 but memory is iffy on that.

One more point I didn't mention in the opening post, It runs at 100% all the time. From Sierra/Relic intros, through pre-game menus and cut scenes untill I quit to windows. If I Alt-Tab to windows it stays at 100%.

[patjo553]

Originally posted by ÜberJumper
What does the processes tab show for % of CPU use?

It stays around the mid 90's.

[ÜberJumper]

Ok, so Homeworld.exe on the processes tab stays at 90%... what's using the other 110%?

[patjo553]

There is only 100%. Its 50%/CPU.

[ceejayoz]

I suspect (someone correct me if I'm wrong) that Win2000 automatically balances the load between processors, as it was designed with multi-processor systems in mind (as a server OS).

[Mac_Bug]

I think it does use both automatically, you can set games specificly to use only one