othersean Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 It's not convenient to switch between Avernum and other applications, especially on a laptop. Like a number of other Spiderweb games, Avernum always pegs one CPU (even when hidden), so I have taken to pausing the process Unix-style by going to a Terminal and entering "killall -STOP Avernum". This has worked in the past, but now apparently Avernum keeps control of the sound card, so no other program can output sound while I have a suspended Avernum. I have to resume it and either quit it or allow it to continue sucking CPU for other programs to emit sound. Do other people briefly switch to Avernum when frustrated by another task, or briefly switch to something else when frustrated by Avernum? Given the load time, doing a save-quit-restart whenever you switch is kind of a pain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kreador Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 I haven't noticed it being particularly problematic on my iMac. I regularly switch between A:EFTP and other programs all day long. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
othersean Posted January 12, 2012 Author Share Posted January 12, 2012 That's probably because it's at least dual-core, as are most machines these days. Try it while running on battery on a laptop, or while running another CPU-intensive job. The wastefulness bothers me, for no particularly good reason. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soul of Wit Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 There are half-way decent laptop gaming machines, but most of them create enough heat to make usage on the actual lap a dicey proposition for any male considering future procreation. On that topic, Woot has a USB-powered cooling mat today, if anyone has this problem. It's a mostly anti-Apple site (the community, that is) but they do have the occasional good bargain. Disclaimer: I have no connection and do not consider this to be spam, as it is tangentially on-topic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MissSea Posted January 13, 2012 Share Posted January 13, 2012 I guess I always thought this was "par for the course" when it came to running any sort of large-file application. I mean, I remember running (or at least attempting) two Adobe programs (specifically Photoshop and Illustrator) at the same time. It wasn't pretty; I normally took a break when the tower fan began making ominous wheezing sounds. Now it's the laptop or iPad for easy surfing/reference and the desktop for the heavy lifting. Good advice about the cooling mat, BTW ... MissSea Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.