Comments

• Neospector

  

  Reactions: 9,860

  Posts: 2,146

  Volunteer Forum Moderator

  March 2019 edited March 2019

  Maplestory was built during a time when single-core was the norm. As a result, the game is single-threaded. Most games today are designed to work on multi-core systems using threading and child processes.
  
  An important thing to note is that multi-threading isn't done on the PC-level, it's done on the application-level, which essentially means the creators of the game have to program threaded functionality. This is because of how threading works: you take a block of calculations which can be performed separate and simultaneously to the main game thread, perform them, then merge the results back into the main thread. The calculations must be capable of being performed separately from the main thread, because if they aren't, you're left with either null data values in the main thread or stuck waiting for the threads to finish their calculations.
  To simplify things, say you have a program like this:
  

  public void main() {
      x=1;
      y=2;
      z=3;
      a=x+y;
      b=z*y;
      c=z-x;
      final=a+b+c;
      print(final);
  }
  

  
  Normally this executes sequentially, starting with x=1 and ending with print(final), for a total of 4 calculations. Threading works by doing this:
  

  public void main()
  {
      x=1;
      y=2;
      z=3;
      a=thread1(x,y);
      b=thread2(z,y);
      c=thread3(z,x);
      splitAndExecuteThreads();
      waitForThreadsToFinish();
      final=a+b+c;
      print(final);
  }
  
  
  
  public int thread1(int x, int y)
  {
      return x+y;
  }
  
  public int thread2(int z, int y)
  {
      return z*y;
  }
  
  public int thread3(int z,int x)
  {
      return z-x;
  }
  
  public void splitAndExecuteThreads()
  {
      //Some code to split and run threads
  }
  
  public void waitForThreadsToFinish()
  {
      //Idle code, usually a blank loop, that waits for the threads to finish
  }
  

  
  This is a big oversimplification, but for the purposes of explanation it works.
  
  When run, threads 1, 2, and 3 are executed at the same time. This means that steps 4, 5, and 6 are combined into a single step, reducing the number of calculations to 2.
  It works a lot better if you have more numbers (like, say, an array of 10000 numbers and you need to find the minimum, which was the assignment my professor had us do for multithreading).
  
  Now, you might notice the problems:

  • If you don't wait for the threads to finish, a/b/c might be null, resulting in an error
  • If one of your threads relies on a variable in another thread, you need to wait for the second thread to finish before you can work on the first thread
  • Threads can't talk to each other unless there are specific methods used to send messages, so for an event-driven program like a video game you have to set up a method of communicating information between threads

  Which essentially means you can't just split up a game between multiple processors and make it run faster, unfortunately.
  
  Now, this isn't to say multicores are useless: spinning Maple on a secondary processor might help alleviate some issues since most applications will spin on the main processor. Unfortunately I can't tell you how many issues it might solve (if it solve any), but if it works for you then it might be good to use it. Additionally, as a note, running Maple for the first time on a secondary processor may (or may not, please don't take my word on this) cause an initial spike in problems, because of cache misses, but over time it will improve.
• Roni777

  

  Reactions: 1,180

  Posts: 256

  Member, Private Tester

  March 2019 edited March 2019

  hmm that is a good detail. Thanks for explaining it in detail from the perspective of people who knows better than me. But i hope Maplestory have the ability to alter their basic core system. because it seems they are moving towards fast pace 2D MMORPG game. If they are going to move towards that, they need to alter so their game application in sync with the latest technology. Otherwise, in the future, this game will stuck on terms of improvement. Unless they are changing direction towards slow pace game with strategy heavily based 2D MMORPG. Coz there is no way processor going back to use single core processor. Doesn't seem likely to be.