How does your computer respond to WE?

My specs are:
Athlon XP 2100 (1.74ghz)
512 DDr Ram
220 GB Hard Drive Space
52X cd rom

And when I'm creating custom units or modifying the specs of another, it tends to respond very slowly when it is changing the value of something (Stalls for something like 2 seconds). I know all computers do this cuz WE expects alot out of your computer, but how does it work for you?

Wow I see a vote in "OMG" LUCKY YOU What kinda comp u got?

Well I have 2 computers, both with very different specs (1.8gig and 550Mhz) and the difference when I'm working on either is minimal. The slower comp does take slightly longer, but it isn't particularly annoying.

Maybe I just have a really good old comp or a really crap new comp :ggani:

I've only got 1, I've put lots of money into it (220 gigs :p) but maybe it's just I'm running stuff in the background while programming war3....

Mine responds fairly well, except when using the unit editor.

Well, I have a Pention III 550MHz, 256MB RAM, Video Card Diamond something 16MB. Not a big deal, uh?

But WE runs at a good speed. Considering the system I have, it is even very fast! The only things that really take time is load maps full of doodads & calculate shadows.

Edit: Oh, yeah, I disable or close all other programs while using WE.

the unit editor stalls for a few seconds after any changes for no aparent reason on both my computers one of wich is realy good one isnt and the short pause after changes is the same on both of them
everything else runs fine

I think that's normal, mine does that aswell - I think it's because each thing you change it has to re-write to that file. I'm not sure though.

yes, me two.
also there is a problem when i have a lot of doodads (usually trees) or units on the map

YEah that could do it aswell.... if you guys use windows XP, press control alt delete (3 finger salute:P) and click the performance tab.

When you switch in and out of WE the CPU usage skyrockets, it seems that all the little animations on the screen suck up lots of system resources. I'm guessing this is the cause to the little stalls.

Everything is quick except the stupid Unit Editor. You don't know how badly I wish I could blow all my data into excel and then export it into a .w3u file. Maybe one of you genius programmers could make a converter, eh?

I don't understand why it's jsut the unit editor that is slow. Triggering and stuff is perfectly fine, its jsut the damned unit editor!!! :D

It's most likely the way they programmed the unit editor. Laziness?

If you haven't already tried, make the smallest map you can make (32x32 for me with an altered WE). Then make the largest you can make (480x480 for me). Compare the time it stalls after each change in the unit editor on either map. The difference will really surprise you.

From a programming perspective it appears that every time you make any change in the unit editor, it iterates through every spot in the map to see if there's a unit in the map at that spot. It apparently does this to update the way a unit looks (i.e., if you changed it's model, scaling, color, etc.), or the way a unit's icon looks in the unit view (i.e., if you changed it's icon). Why they don't just iterate through existing units seems like where they goofed (again, from a programming perspective). I mean, if there are no units on the map why would you need to update anything, right? But then again I have no clue how they programmed anything and am just making uneducated guesses.

On a smaller map it doesn't have as much stuff to check, and so it takes less time than on a larger map. For example to use a really rough estimate consider that a 32x32 map has 1024 cells. A 480x480 has 230,400 cells. If I did a for-loop iterating through all the cells in either map, you can see that it's gonna' take longer on the big map.

My suggestion is this: again, make the smallest map you can. Alter all your unit stats on this small map, export, then import the stats into your working map. It'll save a lot of time, believe you me. On my 1000 Mhz Celeron the difference is like 3 seconds per (1-2 seconds per change on a 32x32 vs. 4-5 seconds on 480x480).

Take care.

Ahm... If you put a lot of trees or doodads, does it still scan that area? It seems stupid 'cause it scans every cell...

well then wouldn't it have been easier to program it like this?:

When you modify a unit value it doesn't scan for anything, doesn't change anything except the unit value.
When your done modifying your unit, hits F5(Or refresh or something) and then it refreshed EVERYTHING and it only does it once.

Maybe blizzard was lazy....