Hello, Mayors!

Our update today has been something people have been hoping for. Optimizations in 57.3 should help the smallest villages and the largest metropolises. Internal testing has shown improvements in load times as well as frame-rate stability. Feedback at this time is especiallyappreciated.

Here are the patch notes:
[h2]Version 0.0.57.3 ALPHA[/h2]

[h3]Features[/h3]

• Task Scheduler: NewCity now has a frame-by-frame task scheduler to smooth out framerates and prevent lag spikes. All parts of the game update and user interface are broken up into tasks. The scheduler can delay tasks until future frames, mitigating long frames, and creating a smoother framerate. Learn more by setting CLogUpdateTime = true.
  
• (Experimental) New Culling Algorithm: Disabled by default, we are experimenting with a new high-performance culling algorithm. Culling is the process of filtering all the entities in the game scene to only those which are visible by the camera. With hundreds of thousands of buildings, this has a significant performance impact. We are experimenting with a new algorithm that is faster and can be run on a separate thread. Set CCullingAlgo to 1 or 2 to test this feature.
  
  
  [h3]Improvements[/h3]
  
• Several smaller performance improvements.
  
• Added tooltips to the Charts Panel and other places they were missing.
  
• Farms and factories now produce more freight.
  
• Police Headquarters and Police Stand are now easier to unlock.
  
• Preview images for cities are now zoomed closer. The zoom is controlled by CPreviewImageDistance.
  
• Roads are now slightly shiny.
  
• Water is now a darker color.
  
  
  [h3]Bug fixes[/h3]
  
• Fixed a bug where a new city would have the wrong amount of money
  
• Fixed a bug where game difficulty settings were loaded incorrectly
  
• Fixed a bug where the preview image was sometimes missing objects or terrain.