Board Game Arena

Is there a no-toaster option for games which place heavy load onto your CPU even when they are idle?
I find it unacceptable that a boardgame webpage constantly run something (cryptomining?) in the background.
The games I have seen so far are Soulaween and Space Empires: 4X. Any others?

Please explain- what are you finding is happening?

I'm no expert on the matter, but how is there a difference between one game or the other?(hopefully OP can answer that)

All thinking work is done at the server side, the only work your PC has to do is visualize details, and that's not something that would greatly impact your CPU. I'm thinking OP has other problems going on on his PC that are not BGA-connected.

voriki wrote: ↑08 September 2022, 06:34 I'm no expert on the matter, but how is there a difference between one game or the other?(hopefully OP can answer that)

All thinking work is done at the server side, the only work your PC has to do is visualize details, and that's not something that would greatly impact your CPU. I'm thinking OP has other problems going on on his PC that are not BGA-connected.

That's not completely true, js still run in the browser and can be quite heavy. For instance in the first version of Santorini i made, the 3d rendering was making m'y cpu and fan completely nuts and i had to find ways to optimize this.

Tisaac wrote: ↑08 September 2022, 07:16 That's not completely true, js still run in the browser and can be quite heavy. For instance in the first version of Santorini i made, the 3d rendering was making m'y cpu and fan completely nuts and i had to find ways to optimize this.

Good to know,, thanks for correcting me.
I don't have a wide range of games I play here on BGA, and those I play are mostly just images, cards that don't appear to me as requesting high graphics. Simple games.

Guess I should try out Santorini one day to see how 3d rendering feels like.

dgjxqz wrote: ↑08 September 2022, 02:51 Space Empires: 4X.

SE4X is stil in beta and an unusual example on the site, its also noticeably heavier in its usage that almost any other games (also involves some simultaneous movement at points). The obvious answer is that the system is checking on the current status of the game so that it can report information to you about your opponents moves. But the thing to do would be to raise this on the SE4X forum directly for the developer (in a less confrontational way than you have done here) to make the point that the increased processing causes you a problem and ask if it can be mitigated or is just a function of the peculiarities of the game.

It is possible but unlikely that some compatibility bug triggered some infinite loop, perhaps someone can concur if my observation is reproducible.
1. You can fire up Task Manager to monitor CPU load,
2. Close unrelated application and make sure CPU load is at near 0%.
3. View someone playing one of the games mentioned above.
4. For most games the CPU load may ramp up briefly after loading the page but return to near 0% shortly but load stays high for these games.

Upon further investigation, I found that scrolling game items out of view can slighly reduce CPU load. So I guess these games are trying to redraw continuously frame by frame (as oppose to only redraw when there is a resize or expose event).

PS: Found another offending game: Solar Storm. Perhaps BGA can compile a list and notify the developers? As well as warn the users that these games heat up your device / drain your battery.

I'm playing Soulaween now with no problem.