## Summary
Reduces core-simulation GC churn by **42%** on a 20-game-minute Giant
World Map run, and extends the headless full-game perf harness so churn
is measurable and regressions are visible.
### 1. GC-churn measurement (`tests/perf/fullgame/GcProfiler.ts`)
`npm run perf:game` now reports:
- **GC pauses** by kind (minor/major/incremental) via a
`PerformanceObserver` on `'gc'` entries, bucketed into tick windows by
timestamp (V8 only delivers these entries on a timer task, so they're
flushed after the run)
- **Allocation rate** per `--window N` ticks (default 1000) from
used-heap deltas sampled every tick, so churn can be tracked across game
phases
- **Top allocating functions** from the V8 sampling heap profiler with
`includeObjectsCollectedBy{Major,Minor}GC` — i.e. actual churn including
short-lived garbage, not live memory — plus a `.heapprofile` loadable in
Chrome DevTools (Memory → Allocation sampling)
New flags: `--window N`, `--no-gc-profile`, `--no-alloc-profile`.
### 2. Allocation reductions in the hot paths it found
| Site | Change |
|---|---|
| `GameMap.bfs` | inline neighbor enumeration instead of an array per
visited tile |
| `GameMap`/`Game` | new `forEachNeighborNSWE` — allocation-free
iterator matching `neighbors()` N,S,W,E order for order-sensitive
callers (`forEachNeighbor` visits W,E,N,S, so substituting it would
change sim behavior) |
| `PlayerImpl.nearby` / `sharesBorderWith` / `shoreReachableNeighbors` |
no per-call neighbor arrays; no materialized shore-tile array |
| `PlayerImpl.units(types)` | gather into a reusable scratch buffer,
return one exact-size slice (still a fresh snapshot array per call) |
| `AiAttackBehavior.maybeAttack` | single pass over border neighbors
replacing the `flatMap`/`filter`/`map` chain over every border tile |
| `AiAttackBehavior.isBorderingNukedTerritory` | reusable `neighbors4`
buffer with early exit |
| `SharedWaterCache.build` | allocation-free neighbor iteration |
| `SpatialQuery.bfsNearest` | first-minimum scan instead of
collect-then-stable-sort (identical result incl. tie-breaking) |
### Results (Giant World Map, 400 bots, 12,000 ticks ≈ 20 game-minutes,
seed `perf-default`)
| Metric | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Sampled allocations (incl. collected) | 97.7 GB | **56.9 GB (−42%)** |
| GC count / total pause | 1,682 / 3,313 ms (1.8% of wall) | 1,058 /
2,087 ms (1.2%) |
| Ticks/sec | 66 | 70 |
| p99 / max tick | 49.9 ms / 988 ms | 43.5 ms / 689 ms |
| Ticks over 100 ms budget | 31 | 19 |
## Determinism
Every rewrite preserves exact iteration order (the new NSWE iterator
exists precisely for the order-sensitive sites). Verified by identical
final game-state hashes on three runs: Giant World Map 12,000 ticks
(`67286276735690560`), Giant World Map 2,000 ticks, and World 1,800
ticks.
## Test plan
- [x] Full suite green (1,896 tests)
- [x] New tests: `forEachNeighborNSWE` order contract vs `neighbors()`
over every tile; `units()` filtering semantics (insertion order,
fresh-array guarantee, duplicate types, Set path)
- [x] Final-hash equality on 3 seeded headless runs (2 maps)
🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)
---------
Co-authored-by: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
OpenFront.io is an online real-time strategy game focused on territorial control and alliance building. Players compete to expand their territory, build structures, and form strategic alliances in various maps based on real-world geography.
This is a fork/rewrite of WarFront.io. Credit to https://github.com/WarFrontIO.
License
OpenFront source code is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0
Current copyright notices appear in:
- Footer: "© OpenFront and Contributors"
- Loading screen: "© OpenFront and Contributors"
Modified versions must preserve these notices in reasonably visible locations.
See the LICENSE for complete requirements.
For asset licensing, see LICENSE-ASSETS.
For license history, see LICENSING.md.
🌟 Features
- Real-time Strategy Gameplay: Expand your territory and engage in strategic battles
- Alliance System: Form alliances with other players for mutual defense
- Multiple Maps: Play across various geographical regions including Europe, Asia, Africa, and more
- Resource Management: Balance your expansion with defensive capabilities
- Cross-platform: Play in any modern web browser
📋 Prerequisites
- npm (v10.9.2 or higher)
- A modern web browser (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, etc.)
🚀 Installation
-
Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/openfrontio/OpenFrontIO.git cd OpenFrontIO -
Install dependencies
npm run instDo NOT use
npm installnornpm ibut instead use ournpm run inst. It runs the safernpm ci --ignore-scriptsto install dependencies exactly according to the versions inpackage-lock.jsonand doesn't run scripts. This can prevent being hit by a supply chain attack.
🎮 Running the Game
Development Mode
Run both the client and server in development mode with live reloading:
npm run dev
This will:
- Start the webpack dev server for the client
- Launch the game server with development settings
- Open the game in your default browser (to disable this behavior, set
SKIP_BROWSER_OPEN=truein your environment)
Client Only
To run just the client with hot reloading:
npm run start:client
Server Only
To run just the server with development settings:
npm run start:server-dev
Connecting to staging or production backends
Sometimes it's useful to connect to production servers when replaying a game, testing user profiles, purchases, or login flow.
To replay a production game, make sure you're on the same commit that the game you want to replay was executed on, you can find the
gitCommitvalue viahttps://api.openfront.io/game/[gameId]. Unfinished games cannot be replayed on localhost.
To connect to staging api servers:
npm run dev:staging
To connect to production api servers:
npm run dev:prod
🛠️ Development Tools
-
Format code:
npm run format -
Lint code:
npm run lint -
Lint and fix code:
npm run lint:fix -
Testing
npm test
🏗️ Project Structure
/src/client- Frontend game client/src/core- Deterministic game simulation/src/server- Backend game server/resources- Static assets (images, maps, etc.)
🤝 Contributing
Contributions and translations are welcome! See CONTRIBUTING.md for the workflow, the approved-issue process, project governance, and translation info.