Evan 5e4b2791aa perf: reduce core-sim GC churn 42% and add GC-churn profiling to the perf harness (#4494)
## 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>
2026-07-03 12:30:28 -07:00
2025-06-22 08:14:08 -07:00
2026-07-01 14:12:37 -07:00
2026-07-02 15:13:26 -07:00
2026-05-31 15:09:08 +01:00
2025-05-15 23:09:39 -04:00
2025-03-06 15:50:29 -08:00
2025-05-15 23:09:39 -04:00
2026-03-23 13:40:21 -07:00
2026-04-29 12:49:19 -06:00
2026-01-21 10:00:55 -08:00
2026-05-31 15:09:08 +01:00
2026-05-31 15:09:08 +01:00

OpenFrontIO Logo

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.

CI Crowdin CLA assistant License: AGPL v3 Assets: CC BY-SA 4.0

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

  1. Clone the repository

    git clone https://github.com/openfrontio/OpenFrontIO.git
    cd OpenFrontIO
    
  2. Install dependencies

    npm run inst
    

    Do NOT use npm install nor npm i but instead use our npm run inst. It runs the safer npm ci --ignore-scripts to install dependencies exactly according to the versions in package-lock.json and 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=true in 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 gitCommit value via https://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.

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