Optimization

The Real Constraint

The game needed to keep moving smoothly while colonies reproduced, projectiles crossed the map, and large numbers of enemies evaluated movement.

Small Savings Add Up

Do less work per object

Spatial grids, capped neighbor searches, squared-distance checks, and less frequent path recalculation each removed a small amount of repeated work. Together, those changes allowed a much larger battlefield.

Program Stub

A performance comparison showing the effect of spatial filtering can be linked here.