That is a simplification of how things work though. Not all tasks can be parallelized (and this holds true in new modern 64-bit software too, there are many cases where you simply cannot start calculating the next step before you know the result of the previous calculation), so even if a program uses multiple cores, there will often be times where there is a longer running task running on a single core which needs to finish before more cores can be spun up with other tasks. But that doesn't mean that it doesn't utilize multiple cores in a good way.

For a simple example, if half the workload can be hugely parallelized, but half needs to run on a single thread, it still halves the execution time compared to running on just a single core, even if the other cores seems idle a lot of the time. This can happen because the parallelizable workload get split all over the cores, so with 8 cores, the computer will chug through those parts much more quickly. Of course it would be nice if it could use all the cores all the time, but that's simply not always possible.

(Not claiming CC3+ can't be improved here, just highlighting some of the general issues with multiple cores and parallel processes)

It doesn't have anything with it being an object or not. CC3+ needs to be able to tell where the edges of entities on the sheet is when applying effects. When CC3+ computes effects, it makes a render of the complete stack of sheets up to and including the current sheet in the rendering process, and then compares the image it gets with the same pass done with the below sheet. Pixels that are exactly the same between the two renders will be areas where the latest sheet didn't have any entities, so we are seeing the sheet below through these points, while pixels that have changed represent areas that the current sheet covers. Edges are identified as borders between where pixels change and not. Effects are then applied to the image, and CC3+ continues one with the next sheet in the stack

This may seem complicated since CC3+ should just know where the entities are, right? Well, that would be the case if it wasn't for the effects, because once you start applying these it gets quite complicated and CC3+ needs to actually do these renders to calculate where the effects stretches to. And multiple effects on a sheet also interacts with each other, making this quite complicated.

So, this isn't some arbitrary rule that can just be turned off. Changing this would mean completely changing the way CC3+ renders the drawing.

I won't call it a big problem, as most of it is taken care of quite quickly, but it has been a bit of an increase in spam lately.

One of the problems is that most of those aren't actually bots, but actual people in poorer countries who work cheaply, and it is very difficult to prevent live humans who can read from creating an account, log in, and post something, without also making it an unpleasant experience for new users, something which is very important to me not to do.

There are rate limits in place for how often people can post, which is quite effective in preventing them from filling the forum front page with spam, you may have noticed it is always just two posts. Back in the old days, spam didn't happen quite as often, but several times I had to clean out a spam-attack of 20+ posts filling the entire first page.

Seems like a small config error in the menu files. Will probably be an update to fix this soon.

Effects cannot be trimmed. You'll need to cover it up with something.

Personally, to prevent things from extending through a wall and into the "nothingness" behind, I like to use a mask that is made up from the background with holes punched in it for the dungeon (using a multipoly for that) and put that on top so it basically covers up everything outside the walls, including unnatural shadows.