That material is in the lua file if you do a ctrl+f. More than just dds files get loaded, however everything else is specific and is from a special list, it loads ALL dds files though.
EDIT: Did some more testing, modified the mod to actually load when the client loads into a map even if it's only installed on the server and you never had it. It DOES load all the files, but it's so slow compared to local server, I think this MIGHT have something to do with consistency checking. Also I still hitched on alien blood even though it's listed in the stuff that gets loaded
thanks for the info, I was just wondering why it does still load every while.. Map loading is faster and less hitching , little spoiler after joining the server, j1 and walking to hive:
EDIT: Did some more testing, modified the mod to actually load when the client loads into a map even if it's only installed on the server and you never had it. It DOES load all the files, but it's so slow compared to local server, I think this MIGHT have something to do with consistency checking. Also I still hitched on alien blood even though it's listed in the stuff that gets loaded
Yes gun fire, blood etc can still cause hitching ,even more (ms) if there is a lot of actions.. Like I got 0.50ms more on that "rifle_view_shell.model" when I fired lmg on hive area than marine start..
I believe this is because the game actually unloads it from memory and then loads it when needed due to the now forced streaming for our plebeian 32bit counter parts. We need an option to disable that and load shared asset and keep it loaded on map load if we're using 64bit.
I think you have no idea what the developers at UWE do for the game. Not saying its not great what samus does, but i would feel offended as a uwe developer reading your comment, because its simply not true.
The developers didn't fix the #1 gripe with the game that EVERYONE had.
#1 priority for ALL members of the community, developers let us sit and stew for over a year.
Now a community member has fixed it.
What does it matter what the devs at UWE do if they're not devoting the '30 mins' required to solve the biggest damn problem with the game to date.
I think you have no idea what the developers at UWE do for the game. Not saying its not great what samus does, but i would feel offended as a uwe developer reading your comment, because its simply not true.
The developers didn't fix the #1 gripe with the game that EVERYONE had.
#1 priority for ALL members of the community, developers let us sit and stew for over a year.
Now a community member has fixed it.
What does it matter what the devs at UWE do if they're not devoting the '30 mins' required to solve the biggest damn problem with the game to date.
Because a) its not fixed yet and b) its probably not the right way to solve it. so calm down
DC_DarklingJoin Date: 2003-07-10Member: 18068Members, Constellation, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver
The following has been tested with ns2 on a sata 6G ssd & connection.
fresh listenserver: 1.07 (min.sec)
disconnect & remake listenserver: 0.44
fresh with mod: 0.51
mod disconnect: 0.45
So for a ssd it does not seem to speedup that much, what would actually support your theory.
I had weird unexplained hitches in the past when I did not have it on a ssd or hybrid drive.
I've done further testing and can confirm that the loading speed increase was due to having had disabled consistency checking before being able to test it. So the mod doesn't do anything about that. Want proof? I've temporarily disabled consistency (except for stuff mentioned next page) and unpassworded my team's scrim server named "Seraphic Nexus - Scrim Server" just put "Serap" in the server filter and try and join it (also up your ping limit cos it's on the west coast of the US). It will load into the map in about 10 seconds, from there you can change the map with a vote if you want, it'll load just as fast. Funny thing is that I now REMEMBER when forced consistency checking on everything got defaulted how much loading times took a hit, I had forgotten, though they were never truly all off (since release). I really advise you to test join that server to see the difference.
What this means is we need another way to stop cheaters without the current consistency checking method, or at least reduce the amount of checking to a minimum. However, consistency is ALSO WHAT IS CAUSING THE HITCHES. You'll notice on that server as well that all hitches from firing to blood etc, is all gone. This was probably because it was getting not only loaded on the fly but then hashed and checked against the server's hash list for consistency (actually I know that's exactly what was happening).
So does the mod help with hitching at all? In it's current state, I do not think so, I think that some of the missing files like blood and shell casings DO need to be incorporated into the standard precaching list, however loading them on the fly alone isn't really hurting our performance. It's the consistency checking.
So the priority needs to turn from fixing load times and hitches to, finding an alternative anti cheat that doesn't involve hashing files all the time or on load (not sure how to do that but I'm sure it's possible somehow...). If it ISN'T possible then we need to reduce the amount of stuff checked by default as well as find something else to detect things like wallhacks and lit up models (personally don't care about that one). So don't consistency check the relative files for that, instead have something detecting something on the screen (like bright fucking pink through a wall or something). Not sure what to do about aim bots.
EDIT: What this also means is that your SSDs are getting raped by consistency checking constantly hashing the file every time it's used (so that you can't replace a skulk model half way through the game it hashes it every time a new skulk spawns etc). This is what I believe anyway, and is backed up by using a program to analyse the ns2 folder shows the same files being opened and closed literally hundreds of times during a game.
EDIT2: Ok it's not actually hurting your SSDs because it's only getting opened and read, not written.
EDIT3: SSDs won't notice much of a difference, though there is one (Darkling went from 26 seconds to 16).
EDIT4: Also, this shaved 30-40 ping off my connection to this US server, usually I get around 220, I was pinging 180 with no consistency. I think this is due to it trying to send and receive hashes many multiple times a second.
EDIT5: Also do not alt tab if you do join the server, load the game and join without alt tabbing at all. It slows down load times, causes the hitches again and even increased my ping from 180 to 340. Restarted the game and didn't alt tab, none of the above.
EDIT6: Here is a video of me loading in on from the menu after just starting the game, into the server, and showing how nothing stutters and you don't (well BARELY) freeze when joining a team for the first time. I AM NOT ON AN SSD, THIS IS A HDD THAT USUALLY HAS ME LOADING FOR 5 MINUTES
EDIT7: Pasted here instead of other thread.
There reason consistency makes such a differences is every time a file is used (eg. skulk spawns so skin is loaded) it has to be hashed and checked with the server in case you've modified it. Take that out, lower pings, less hard drive raping, and probably a much more free cpu to focus on more important things.
EDIT8: Server now running consistency for only lua files (that's 773 files right now) and will load just as fast. Everybody wins, no hacks, sweet load times, less hitches (hitches still need to be fixed by samus as it helps but doesn't 100% help with consistency off).
I've done further testing and can confirm that the loading speed increase was due to having had disabled consistency checking before being able to test it. So the mod doesn't do anything about that. Want proof? I've temporarily disabled and unpassworded my team's scrim server named "Seraphic Nexus - Scrim Server" just put "Serap" in the server filter and try and join it. It will load into the map in about 10 seconds, from there you can change the map with a vote if you want, it'll load just as fast. Funny thing is that I now REMEMBER when forced consistency checking on everything got defaulted how much loading times took a hit, I had forgotten, though they were never truly all off (since release). I really advise you to test join that server to see the difference.
What this means is we need another way to stop cheaters without the current consistency checking method, or at least reduce the amount of checking to a minimum. However, consistency is ALSO WHAT IS CAUSING THE HITCHES. You'll notice on that server as well that all hitches from firing to blood etc, is all gone. This was probably because it was getting not only loaded on the fly but then hashed and checked against the server's hash list for consistency (actually I know that's exactly what was happening).
So does the mod help with hitching at all? In it's current state, I do not think so, I think that some of the missing files like blood and shell casings DO need to be incorporated into the standard precaching list, however loading them on the fly alone isn't really hurting our performance. It's the consistency checking.
So the priority needs to turn from fixing load times and hitches to, finding an alternative anti cheat that doesn't involve hashing files all the time or on load (not sure how to do that but I'm sure it's possible somehow...). If it ISN'T possible then we need to reduce the amount of stuff checked by default as well as find something else to detect things like wallhacks and lit up models (personally don't care about that one). So don't consistency check the relative files for that, instead have something detecting something on the screen (like bright fucking pink through a wall or something). Not sure what to do about aim bots.
EDIT: What this also means is that your SSDs are getting raped by consistency checking constantly hashing the file every time it's used (so that you can't replace a skulk model half way through the game it hashes it every time a new skulk spawns etc). This is what I believe anyway, and is backed up by using a program to analyse the ns2 folder shows the same files being opened and closed literally hundreds of times during a game.
EDIT2: Ok it's not actually hurting your SSDs because it's only getting opened and read, not written.
EDIT3: SSDs won't notice much of a difference, though there is one (Darkling went from 26 seconds to 16).
EDIT4: Also, this shaved 30-40 ping off my connection to this US server, usually I get around 220, I was pinging 180 with no consistency. I think this is due to it trying to send and receive hashes many multiple times a second.
SamusDroidColoradoJoin Date: 2013-05-13Member: 185219Members, Forum Moderators, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Gold, Subnautica Playtester, NS2 Community Developer, Pistachionauts
That's because it's not loaded when you load a map. I wanted to get something out there to test. It SHOULD decrease hitches. As I already included a lot of things mentioned already and it's just not loading on map load. Preaching material files does nothing because the game doesn't actually precache them. Try Ghouls Survival of the fattest server, he said he was running it.
I already tested it on the server mentioned above, no hitching when consistency off, when it's on, I definitely got at least one hitch, though it only happened with blood and shell casing was fine. Sometimes it's worse than other times though so it may have just been lucky.
tldr; I'm not sure the mod is actually helping.
I've done further testing and can confirm that the loading speed increase was due to having had disabled consistency checking before being able to test it. So the mod doesn't do anything about that. Want proof? I've temporarily disabled and unpassworded my team's scrim server named "Seraphic Nexus - Scrim Server" just put "Serap" in the server filter and try and join it. It will load into the map in about 10 seconds, from there you can change the map with a vote if you want, it'll load just as fast. Funny thing is that I now REMEMBER when forced consistency checking on everything got defaulted how much loading times took a hit, I had forgotten, though they were never truly all off (since release). I really advise you to test join that server to see the difference.
What this means is we need another way to stop cheaters without the current consistency checking method, or at least reduce the amount of checking to a minimum. However, consistency is ALSO WHAT IS CAUSING THE HITCHES. You'll notice on that server as well that all hitches from firing to blood etc, is all gone. This was probably because it was getting not only loaded on the fly but then hashed and checked against the server's hash list for consistency (actually I know that's exactly what was happening).
So does the mod help with hitching at all? In it's current state, I do not think so, I think that some of the missing files like blood and shell casings DO need to be incorporated into the standard precaching list, however loading them on the fly alone isn't really hurting our performance. It's the consistency checking.
So the priority needs to turn from fixing load times and hitches to, finding an alternative anti cheat that doesn't involve hashing files all the time or on load (not sure how to do that but I'm sure it's possible somehow...). If it ISN'T possible then we need to reduce the amount of stuff checked by default as well as find something else to detect things like wallhacks and lit up models (personally don't care about that one). So don't consistency check the relative files for that, instead have something detecting something on the screen (like bright fucking pink through a wall or something). Not sure what to do about aim bots.
EDIT: What this also means is that your SSDs are getting raped by consistency checking constantly hashing the file every time it's used (so that you can't replace a skulk model half way through the game it hashes it every time a new skulk spawns etc). This is what I believe anyway, and is backed up by using a program to analyse the ns2 folder shows the same files being opened and closed literally hundreds of times during a game.
EDIT2: Ok it's not actually hurting your SSDs because it's only getting opened and read, not written.
EDIT3: SSDs won't notice much of a difference, though there is one (Darkling went from 26 seconds to 16).
EDIT4: Also, this shaved 30-40 ping off my connection to this US server, usually I get around 220, I was pinging 180 with no consistency. I think this is due to it trying to send and receive hashes many multiple times a second.
I wish we could disable texture streaming...
I wish we could just precache everything once and leave it like that Textures, models, cinematics, dds, the works. Too bad our 32bit retarded cousins are holding us back. If only there was some way to make the game do it if you weren't on 32bit and had enough memory...Perhaps...by user choice?
Still, that won't help EVERYTHING, since the main problem is in fact the hashing.
Dang, I noticed the map loaded WAY faster on a local server game, and hitching was down to a minimum but still present on occasion when firing weapons / biting stuff for the first time. Looks like you are on to something good here, can't wait to see the final product rolled out for everyone!
DC_DarklingJoin Date: 2003-07-10Member: 18068Members, Constellation, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver
The biggest loadtimes, mod enabled, on a ssd are still model & dds files. Note the time of each individual file is next to nothing. Its the times combined.
I've done further testing and can confirm that the loading speed increase was due to having had disabled consistency checking before being able to test it. So the mod doesn't do anything about that. Want proof? I've temporarily disabled and unpassworded my team's scrim server named "Seraphic Nexus - Scrim Server" just put "Serap" in the server filter and try and join it. It will load into the map in about 10 seconds, from there you can change the map with a vote if you want, it'll load just as fast. Funny thing is that I now REMEMBER when forced consistency checking on everything got defaulted how much loading times took a hit, I had forgotten, though they were never truly all off (since release). I really advise you to test join that server to see the difference.
What this means is we need another way to stop cheaters without the current consistency checking method, or at least reduce the amount of checking to a minimum. However, consistency is ALSO WHAT IS CAUSING THE HITCHES. You'll notice on that server as well that all hitches from firing to blood etc, is all gone. This was probably because it was getting not only loaded on the fly but then hashed and checked against the server's hash list for consistency (actually I know that's exactly what was happening).
So does the mod help with hitching at all? In it's current state, I do not think so, I think that some of the missing files like blood and shell casings DO need to be incorporated into the standard precaching list, however loading them on the fly alone isn't really hurting our performance. It's the consistency checking.
So the priority needs to turn from fixing load times and hitches to, finding an alternative anti cheat that doesn't involve hashing files all the time or on load (not sure how to do that but I'm sure it's possible somehow...). If it ISN'T possible then we need to reduce the amount of stuff checked by default as well as find something else to detect things like wallhacks and lit up models (personally don't care about that one). So don't consistency check the relative files for that, instead have something detecting something on the screen (like bright fucking pink through a wall or something). Not sure what to do about aim bots.
EDIT: What this also means is that your SSDs are getting raped by consistency checking constantly hashing the file every time it's used (so that you can't replace a skulk model half way through the game it hashes it every time a new skulk spawns etc). This is what I believe anyway, and is backed up by using a program to analyse the ns2 folder shows the same files being opened and closed literally hundreds of times during a game.
EDIT2: Ok it's not actually hurting your SSDs because it's only getting opened and read, not written.
EDIT3: SSDs won't notice much of a difference, though there is one (Darkling went from 26 seconds to 16).
EDIT4: Also, this shaved 30-40 ping off my connection to this US server, usually I get around 220, I was pinging 180 with no consistency. I think this is due to it trying to send and receive hashes many multiple times a second.
I wish we could disable texture streaming...
I wish we could just precache everything once and leave it like that Textures, models, cinematics, dds, the works. Too bad our 32bit retarded cousins are holding us back. If only there was some way to make the game do it if you weren't on 32bit and had enough memory...Perhaps...by user choice?
Still, that won't help EVERYTHING, since the main problem is in fact the hashing.
Well, that is what the game used to do when you could disable texture streaming, it loaded everything at load time :P
I've done further testing and can confirm that the loading speed increase was due to having had disabled consistency checking before being able to test it. So the mod doesn't do anything about that. Want proof? I've temporarily disabled and unpassworded my team's scrim server named "Seraphic Nexus - Scrim Server" just put "Serap" in the server filter and try and join it. It will load into the map in about 10 seconds, from there you can change the map with a vote if you want, it'll load just as fast. Funny thing is that I now REMEMBER when forced consistency checking on everything got defaulted how much loading times took a hit, I had forgotten, though they were never truly all off (since release). I really advise you to test join that server to see the difference.
What this means is we need another way to stop cheaters without the current consistency checking method, or at least reduce the amount of checking to a minimum. However, consistency is ALSO WHAT IS CAUSING THE HITCHES. You'll notice on that server as well that all hitches from firing to blood etc, is all gone. This was probably because it was getting not only loaded on the fly but then hashed and checked against the server's hash list for consistency (actually I know that's exactly what was happening).
So does the mod help with hitching at all? In it's current state, I do not think so, I think that some of the missing files like blood and shell casings DO need to be incorporated into the standard precaching list, however loading them on the fly alone isn't really hurting our performance. It's the consistency checking.
So the priority needs to turn from fixing load times and hitches to, finding an alternative anti cheat that doesn't involve hashing files all the time or on load (not sure how to do that but I'm sure it's possible somehow...). If it ISN'T possible then we need to reduce the amount of stuff checked by default as well as find something else to detect things like wallhacks and lit up models (personally don't care about that one). So don't consistency check the relative files for that, instead have something detecting something on the screen (like bright fucking pink through a wall or something). Not sure what to do about aim bots.
EDIT: What this also means is that your SSDs are getting raped by consistency checking constantly hashing the file every time it's used (so that you can't replace a skulk model half way through the game it hashes it every time a new skulk spawns etc). This is what I believe anyway, and is backed up by using a program to analyse the ns2 folder shows the same files being opened and closed literally hundreds of times during a game.
EDIT2: Ok it's not actually hurting your SSDs because it's only getting opened and read, not written.
EDIT3: SSDs won't notice much of a difference, though there is one (Darkling went from 26 seconds to 16).
EDIT4: Also, this shaved 30-40 ping off my connection to this US server, usually I get around 220, I was pinging 180 with no consistency. I think this is due to it trying to send and receive hashes many multiple times a second.
I wish we could disable texture streaming...
I wish we could just precache everything once and leave it like that Textures, models, cinematics, dds, the works. Too bad our 32bit retarded cousins are holding us back. If only there was some way to make the game do it if you weren't on 32bit and had enough memory...Perhaps...by user choice?
Still, that won't help EVERYTHING, since the main problem is in fact the hashing.
Well, that is what the game used to do when you could disable texture streaming, it loaded everything at load time :P
Yup without consistancy is a lot faster on loads. But point is folk, we need cosistancy until something better comes a long.
No. All of the real hacks bypass hash checking anyway as they're dll injects. All this is doing is stopping pink skulks, which I care nothing about. It's not worth this crippling performance.
DC_DarklingJoin Date: 2003-07-10Member: 18068Members, Constellation, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver
edited November 2013
I dont wanna post yet more screens as they match the ones previous shown. But for a complete picture I just tested with ghost on his server WITH consistance. (so all other factors are the same).
total load: 10.8
dds load: 7.5
So the biggest hit is with consistancy
>edit
to clarify, load times compare with shots from my listenserver with consistancy on)
DC_DarklingJoin Date: 2003-07-10Member: 18068Members, Constellation, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver
edit.. ok some screens because I noticed something funny.
the no consistancy are from Ghosts server while the consistancy ones are from my listenserver but in general the results were the same with his..
Take for example the female marine.. WITH con check she is doing a good job of being in the top on bad load times.
WITHOUT the con check, all the weapons load SLOWER then the marine model.
Either UWE needs to improve the efficiency and speed of consistency checking or greatly reduce the amount of files that are being checked or remove it altogether.
Now one thing that's really really annoying - especially when you're paying big ass bucks for a dedicated server. The NS2 cache won't clean itself. So at times I need to restart the server, or shut it down and delete the %appdate% \ natural selection 2 \ cache files
Is there anyway to dump the files every now and then, because from a client side - it improves load speed immensly after you wipe your cache.
I can only imagine it helps the server as well as it's the same setup.
The engine scans all those cache files and even those old outdated ones from previous builds.
I've had to teamviewer some of my guys's computers and delete their cache files for them - as their game was taking a long time to load and they were thinking it was a server issue. After I flushed the cache and wiped their workshop folder - they noticed an improvement. I don't think they were on SSD's. I have an SSD so it's a nominal change for me, but for the mass player base - Sata it is.
Also - running the busiest NS2 server around. I have to say thank you to Samusdroid and the others out there for fixing the bugs and helping to make NS2 run smoother for the community. Kudos!
SamusDroidColoradoJoin Date: 2013-05-13Member: 185219Members, Forum Moderators, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Gold, Subnautica Playtester, NS2 Community Developer, Pistachionauts
All this fast loading is the same loading times I've always had, I guess it's because I disabled my consistency a looong time ago when modding. Explains why I could always load a map really fast. Still doesn't change though that when loaded on client load it still greatly improves it.
Comments
EDIT: Did some more testing, modified the mod to actually load when the client loads into a map even if it's only installed on the server and you never had it. It DOES load all the files, but it's so slow compared to local server, I think this MIGHT have something to do with consistency checking. Also I still hitched on alien blood even though it's listed in the stuff that gets loaded
Client Authed. Steam ID: 13123664
spa connected.
Loading 'cinematics/vfx_materials/heal_marine.material' took 0.22ms, cumulative = 1.84s, systime = 262.94s
Loading 'models/marine/powerpoint_impulse/powerpoint_impulse.model' took 0.08ms, cumulative = 1.84s, systime = 263.16s
Loading 'models/marine/powerpoint_impulse/powerpoint_impulse.material' took 0.02ms, cumulative = 1.84s, systime = 263.16s
Loading 'cinematics/vfx_materials/heal_marine_view.material' took 0.35ms, cumulative = 1.84s, systime = 276.28s
Loading 'models/misc/commander_arrow.model' took 1.11ms, cumulative = 1.84s, systime = 288.09s
Loading 'models/misc/waypoint_arrow.material' took 0.21ms, cumulative = 1.84s, systime = 288.09s
Loading 'cinematics/vfx_materials/heal_alien.material' took 0.63ms, cumulative = 1.84s, systime = 314.81s
Loading 'cinematics/vfx_materials/umbra.material' took 0.18ms, cumulative = 1.84s, systime = 314.81s
Loading 'materials/infestation/infestation_decal.material' took 0.62ms, cumulative = 1.84s, systime = 315.12s
Loading 'models/marine/rifle/rifle_view_shell.model' took 0.62ms, cumulative = 1.84s, systime = 336.44s
Loading 'models/marine/rifle/rifle_shell_01.material' took 0.27ms, cumulative = 1.84s, systime = 336.44s
The developers didn't fix the #1 gripe with the game that EVERYONE had.
#1 priority for ALL members of the community, developers let us sit and stew for over a year.
Now a community member has fixed it.
What does it matter what the devs at UWE do if they're not devoting the '30 mins' required to solve the biggest damn problem with the game to date.
Because a) its not fixed yet and b) its probably not the right way to solve it. so calm down
fresh listenserver: 1.07 (min.sec)
disconnect & remake listenserver: 0.44
fresh with mod: 0.51
mod disconnect: 0.45
So for a ssd it does not seem to speedup that much, what would actually support your theory.
I had weird unexplained hitches in the past when I did not have it on a ssd or hybrid drive.
I've done further testing and can confirm that the loading speed increase was due to having had disabled consistency checking before being able to test it. So the mod doesn't do anything about that. Want proof? I've temporarily disabled consistency (except for stuff mentioned next page) and unpassworded my team's scrim server named "Seraphic Nexus - Scrim Server" just put "Serap" in the server filter and try and join it (also up your ping limit cos it's on the west coast of the US). It will load into the map in about 10 seconds, from there you can change the map with a vote if you want, it'll load just as fast. Funny thing is that I now REMEMBER when forced consistency checking on everything got defaulted how much loading times took a hit, I had forgotten, though they were never truly all off (since release). I really advise you to test join that server to see the difference.
What this means is we need another way to stop cheaters without the current consistency checking method, or at least reduce the amount of checking to a minimum. However, consistency is ALSO WHAT IS CAUSING THE HITCHES. You'll notice on that server as well that all hitches from firing to blood etc, is all gone. This was probably because it was getting not only loaded on the fly but then hashed and checked against the server's hash list for consistency (actually I know that's exactly what was happening).
So does the mod help with hitching at all? In it's current state, I do not think so, I think that some of the missing files like blood and shell casings DO need to be incorporated into the standard precaching list, however loading them on the fly alone isn't really hurting our performance. It's the consistency checking.
So the priority needs to turn from fixing load times and hitches to, finding an alternative anti cheat that doesn't involve hashing files all the time or on load (not sure how to do that but I'm sure it's possible somehow...). If it ISN'T possible then we need to reduce the amount of stuff checked by default as well as find something else to detect things like wallhacks and lit up models (personally don't care about that one). So don't consistency check the relative files for that, instead have something detecting something on the screen (like bright fucking pink through a wall or something). Not sure what to do about aim bots.
EDIT: What this also means is that your SSDs are getting raped by consistency checking constantly hashing the file every time it's used (so that you can't replace a skulk model half way through the game it hashes it every time a new skulk spawns etc). This is what I believe anyway, and is backed up by using a program to analyse the ns2 folder shows the same files being opened and closed literally hundreds of times during a game.
EDIT2: Ok it's not actually hurting your SSDs because it's only getting opened and read, not written.
EDIT3: SSDs won't notice much of a difference, though there is one (Darkling went from 26 seconds to 16).
EDIT4: Also, this shaved 30-40 ping off my connection to this US server, usually I get around 220, I was pinging 180 with no consistency. I think this is due to it trying to send and receive hashes many multiple times a second.
EDIT5: Also do not alt tab if you do join the server, load the game and join without alt tabbing at all. It slows down load times, causes the hitches again and even increased my ping from 180 to 340. Restarted the game and didn't alt tab, none of the above.
EDIT6: Here is a video of me loading in on from the menu after just starting the game, into the server, and showing how nothing stutters and you don't (well BARELY) freeze when joining a team for the first time. I AM NOT ON AN SSD, THIS IS A HDD THAT USUALLY HAS ME LOADING FOR 5 MINUTES
EDIT7: Pasted here instead of other thread.
There reason consistency makes such a differences is every time a file is used (eg. skulk spawns so skin is loaded) it has to be hashed and checked with the server in case you've modified it. Take that out, lower pings, less hard drive raping, and probably a much more free cpu to focus on more important things.
EDIT8: Server now running consistency for only lua files (that's 773 files right now) and will load just as fast. Everybody wins, no hacks, sweet load times, less hitches (hitches still need to be fixed by samus as it helps but doesn't 100% help with consistency off).
Could be load & consistency rather then just load.
Also ssd wont care about loading files a lot as long as you dont write them a lot. The writing is the part which tears em down.
Tested with Ghosthree, its even faster without consistency. No surprise there.
I wish we could disable texture streaming...
tldr; I'm not sure the mod is actually helping.
I wish we could just precache everything once and leave it like that
Still, that won't help EVERYTHING, since the main problem is in fact the hashing.
Well, that is what the game used to do when you could disable texture streaming, it loaded everything at load time :P
Yes, try joining the server I listed to see.
EDIT: Edited the big post above, read last edit.
Then the name "Texture Streaming" is misleading.
A total of 15 seconds, including the time of launching the game reconnecting to your server.
Note: 15 seconds is the time if I still have the files in memory, a fresh load can take 30 seconds tops.(Which is still a huge improvement.)
No. All of the real hacks bypass hash checking anyway as they're dll injects. All this is doing is stopping pink skulks, which I care nothing about. It's not worth this crippling performance.
I hope they look into it because having to stare at a loading screen for over two minutes deters me from randomly hopping into a game.
total load: 10.8
dds load: 7.5
So the biggest hit is with consistancy
>edit
to clarify, load times compare with shots from my listenserver with consistancy on)
the no consistancy are from Ghosts server while the consistancy ones are from my listenserver but in general the results were the same with his..
Take for example the female marine.. WITH con check she is doing a good job of being in the top on bad load times.
WITHOUT the con check, all the weapons load SLOWER then the marine model.
Wut now?
Here's some information for you.
Now one thing that's really really annoying - especially when you're paying big ass bucks for a dedicated server. The NS2 cache won't clean itself. So at times I need to restart the server, or shut it down and delete the %appdate% \ natural selection 2 \ cache files
Is there anyway to dump the files every now and then, because from a client side - it improves load speed immensly after you wipe your cache.
I can only imagine it helps the server as well as it's the same setup.
The engine scans all those cache files and even those old outdated ones from previous builds.
I've had to teamviewer some of my guys's computers and delete their cache files for them - as their game was taking a long time to load and they were thinking it was a server issue. After I flushed the cache and wiped their workshop folder - they noticed an improvement. I don't think they were on SSD's. I have an SSD so it's a nominal change for me, but for the mass player base - Sata it is.
Also - running the busiest NS2 server around. I have to say thank you to Samusdroid and the others out there for fixing the bugs and helping to make NS2 run smoother for the community. Kudos!