Long load times
Ghosthree3
Join Date: 2010-02-13 Member: 70557Members, Reinforced - Supporter
Join Date: 2010-02-13 Member: 70557Members, Reinforced - Supporter
Is there some set of options you can switch up to get faster load times, I have a better graphics card, cpu, and ram than 2 of my friends that I play with, and yet my load times are 2 minutes longer than theirs. It sits at Precaching 0/x for a long time before loading.
EDIT:
Specs: i7 2600k, 8GB DDR RAM, GTX 570, Windows HD is a 250GB 7200RPM Sata2 but the drive with NS2 on it is a 1TB 7200RPM Sata2.
EDIT:
Specs: i7 2600k, 8GB DDR RAM, GTX 570, Windows HD is a 250GB 7200RPM Sata2 but the drive with NS2 on it is a 1TB 7200RPM Sata2.
Comments
I run an SSD and load times are very quick
For normal use a 7200rpm HDD should load quick enough
If its slower like a 5400rpm or some laptop HDD load times can be high
I load faster with an old computer and old hhd than my friend whit his fancy computer and SSD.
It keeps pre-caching stuff that's already been prechached a gazillion times.
Wish they fixed it. It takes my friend at least 2 minutes to load a level. E-ve-ry time.
I'm often the last person to get back in after a map change and miss the whole first round.
I run an SSD and load times are very quick
For normal use a 7200rpm HDD should load quick enough
If its slower like a 5400rpm or some laptop HDD load times can be high<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Yeah... No...
I'm running Windows & NS2 off a Sata3 and am running 8gb of DDR3 RAM. That's somewhere around 600MB/s of transfer speeds. In theory, I should be able to read the entire NS2 4.7 GB NS2 directory into memory in less than 8 seconds. The only other game I have played that doesn't load maps in less than 5 seconds on this rig is BF3. It's just <i>weird!</i>
<b>EDIT:</b> Just tried turning texture-streaming on, it certainly made a huge difference!
Off: 51 seconds
On: 22 seconds
I'm guessing it loads textures while you play, reducing loading times. I have it turned on by default, and map loads are pretty swift.
Or at least that's what it seems like based on the terms and item counts being used.
So why aren't we calling the people in these threads liars too, and waging a campaign to destroy their credibility?
I guess you <i>can</i> have it both ways.
It loads textures on the fly, as you're already playing, as opposed to filling the memory reserved for textures (video+some system?) completely at the start of the game.
E.g. if you have texture streaming off, it will wait to preload 1.5gb of textures before starting the game if you have a GTX 480 for example. If it's on, I think it still loads some critical things first (or maybe it doesn't?) but it doesn't fill your texture memory completely before the game is allowed to start.
Having texture streaming on indeed has some rofl side effects such as you running around with the map/hud(including your crosshair) not loaded yet for 5-10 seconds after starting the game, but after that I have never walked into a place where textures haven't been loaded yet, or experienced any pop-in at all. It seems to work pretty well, and it's definitely a good thing to have on, considering the greatly reduced load times if your card has a lot of video memory.
I feel like they should make a readme about it somewhere, I'm guessing 50% of the "my game takes 3 minutes to load" are related to this.
(OP do you Server-Hop a lot?)
(OP do you Server-Hop a lot?)<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I find the same phenomena is in my case.
I think different maps share some of the textures, so once windows loads files, it likes to passively "smart cache" them into memory for fast subsequent reloading, thus giving the illusion that they load faster, when they don't. They're just loaded from memory, being passively cached there previously, by the windows operating system itself, not the game. So, essentially they're going from cache to cache, both in memory (lol).
That's my theory at least. Max can confirm/deny :-P .
(OP do you Server-Hop a lot?)<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
This isn't the first time I've seen people with spinning metal drives reporting much much faster loading times than people with solid state drives. I wonder if (one of) the issues is poor handling of SSDs?
EDIT: Being doing a few more experiments, turning off Microsoft Security Essentials dropped by loading time of Mineshaft from 51 seconds to 44 seconds (with streaming off). I wonder if there's something else attempting to scan or otherwise process each individual texture file as it loads?
I'm running Windows & NS2 off a Sata3 and am running 8gb of DDR3 RAM. That's somewhere around 600MB/s of transfer speeds. In theory, I should be able to read the entire NS2 4.7 GB NS2 directory into memory in less than 8 seconds. The only other game I have played that doesn't load maps in less than 5 seconds on this rig is BF3. It's just <i>weird!</i>
<b>EDIT:</b> Just tried turning texture-streaming on, it certainly made a huge difference!
Off: 51 seconds
On: 22 seconds<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I run texture streaming off and load in 15~ seconds maybe less
Sata 3 means nothing unless you are using as SSD that is also sata 3
Ram also means nothing for load times at least I dont think it has an effect
Also on my other system I am running the game on a regular HDD and it does take some time to load
So why aren't we calling the people in these threads liars too, and waging a campaign to destroy their credibility?
I guess you <i>can</i> have it both ways.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
exactly.
i have an i7, ssd hdd, 8gb ram (forgot the frequency), 560gtx, 2 minutes loading time. pretty hilarious when i have spent $1250 on this machine and this is what i get
Are you asking for esucation or just making things up?
Try loading Half Life 2 levels with 256mb and 512mb of RAM. There is about a 5 minute difference.
It's an 120 GB OCZ Agility 3 plugged into a SATA6G port on a ASUS Sabertooth P67 Rev3 board. Yes, it's running in AHCI mode. Give me a little bit more credit than that man, I'm not just shooting off at the mouth about my own system specs.
i5 2500k, amd 6950, 8gb ram, SSD Samsung 830 128 (Sata3, AHCI).
I have Texture Streaming OFF and maps still load in 10-15ish seconds.
i5 2500k, amd 6950, 8gb ram, SSD Samsung 830 128 (Sata3, AHCI).
I have Texture Streaming OFF and maps still load in 10-15ish seconds.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Guess I should have posted specs, I'll update main post with them as well.
i7 2600k, 8GB DDR RAM, GTX 570, Windows HD is a 250GB 7200RPM Sata2 but the drive with NS2 on it is a 1TB 7200RPM Sata2.
What's the common denominator here? Why are some people take 4x as long to load as others?
Is there some way to log what happens during a level load? At this stage I think we'd need to see people from both groups posting logs to see what the difference is.
... Does anybody know how to summon Max? :P
I think different maps share some of the textures, so once windows loads files, it likes to passively "smart cache" them into memory for fast subsequent reloading, thus giving the illusion that they load faster, when they don't. They're just loaded from memory, being passively cached there previously, by the windows operating system itself, not the game. So, essentially they're going from cache to cache, both in memory (lol).
That's my theory at least. Max can confirm/deny :-P .<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I believe you are right. Some people are using "game boosters", programs that "free up" memory in an attempt to speed up their system. Which may achieve exactly the opposite in some cases. These programs might force Windows to clear the cache after a map change, resulting in the game having to reload all assets from the drive. The Windows memory management is pretty smart, no reason to mess with it. At least unless <i>you </i>really know what you're doing.
What's the common denominator here? Why are some people take 4x as long to load as others?
Is there some way to log what happens during a level load? At this stage I think we'd need to see people from both groups posting logs to see what the difference is.
... Does anybody know how to summon Max? :P<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Initial load time is around 1:30-2min for me with 20-30sec between next map loading on a 7200RPM Samsung F1 Spinpoint 1Tb (i5 2500K @ 4.2Ghz with 16Gb DDR3 1600), this used to be 40sec and 10-15sec
Interesting... I've never found any difference between initial loads and next map loads. It always loads the map, then always compiles the shaders that are supposed to be "for first load", then sits on precaching 0/xxxx for a fairly long while, then slowly counts up to about 50-100, then zooms through the rest in a couple of seconds. Every time, like clockwork.
To the best of my knowledge, I'm not running anything that would interfere with Windows auto-caching...