Horridly Slow Load Times

[89157Z]

I'm (still) having the problem of terribly slow load times. This isn't a problem at the start of the game - they're still long, but not so long I get annoyed. Towards the end of the game though, my save files have grown to like 80MB, and loading files takes ages.

 

Okay, not ages. It takes several minutes, and that's terrible.

 

I use emphatic words to describe the problem since it is indeed great relative to the load times of other games. I do want to emphasize however that this isn't ruining my enjoyment of the game. It's a relatively minor problem. It prevents me from being able to casually pick up the game, though. I have to budget several minutes of doing other things before I can start playing.

 

The problem was less severe in older patches. I don't know if this is related to the fact that in older patches my save files never got bigger than 50MB.

[Legate of Mineta]

89157Z;

 

I would say that's exactly what it is: as the game's database grows, so will your save game. Unfortunately, there is a limit to the optimization that can be done here, although we plan to have another look at it next year.

 

Of course, these speeds are dependent on your computer, as well. On our test machines, 80MB save files process within a second or three- certainly nowhere near a minute!

[89157Z]

More like five minutes - on the faster computer. This computer (3Ghz dual-core, 64-bit) handles them in more like two minutes.

[Legate of Mineta]

89157Z;

 

This doesn't sound right at all- similar specification computer, and we are seeing 1-3s.

 

Can you send me a pm of your save file? I'd like to test turn length on our system.

 

Thanks!

[89157Z]

I'll actually clock one of my saves to the second, then send it to you so you can compare the time.

[Legate of Mineta]

89157Z;

 

Thanks! I've just done so and came up with 2s- very dramatically different from the 21s you had! I'll send you a pm for more information.

[GunslingerV]

I have the same problem, takes me around 40 to 60 seconds to load a big save.

 

End of turn processing is still pretty fast though, maybe 3-4 seconds, is that what you meant?

[Legate of Mineta]

Ah!

 

Maybe the misunderstanding is mine- I thought you all were referring to end of turn time. Load times, unfortunately, are quite long (although still not minutes for our systems). This is not an area we've looked at for optimization, though, so there may be some improvements we can do here.

 

89157Z;

 

Please confirm if I made a mistake, and you were talking about the time necessary to load a game. I think you are, but...

 

Edit: Confirmed. We see 7-8s for loading a save game, much lower than 21s. We'll have to see if we can optimize here.

[89157Z]

Confirmed, time necessary to load a game. I've PM'd you another save that's even slower.

[Legate of Mineta]

89157Z;

 

Thanks! Although it's longer to load this save, it's definitely not a minute by any means. We'll see if we schedule time for optimization on this in the early part of next year.

[GunslingerV]

Legate: In terms of loading save games, I feel as if its definitely faster on first load, and slows down if I try to reload during the game.

[Legate of Mineta]

Gunslinger;

 

I think that's certain- in reloading from a current game, it also has to flush information. Still, it's a good observation, thanks!