Quick saving and loading times increased greatly after 20~ hours

[Gringos]

Hi everyone!

 

After 20~ hours in Pillars, the game began to slow down considerably in loading times.

I'm 30 hours in right now and the issue persists after computer restart.

 

I like to save often. When I saved in early hours of the game it took about a second - now it's up to 6 seconds per save.

Loading screens take about 10 seconds+ now. Going through 4 loading screens of purely waiting to advance a quest became the most annoying thing.

Does anyone have a clue how I can get the load times back down again?

 

My specs:

Windows 7

Intel Core i7-4770K CPU @ 3.50GHz

NVIDIA GeForce GTX960

16GB RAM

 

Edit: Here's my latest quicksave

Since the upload cap is 1mb here, had to host somewhere else

Edited March 28, 2015 by Gringos

[Justinian]

So the general concensus is that while the fix alleviated some of the load time issue, there's still other factors at play?

[eRe4s3r]

All the fix did for me was alleviate save time issues. Saves save a lot quicker, but still load really slowly. So yes, I would definitely agree that there are still some factors at play here. At least saves don't bloat anymore though. It's worth noting that area change times did not change at all, what changed is that auto-saves are faster now. (Which happen on every area change unless you have that mod..)

[sparklecat]

So the general concensus is that while the fix alleviated some of the load time issue, there's still other factors at play?

In my case the patch made it better but then it got bad again with time, yeah.

[Asmodean]

So the general concensus is that while the fix alleviated some of the load time issue, there's still other factors at play?

 

Yes, like I mentioned before. There are several issues. My saving always took about 5s. But my loading and transition times are over 30s. For small areas maybe 20s.

[Xelo]

I also think it must have something to do with selling items to vendors.

 

1) I have to separate playthroughs and on one I selled absolutely nothing since I saw no reason (cause i only played on hard mode)

2) On my PotD I wanted to get 5 selfmade companions as fast as possible and so I sold everything that I saw as useless to different vendors.

 

The first one is still fast in save/load times

The second takes at least double the time of the first one... also had for quite some time "frost and rime" the movement debuff for the enemies on one of my chanters but I thought that is fixed, still just telling for additional information.

[Mipsy]

I do wonder if selling everything to one merchant has any reasonable impact on the loading times in the game. I've shelved PoE for the time being due to 2-3 minute load times. (I'm at the last portion of the game where you can't turn back anymore). I'm pretty sure the general food merchant in one of the main towns holds over 500 items because I've sold absolutely everything to him because I didn't want to clutter other vendors.

[Scorpia]

Are they trying to solve this or do they say anything about it? cause its very anoying bug :S

[omegabet]

 

The patch didn't fix this for me.  When I first launch the game and it's loading the saved games, it spins now for approximately 15 - 20 seconds before showing "Continue" and "Load".  I've got 8 characters and probably about 35 hours in.  I'm on an Alienware box with dual 780's, 16gigs memory and the game is installed on an SSD with over 150gb's of space left.

 

It wasn't meant to fix the delay in showing the "load" and "continue" options in menu, it was to reduce the time required to autosave/quicksave and load games.

 

 

Wait, should I see the loading times of "Continue" and "Load" as a separate issue to other loading times?

 

It takes 102 seconds till I can click on "Load".

[Justinian]

Yes, the delay in bringing up the load and continue options on the menu are due to the number of saves. Seperate issue.

[omegabet]

Yes, the delay in bringing up the load and continue options on the menu are due to the number of saves. Seperate issue.

 

Thank you! I could reduce the delay back to zero.

 

[Gjefflin]

Yes, the delay in bringing up the load and continue options on the menu are due to the number of saves. Seperate issue.

Ah okay.  That's my actual issue.  My other "in-game" loads/saves so far are fine.  Slightly long but not game breaking.

 

I went into my savegame directory and deleted all of my saves prior to the last two days but that doesn't work.  When you launch the game, it checks that directory and if they're missing it puts them back.  I don't have that many savegames anyway so that's probably not the solution.

Edited April 8, 2015 by Gjefflin

[Depili]

If someone who is still experiencing really long saving times would link their savegame then someone might take a look inside and see what crap bloats it...

[Xelo]

If someone who is still experiencing really long saving times would link their savegame then someone might take a look inside and see what crap bloats it...

well quicksaving takes around seven seconds for me but it used to be instant, but complaining about this seems stupid, still annoying if you watch your clock and count to seven it just feels way longer

 

EDIT: savegame: http://workupload.com/file/Ex7VC52Y   sorry but when dropbox told me to download and install stuff I refused and looked for another file hoster.

Edited April 8, 2015 by Xelo

[Blackhole]

There's a method to examining why the save file is so big (which causes the slow times).

This is a long thread and I might have missed it, but during the game you can:

1.Hit the keyboard key "~". Then it asks you to press enter if you want to input on the top left of the screen.
2.Hit "Enter". Then it gives you a prompt to write text/cheats
3.Hit "AuditSaveGame" and it will open up an excel with the explained contents of the save game size

The first part is the MobileObjects.save (things left behind) and the other part (the latter one after LEVEL DATA) is the current level data.

Hope it helps

[xenustehg]

1.Hit the keyboard key "~". Then it asks you to press enter if you want to input on the top left of the screen.
2.Hit "Enter". Then it gives you a prompt to write text/cheats
3.Hit "AuditSaveGame" and it will open up an excel with the explained contents of the save game size

The first part is the MobileObjects.save (things left behind) and the other part (the latter one after LEVEL DATA) is the current level data.

Hope it helps

 

I think developers need to make shops to permanently delete bought from the player items ONLY if those items are not unique, or enchanted neck/hand/belt items, or potions or herbs.

 

Seriously all them xaurip spears man!

[LadyCrimson]

I think developers need to make shops to permanently delete bought from the player items ONLY if those items are not unique, or enchanted neck/hand/belt items, or potions or herbs.

 

Seriously all them xaurip spears man!

I'd be for something like ... when shop window is closed, all non-magic wearable/paper-doll equipable items are deleted/not available to buyback etc. anymore. I can live with having "Fine" stuff still be there. But yes...all those plain spears, armors, helmets etc.

 

Since the stash is endless, one can always just leave a few non-enchanted items in there in case you want to enchant them later.

[Akyten]

So yeah im having the same problem quick saving takes around 8 secs and loading screens takes around 15 getting slightly annoying but still trucking on.
I did start a new game after the patch aswell, is there a way to reduce it somehow or do i just have to go with it?

This is my Auditsavegame: http://pastebin.com/VyXaYCZp



 

Edited April 8, 2015 by Akyten

[omegabet]

 

I think developers need to make shops to permanently delete bought from the player items ONLY if those items are not unique, or enchanted neck/hand/belt items, or potions or herbs.

 

Seriously all them xaurip spears man!

I'd be for something like ... when shop window is closed, all non-magic wearable/paper-doll equipable items are deleted/not available to buyback etc. anymore. I can live with having "Fine" stuff still be there. But yes...all those plain spears, armors, helmets etc.

 

Since the stash is endless, one can always just leave a few non-enchanted items in there in case you want to enchant them later.

 

 

- Where are my 40 xaurip speers?

- I sold them. (silence) That's what I do like all the day.

 

I like this suggestion, it makes sence in an RPG.

 

 

From Patch 1.04 notes

 

Optimized Save/Load game system for better performance.

Edited April 9, 2015 by omegabet

[Kai]

 

Yes, the delay in bringing up the load and continue options on the menu are due to the number of saves. Seperate issue.

Ah okay.  That's my actual issue.  My other "in-game" loads/saves so far are fine.  Slightly long but not game breaking.

 

I went into my savegame directory and deleted all of my saves prior to the last two days but that doesn't work.  When you launch the game, it checks that directory and if they're missing it puts them back.  I don't have that many savegames anyway so that's probably not the solution.

 

Try deleting them from within the game, which doesn't take very long once they've loaded. I did that to decrease the delay and they haven't reappeared on my steam version.

[Gjefflin]

 

 

Yes, the delay in bringing up the load and continue options on the menu are due to the number of saves. Seperate issue.

Ah okay.  That's my actual issue.  My other "in-game" loads/saves so far are fine.  Slightly long but not game breaking.

 

I went into my savegame directory and deleted all of my saves prior to the last two days but that doesn't work.  When you launch the game, it checks that directory and if they're missing it puts them back.  I don't have that many savegames anyway so that's probably not the solution.

 

Try deleting them from within the game, which doesn't take very long once they've loaded. I did that to decrease the delay and they haven't reappeared on my steam version.

 

Brilliant idea and thanks.  That works.   I kept just 4 saves and the load screen comes up immediately now.  I'm sure however that the devs are working on fixing this issue as well at some point down the line.

Edited April 10, 2015 by Gjefflin

[cremno]

I have the same problem and I remember several people mentioning this back when the game just came out. My save games take up to a minute to load and so does new area's.

 

Save games become ridiculously slow to load over time, and due tot he forced auto saves, so do traveling and loading new maps.

 

In my case, it is MUCH worse, as my game is on my SATA, but under no circumstances should a 4 mb (roughly) take a minute or so to load.

 

By now it has come to the point where I sometimes quit because I just can't be arsed to load a save and I've started not exploring cities anymore due to the maps loading so slow, even the small ones... When I started playing Pillars Of Eternity, I'd play for 7+ hours straight, right now it is painful to play for even 1... Please, if possible, look in to this and see if it is fixable...

[Depili]

So yeah im having the same problem quick saving takes around 8 secs and loading screens takes around 15 getting slightly annoying but still trucking on.

I did start a new game after the patch aswell, is there a way to reduce it somehow or do i just have to go with it?

 

This is my Auditsavegame: http://pastebin.com/VyXaYCZp

You are hitting the other known savegame bloating thing: summoned creatures, obsidian only had time to fix summoned traps in the first patch.

Edited April 10, 2015 by Depili

[albertosf]

Same problem here....

 

I think its related with character portraits.... This never happened to me before. I have been some days out and now after coming back.... it was like 3-4 mins of loading screen.

 

When entering to the inventory there is a small "stop" before showing the character portrait, and the same when you are creating a new character and you have to pick your new portrait.

 

Can anyone test this?

[LadyCrimson]

Same problem here....

 

I think its related with character portraits.... This never happened to me before. I have been some days out and now after coming back.... it was like 3-4 mins of loading screen.

 

When entering to the inventory there is a small "stop" before showing the character portrait, and the same when you are creating a new character and you have to pick your new portrait.

 

Can anyone test this?

Come to think of it, I think when I dropped in a custom portrait, the game did start chunking out a little more for me, saving/transitioning wise. I figured it was just coincidence, tho. Can't imagine why that would be an issue but...

 

I have 4 character save folders in the game, 3 of which only have a few saves each. The main chr. folder is the one that starts to drag, if I don't keep it down to about 15 saves. I've largely been ignoring it (currently have maybe 40 saves in there) since for me, like someone else said above, it's nothing major (5-10 seconds vs. the 30+ seconds some are getting) - it's mostly just annoying when you're trying to go through a series of auto-save transitions all at once, like you do in the city/Stronghold.

[kickthezombie]

I can confirm too that  I am having slow load and save times. Both between scene shift and using quicksave or menu save. It did seem to get a little faster over the last patch but still not sure why switching maps should take so long or even quick saving. The quick saves are done to my home dir which is on a SSD so. Can't be a memory thing either as I have 16Gb memory and it is never all used up.

 

Weird.