Loading time

[PangaeaACDC]

I've watched some of the update videos which include gameplay, but didn't notice examples or talk about the loading time. As we all know, this was a pretty big issue in POE, where it often felt like I spent more time watching the loading screen than playing the game (particularly in Defiance Bay, where you typically move between parts of the city and buildings/floors a lot). For those of you more familiar with all the videos, Q&A and so forth, have Obsidian said more about this? I know it was mentioned somewhere that they would have a streaming system in place, so I sincerely hope loading times will be gone or very minimal.

 

In BG it's not a big deal because it takes a fraction of a second, but when it takes 5-10+ seconds every time (and much more in the late game), it's a pretty big deal, and an immersion breaker.

 

Recently I picked up an unfinished playthrough of the first game, and I'm already frustrated at all the time I spend watching the loading screen. Hence the query.

[algroth]

I have to admit that I barely noticed it myself in the first game. However, it's already being looked at for Deadfire and apparently one of the things being done is that, to the best of my understanding, areas will be loaded as sets in the background so as to avoid loading every time one switches areas in, say, a city or so.

[Sedrefilos]

Loading was somewhat annoying in Pillars 1. Deadfire will have a better system for loading times, though they never talked again about it since that Q&A session. The videos show very fast transitions from exterior to interior, though we can't know if it is due to the new streaming system or because the machine they're testing it is very powerful.

[Varana]

Baldur's Gate's loading screens are now not a big deal, but not on a machine from the 90s. :D

 

The recent video (update #38) shows the party walking into a shop; the screen fades to black and comes back online quite fast (at the 2:14 mark if you want to check). We can't say, though, how representative that will be of actual gameplay. They mentioned somewhere that there is some pre-loading in place, so while individual maps still have to be loaded, they may try to hide it better. We'll have to see how that works out.

Edited August 7, 2017 by Varana

[Wormerine]

Yes, while now BG loads within second I specifically remember it wasn't that way when I played it on my all powerful Pentium 3 800GHz. ;-)

 

They specifically mentioned that interiors will be streamed and there should be no loading times between main area and interiors. We will see how it will work in practice.

 

I didn't find PoE loading times bad enough to bother me, but you do change areas often so minimazing them as much as possible would be a very welcome thing.

[injurai]

Load times were really only bad when doing a lot of interior transitions. Like needing to go into a city and visit someone upstairs somewhere. Or the worst is going from one upstairs to another...

[Katarack21]

I experienced up to 8 second load times in late game. It was *super* annoying.

[dukeisaac]

I experienced up to 8 second load times in late game. It was *super* annoying.

I would have been very happy with only 8 seconds... sometimes (especially on boot) it took up to 30-45 seconds.

[Sedrefilos]

Maybe it was a trick! To fool us, make us feel the game was looonger...

[PangaeaACDC]

Baldur's Gate's loading screens are now not a big deal, but not on a machine from the 90s. :D

 

The recent video (update #38) shows the party walking into a shop; the screen fades to black and comes back online quite fast (at the 2:14 mark if you want to check). We can't say, though, how representative that will be of actual gameplay. They mentioned somewhere that there is some pre-loading in place, so while individual maps still have to be loaded, they may try to hide it better. We'll have to see how that works out.

Could be that the video is edited as well. But I hope it's much, much faster than in POE1 in any case, because as mentioned it gets a bit boring to stare at the loading screen so darn often. I've recently been playing some Witcher 2 again, and the immersion is much greater when there is no loading times as opposed to every time you go in a door or change area. Hopefully it's possible to do something similar in Unity.

[Wormerine]

 

Baldur's Gate's loading screens are now not a big deal, but not on a machine from the 90s. :D

 

The recent video (update #38) shows the party walking into a shop; the screen fades to black and comes back online quite fast (at the 2:14 mark if you want to check). We can't say, though, how representative that will be of actual gameplay. They mentioned somewhere that there is some pre-loading in place, so while individual maps still have to be loaded, they may try to hide it better. We'll have to see how that works out.

Could be that the video is edited as well. But I hope it's much, much faster than in POE1 in any case, because as mentioned it gets a bit boring to stare at the loading screen so darn often. I've recently been playing some Witcher 2 again, and the immersion is much greater when there is no loading times as opposed to every time you go in a door or change area. Hopefully it's possible to do something similar in Unity.

 

I must say, no exteriors/interiors of Witcher 3 did spoil me quite a bit. There is something special about being in tavern and seeing what is happening outside. Or just casually walking into a cave and 15 minutes later emerging on the other side a mountain all without a single loading screen. For someone with no knowledge of how engine works it seems like a simple thing to do but I wonder how much technical wizardry went into making that happen.

[Varana]

Also, PoE's world works entirely different than the Witcher's or other 3D games. It's pre-rendered, static backgrounds - there's no geography, or objects in a scene, or something like that, it's "just" an image with a lot of magic to make it look real. There will always be hard transitions between areas, that's a consequence of how the game works.

[injurai]

Also, PoE's world works entirely different than the Witcher's or other 3D games. It's pre-rendered, static backgrounds - there's no geography, or objects in a scene, or something like that, it's "just" an image with a lot of magic to make it look real. There will always be hard transitions between areas, that's a consequence of how the game works.

 

Depends actually, you should be able to pre-buffer interiors and transition between them with little loading. You can stream in hidden layers of things you are near. It's certainly more work, and requires some artistic tinkering to get transitions to look nice. But a lot of it is not out of the question.

 

The only real inhibitor is non-contiguous zones.

[ThatUndeadLegacy]

I've watched some of the update videos which include gameplay, but didn't notice examples or talk about the loading time. As we all know, this was a pretty big issue in POE, where it often felt like I spent more time watching the loading screen than playing the game (particularly in Defiance Bay, where you typically move between parts of the city and buildings/floors a lot). For those of you more familiar with all the videos, Q&A and so forth, have Obsidian said more about this? I know it was mentioned somewhere that they would have a streaming system in place, so I sincerely hope loading times will be gone or very minimal.

 

In BG it's not a big deal because it takes a fraction of a second, but when it takes 5-10+ seconds every time (and much more in the late game), it's a pretty big deal, and an immersion breaker.

 

Recently I picked up an unfinished playthrough of the first game, and I'm already frustrated at all the time I spend watching the loading screen. Hence the query.

I just put it on my ssd and loaded it amazingly fast, everyone should have an ssd :D 

[Wormerine]

 

I've watched some of the update videos which include gameplay, but didn't notice examples or talk about the loading time. As we all know, this was a pretty big issue in POE, where it often felt like I spent more time watching the loading screen than playing the game (particularly in Defiance Bay, where you typically move between parts of the city and buildings/floors a lot). For those of you more familiar with all the videos, Q&A and so forth, have Obsidian said more about this? I know it was mentioned somewhere that they would have a streaming system in place, so I sincerely hope loading times will be gone or very minimal.

 

In BG it's not a big deal because it takes a fraction of a second, but when it takes 5-10+ seconds every time (and much more in the late game), it's a pretty big deal, and an immersion breaker.

 

Recently I picked up an unfinished playthrough of the first game, and I'm already frustrated at all the time I spend watching the loading screen. Hence the query.

 

I just put it on my ssd and loaded it amazingly fast, everyone should have an ssd :D

Ha! True, but not everyone has SSD.

[Sedrefilos]

 

I've watched some of the update videos which include gameplay, but didn't notice examples or talk about the loading time. As we all know, this was a pretty big issue in POE, where it often felt like I spent more time watching the loading screen than playing the game (particularly in Defiance Bay, where you typically move between parts of the city and buildings/floors a lot). For those of you more familiar with all the videos, Q&A and so forth, have Obsidian said more about this? I know it was mentioned somewhere that they would have a streaming system in place, so I sincerely hope loading times will be gone or very minimal.

 

In BG it's not a big deal because it takes a fraction of a second, but when it takes 5-10+ seconds every time (and much more in the late game), it's a pretty big deal, and an immersion breaker.

 

Recently I picked up an unfinished playthrough of the first game, and I'm already frustrated at all the time I spend watching the loading screen. Hence the query.

I just put it on my ssd and loaded it amazingly fast, everyone should have an ssd :D 

 

Everyone should have many things but, sadly, this isn't how the world is. They should find a way to make their game load faster.

Edited August 19, 2017 by Sedrefilos

[Messier-31]

Baldur's Gate's loading screens are now not a big deal, but not on a machine from the 90s. :D

 

I loved those loading screens.

[ThatUndeadLegacy]

 

 

I've watched some of the update videos which include gameplay, but didn't notice examples or talk about the loading time. As we all know, this was a pretty big issue in POE, where it often felt like I spent more time watching the loading screen than playing the game (particularly in Defiance Bay, where you typically move between parts of the city and buildings/floors a lot). For those of you more familiar with all the videos, Q&A and so forth, have Obsidian said more about this? I know it was mentioned somewhere that they would have a streaming system in place, so I sincerely hope loading times will be gone or very minimal.

 

In BG it's not a big deal because it takes a fraction of a second, but when it takes 5-10+ seconds every time (and much more in the late game), it's a pretty big deal, and an immersion breaker.

 

Recently I picked up an unfinished playthrough of the first game, and I'm already frustrated at all the time I spend watching the loading screen. Hence the query.

I just put it on my ssd and loaded it amazingly fast, everyone should have an ssd :D 

 

Everyone should have many things but, sadly, this isn't how the world is. They should find a way to make their game load faster.

 

Everyone can't do everything, they should do everything? 

[injurai]

 

 

I've watched some of the update videos which include gameplay, but didn't notice examples or talk about the loading time. As we all know, this was a pretty big issue in POE, where it often felt like I spent more time watching the loading screen than playing the game (particularly in Defiance Bay, where you typically move between parts of the city and buildings/floors a lot). For those of you more familiar with all the videos, Q&A and so forth, have Obsidian said more about this? I know it was mentioned somewhere that they would have a streaming system in place, so I sincerely hope loading times will be gone or very minimal.

 

In BG it's not a big deal because it takes a fraction of a second, but when it takes 5-10+ seconds every time (and much more in the late game), it's a pretty big deal, and an immersion breaker.

 

Recently I picked up an unfinished playthrough of the first game, and I'm already frustrated at all the time I spend watching the loading screen. Hence the query.

I just put it on my ssd and loaded it amazingly fast, everyone should have an ssd :D

Ha! True, but not everyone has SSD.

 

 

Deadfire should come with an SSD. I don't think that's asking too much.

[Wormerine]

 

Baldur's Gate's loading screens are now not a big deal, but not on a machine from the 90s. :D

 

 

I loved those loading screens.

They had their use. They reminded me to eat. One could say that loading screens saved my life from hunger and dehydration.

[Messier-31]

 

 

Baldur's Gate's loading screens are now not a big deal, but not on a machine from the 90s. :D

 

I loved those loading screens.

They had their use. They reminded me to eat. One could say that loading screens saved my life from hunger and dehydration.

 

 

I meant BG1 loading screens. PoE scripted interations drawing style resembles them nicely.

[Sedrefilos]

 

 

 

I've watched some of the update videos which include gameplay, but didn't notice examples or talk about the loading time. As we all know, this was a pretty big issue in POE, where it often felt like I spent more time watching the loading screen than playing the game (particularly in Defiance Bay, where you typically move between parts of the city and buildings/floors a lot). For those of you more familiar with all the videos, Q&A and so forth, have Obsidian said more about this? I know it was mentioned somewhere that they would have a streaming system in place, so I sincerely hope loading times will be gone or very minimal.

 

In BG it's not a big deal because it takes a fraction of a second, but when it takes 5-10+ seconds every time (and much more in the late game), it's a pretty big deal, and an immersion breaker.

 

Recently I picked up an unfinished playthrough of the first game, and I'm already frustrated at all the time I spend watching the loading screen. Hence the query.

I just put it on my ssd and loaded it amazingly fast, everyone should have an ssd :D 

 

Everyone should have many things but, sadly, this isn't how the world is. They should find a way to make their game load faster.

 

Everyone can't do everything, they should do everything? 

 

Well they did apparently since loading times was an issue they understood and took a new approach to this with the new "streaming system". We'll just have to wait and see how well it works. But "go buy an ssd if you want our game to load faster" surely couldn't be the answer from their behalf.

[PangaeaACDC]

I just put it on my ssd and loaded it amazingly fast, everyone should have an ssd :D

Ha! True, but not everyone has SSD.

 

I do have an SSD actually, but it still takes a good 10 seconds most of the time. Suppose I didn't have the game installed on a SSD the first time I played it, because the wait then was more like 40 seconds in the later stages of the game.