What is the bottleneck to make loading screens faster?

[Eegorr]

I've found something that surprises me greatly.

 

When there are hardly no people around (like imperial fleet right now) the game loads really fast. I first noticed this on my ship, which I thought made sence since it's much less graphical content to load, but try logging in to the imperial fleet at peak hours and at off hours and tell me if you see a difference or not.

 

I can understand the framerate dropping when lots of people are around, but the load time for the zone? Surely not. Something seems fishy.

[IPaq]

Sorry this is pure nonsense.

 

I have a PC custom boutique, and have been building true high end rigs for 14 years now.

 

We have tried last couple of days with borh ultra highend machines with Raid 0 SSD arrays with almost 1750 MB (Mega Bytes not bits !) throughput the latest AMD and Nvdia GPU s , loads of RAM and so on, and compared them side by side with some 2, 5 and even 6 year old PC we had lying around in the storage room.

 

The difference on planet or shard switching loading screens only benefit a little from being run on the ultra high end rigs compared to the older ones. We also tried pdifferent ISP internet connections that peer on different backbone structure to rule that out.

 

Yes a highend machine is ofcourse always better than an older one, but you wont see the big improvement the hardware should warrant.

 

The problem or bottleneck lies at Biowares end, unfortunately.

 

And?

 

I have no issue with the loading, since I understand the process involved.

 

If you keep refusing to understand it and thinks that throwing thousands of bucks of hardware on it will solve anything you really should take a second and rethink your approach.

 

In the mean time. Me and my 6GB Ram, 2.9Ghz i7, old crappy 3Gbps 3ware 9650SE and brand new GTX 560 TI will continue to enjoy the fastest loading possible.

[Dantistas]

Honestly, I've never experienced so long load times in any game, and I've played a lot of new games recently.

[Whash]

Honestly, I've never experienced so long load times in any game, and I've played a lot of new games recently.

Same here. The "get a real computer" brigade seems to be missing this point. I have perfectly normal load times in every other game I play, it's just TOR that I experience this.

 

Super fast (nearly instantaneously) load bar movement right up to about 25%, and then everything just grinds to a halt and it sits there playing music and in-game sounds (I can hear people running past for example) for the next couple minutes while the bar stays put. Then suddenly *poof*, I'm in the game and everything is running perfectly smoothly... the bar never even visibly filling the rest of the way.

[tharbison]

Bump! The last post on this thread is approaching 2 years old. I didn't find any other threads with suggestions.

 

Has anyone had luck tweaking settings to reduce load times on planets?

[Darevsool]

I run the game on two different computers. With two different accounts I can have both computers run the game at the same time, side by side.

 

Computer 1 - 16gb ram 1st gen I7-950 proc with a 'regular' (platter) hard drive

 

Computer 2 - 32gb ram 4th gen i7 4770k proc with a SSD

 

(different video cards too)

 

The load times aren't all that different.

 

Even when taking some of my lowbie toons from each account into Black Talon the old computer is only 3-5 seconds behind the new one in terms of starting conversations with the npcs while grouped with each other. After they get synced in the first choice you make, there's no difference at all.

 

Generally speaking, some planets just take a long time to load. Hoth, Tatooine...they take forever regardless of your system.

 

Out of ALL the variables (number of players in your area, which area you're loading into...etc.) your computer is only a small part of the equation.

[Omisri]

Honestly think it has more to do with which character you load up.

 

I've noticed between 5 - 10 seconds difference while loading up in the same area with 2 different characters. 1 I've had since launch that has done almost everything available and 1 level 11 thats done next to nothing. The quickest loader being the level 11.

 

Bioware said a while back that the amount of variables per character are ridiculous. When you throw in legacy, quests, items, mods, armorings, enhancements, augs, mail, achievements, collections, spec, story decisions, alignment etc etc

 

Some games must handle it alot better or at least have a better structure of data to read from.

 

As the guy above me said, your pc is just a small fraction of what goes on. Hell, it could be Biowares servers slowing everything and nothing to do with the game.

 

But it seems odd how alot of us are running old machines and run the game just as good or only a fraction slower than those with mega builds

Edited October 24, 2013 by Omisri

[Icestar]

They really need to make SWTOR 64-bit version

 

That is the true bottleneck that it runs on a ancient game engine

Edited October 24, 2013 by Icestar

[ImpactHound]

Pretty much this, the game needs to be optimized in future builds. I've got a NASA computer and still loads slow for me.

 

NASA launched the Apollo program with computers weaker than the Furby's processor.

[Icestar]

NASA launched the Apollo program with computers weaker than the Furby's processor.

 

But they were basicly only in need of calculations not rendering and stuff

[Asavrede]

Odd, I'm using a sata3 SSD, and I barely have any load times - the only thing that takes a good while is Corellia.

 

Otherwise we're talking seconds for zoning in to pretty much anything.

 

My CPU isn't fantastic, an about three generations old intel core thing. I just went from 8 gb to 24 gb ram, but that made no real difference to load times. So it has to be drive related imo.

 

They really need to make SWTOR 64-bit version

 

That is the true bottleneck that it runs on a ancient game engine

 

Those are two separate issues. Going to 64-bit wont mean anything to you or I. The engine being upgraded to something that wasn't obsolete 5 years ago might, though.

Edited October 24, 2013 by Asavrede

[Drebs]

I don't suggest investing in any new hardware to speed up the load times. Over the life of this game, I've upgraded to a SSD and upped my RAM to 32GB, and have not seen any significant improvement.

 

Its unfortunate. I was browsing Twitch streams the other day, flipping between channels, and every time I came back to a SWTOR streamer they had up a loading screen. No one is going to keep interest in a game that appears to be an endless series of loading screens.

[jedip_enguin]

Best way to minimise these (in my experience) is to play in windowed mode.

[renegadeimp]

They really need to make SWTOR 64-bit version

 

That is the true bottleneck that it runs on a ancient game engine

 

Youre wrong and that post proves you dont know what you are talking about.

[renegadeimp]

No one is going to keep interest in a game that appears to be an endless series of loading screens.

 

Thats good then. SInce the game is nothing like that

[nosmos]

Load screens will be affected by your hard-drive. Get an SSD - it will pop almost instantly. I have one (an older one) and typically i'm the first to zone into an OP or something. I do plan on getting a 256 gig SSD very soon since they are cheap now, with very high read / write times. Stoked!

 

Anything else in game will be a combination of your GPU / CPU and general lag from the server or your connect.

 

Of course having lots of ram is nice.

[xChroniCx]

16 gb of ram and a 250 gb ssd, load times in this game are ridiculous compared to others. Definitely something on there side messed up.

[nosmos]

16 gb of ram and a 250 gb ssd, load times in this game are ridiculous compared to others. Definitely something on there side messed up.

 

Very true, but having some upgraded parts will of course help. With this game.

[xChroniCx]

I run the game on two different computers. With two different accounts I can have both computers run the game at the same time, side by side.

 

Computer 1 - 16gb ram 1st gen I7-950 proc with a 'regular' (platter) hard drive

 

Computer 2 - 32gb ram 4th gen i7 4770k proc with a SSD

 

(different video cards too)

 

The load times aren't all that different.

 

Even when taking some of my lowbie toons from each account into Black Talon the old computer is only 3-5 seconds behind the new one in terms of starting conversations with the npcs while grouped with each other. After they get synced in the first choice you make, there's no difference at all.

 

Generally speaking, some planets just take a long time to load. Hoth, Tatooine...they take forever regardless of your system.

 

Out of ALL the variables (number of players in your area, which area you're loading into...etc.) your computer is only a small part of the equation.

 

This. No noticeable reduced load times (in this game) when I upgraded to an ssd.

[Ishigum]

Getting an SSD will help but it depends on the SATA III controller on your board. Mine sucks so my load times are slower than most SSD owners. My bro has an SSD and his load times are faster than mine but he's using an Intel board and I'm using an AMD board. He has an Nvidia GTX 550Ti and I have a 570. My load times are between 20-45 seconds and his are 10-30 seconds. A recent benchmark revealed that my SSD + Memory Controller combo was yielding ~310mb/s on a Marvell SATA controller. Edited October 24, 2013 by Ishigum

[LordArtemis]

I think it is a combination of different factors, including the servers themselves. The only reason I include the servers is that, at different times after certain changes to the game loading has improved or gotten worse. So something on their end is not optimized I would guess.

 

I also heard that a mechanism in place to prevent folks from running private servers adds a huge amount of lag to the game...whether or not this is true is speculative. For me the draw distance, loading and unloading of assets on the fly is very taxing for any system I would imagine.

[Icestar]

Youre wrong and that post proves you dont know what you are talking about.

 

Then tell me how this game would NOT benefit from skipping the 32 bit emulation it uses now and go into pure 64-bit.

 

For one thing it will be able to use more memory and not the 3 gig max it uses now.

 

If the game can buffer up more into the RAM it will decrease loading times, try upload the game in the unleashed application it will drasticly decrease the loading times the rest is about syncing with the slow gameservers.

 

The topic is about bottlenecks and loading times and what can be done to make them faster.

 

Or do you still say I am wrong and dont know what I am talking about?

Edited October 24, 2013 by Icestar

[Brickabrack]

Bump! The last post on this thread is approaching 2 years old. I didn't find any other threads with suggestions.

 

Has anyone had luck tweaking settings to reduce load times on planets?

 

Nice rez thread.

 

I think it's a combination of half a dozen factors, from your isp, to your GPU/CPU combination, the brand and make and model, your Hard drive, ram choices to your operating system, all the way to the game engine itself and BioWare's server responsiveness as it relates to your geographical location.

 

I have 2 friends I play with on a regular basis. 1 friend is in Austin Texas, and the other friend is in San Diego like me, but using a different ISP. Of the 3 of us, I load in the fastest because I am the only one that is using an SSD.

 

1 Friend is using a new computer with much better hardware (aside from the SSD.. he's using a normal hard drive.) Despite the fact that my computer is about 3 years old, I can still play the game with all the settings maxed. My friend in Texas has a 6 year old computer and plays with all the settings turned down.

 

I load into planets and warzones 10 to 30 seconds faster than either of them. For instance, coming from a warzone in group with my friends, I can load into a world, start a fight with a group of NPC's and kill them all and loot the bodies by the time my friends load in.

 

So I would say in my personal experience, an SSD will help the most when it comes to loading times. That said, the game really does take an abnormally long time to load when compared to other MMO's. Not sure it's that great a priority to BioWare though.

[tharbison]

 

So I would say in my personal experience, an SSD will help the most when it comes to loading times.

 

 

Thanks for your reply. That does seem to be the consensus, even then as you've said the benefit is somewhat minimal. So if I add a SSD, would I just move SWTOR to that drive & run it from there? Are there any other considerations if I do this?

[Brickabrack]

Thanks for your reply. That does seem to be the consensus, even then as you've said the benefit is somewhat minimal. So if I add a SSD, would I just move SWTOR to that drive & run it from there? Are there any other considerations if I do this?

 

If you're going to get an SSD, you are going to want to put your OS on it. Also, just to be sure, I would do a fresh install of TOR on the new SSD (rather than moving it from one drive to the new drive). But that's just me, you probably don't have to do that; I just do stuff like that so I can pre-emptively address any issue that might arise from moving files of a program to other directories.