Loading screens

[YaminoKain]

I love the game, the lore and the setting.
But this game could really benefit from reducing loading screen time. The amounts of them in succession is at times overwhelming?
In regards of this topic, it sure is like Starfield (which I'm not fond of BTW), but at least to the latter's credit, they were short.
Anyway, I truly wish the devs will look at that. Or is that something particular to the Unity engine?

[tempest.of.emptiness]

I doubt they will be able to do much to reduce the load times. Perhaps there is some room to optimize textures. Similarly, I doubt that there's much they can do to reduce the number of them. Maybe some areas could be combined, removing the need to transition between them, but that's tricky (if even possible) because then you get a longer load time for that area.

The next computer I build, I will definitely be looking into faster transfer rate storage solutions.

Anyway, you might be able to improve your load times by reducing texture quality (at the cost of texture quality)... or it might not have any effect, depending on how the game works under the hood.

[Catsim]

They could at least let you trade with the faction traders remotely without having to schlep all the way back to Furibundus, loading the star system, loading the section of Footfall (and if you went to the Liege's palace you've got to load and walk back through the Atrium).

[Gameer4life]

If you hate loading screens now, wait until you get to quetza temer, its probably going to make you quit the game like I'm about to do....

[Gracey Face]

Originally posted by Catsim:

They could at least let you trade with the faction traders remotely without having to schlep all the way back to Furibundus, loading the star system, loading the section of Footfall (and if you went to the Liege's palace you've got to load and walk back through the Atrium).

They do. Talk to the factotum on your ship.

[YaminoKain]

Well, I wouldn't say I'm at the point to hate them, but I sure don't like them. I was merely suggesting it'd be great if those could be reduced.
Like, I'm thinking it'd be nice if the option to go back to the bridge in cities would always be available. And yes, it'd be to nice to access traders whenever one likes in cities and in the Koronus Expanse.

@tempest I thought about combining areas as a solution. I'm thinking the blame lies on Unity. Take BG3 for instance which runs on its own engine, long load times between maps, but those maps are HUGE compared to this game and it's unlikely you'll have to repeatedly change maps/screens in succession.
I built my own PC too. Got 32 Gbs ram, a 1TB NVME SSD. My CPU and GPU are getting old though (Ryzen 3600X / RX 5700XT). Looking forward to next gen to swap.

[rakshasa72]

hey dude we heard you like loading screens so we put a loading screen in you loading screen so you can loading screen while you loading screen

[rakshasa72]

Originally posted by YaminoKain:

Well, I wouldn't say I'm at the point to hate them, but I sure don't like them. I was merely suggesting it'd be great if those could be reduced.
Like, I'm thinking it'd be nice if the option to go back to the bridge in cities would always be available. And yes, it'd be to nice to access traders whenever one likes in cities and in the Koronus Expanse.

@tempest I thought about combining areas as a solution. I'm thinking the blame lies on Unity. Take BG3 for instance which runs on its own engine, long load times between maps, but those maps are HUGE compared to this game and it's unlikely you'll have to repeatedly change maps/screens in succession.
I built my own PC too. Got 32 Gbs ram, a 1TB NVME SSD. My CPU and GPU are getting old though (Ryzen 3600X / RX 5700XT). Looking forward to next gen to swap.

It's probably not true but, I secretly suspect that the game was programed on a Commodore 64 witch is why the maps are so small

[tempest.of.emptiness]

Originally posted by rakshasa72:

hey dude we heard you like loading screens so we put a loading screen in you loading screen so you can loading screen while you loading screen

That's funny, but also not, because there are several points in the game where you load into an area, take two steps, and then trigger a surprise loading screen to something else that requires your attention.

[BrotherG]

Yeah and just too many of them, especially in act 2. I spent a lot of time on the game and enjoyed its dialogue and combats, but visiting dozens of systems, and having to endure loading screens after loading screens for each of them (in and out) or for each space combat, each planet/ship you visit...it's just not worth it. I am not probably not playing that game again, at least for a long while.

[somethingoffensive]

I am going to give the game a thumbs down review for many reasons but the load times being the main one. I have a 4090, latest gen I5 processor, 32 gb of ram, the game installed on a fast SSD. There is no reason for Playstation 1 era load times and the game hangs all the time in cut-scenes a such, making me think it has frozen when it's loading. How is this game so poorly optimized and why did they think it was acceptable? I think 20-30% of my playtime is load screens, so disrespectful of player's time.

[somethingoffensive]

Originally posted by tempest.of.emptiness:

I doubt they will be able to do much to reduce the load times. Perhaps there is some room to optimize textures. Similarly, I doubt that there's much they can do to reduce the number of them. Maybe some areas could be combined, removing the need to transition between them, but that's tricky (if even possible) because then you get a longer load time for that area.

The next computer I build, I will definitely be looking into faster transfer rate storage solutions.

Anyway, you might be able to improve your load times by reducing texture quality (at the cost of texture quality)... or it might not have any effect, depending on how the game works under the hood.

It's not you, it's them, see my above post. My PC is about as powerful as you can get right now and there's still 30-60 second load screens all the time with plenty of hidden loading going on during gameplay when the game randomly freezes. It can and should be optimized by Owlcat because there is nothing going on with the graphics to demand this loading. This game was released far too early and the load times are just the biggest issue.

[tempest.of.emptiness]

Originally posted by somethingoffensive:

It's not you, it's them

I didn't mean to take responsibility; rather, I meant that with loading time in general trending upwards across games in general, I see the benefit of investing in storage solutions with the best-available data transfer rates.

[chaoticevilrussian]

Loading screen galore during the court in the beginning of act 3 really was a miserable experience.

[Aphex]

It's an engine issue. Diablo 3 could load every new map instantly with similar graphics.
They should have enough money now to license a propper engine.

[Quarex]

I have to say if you do not have the game on a solid state drive you really owe it to yourself to move it to one; for whatever reason I initially installed this on my spinning disc hard drive and yeah load times went from minutes to ~10 seconds with the switch