Game Load Time

[rwolf]

What factors influence game level load times?

For example I have noticed that UT2003 and WarCraft take quite a while for the next level to load.

Is this something that takes half the time with a faster CPU or is it related to GPU or AGP speed? Or maybe system memory is a factor (I have 256MB).

Has anyone tried benchmarking game load times?

I can't believe how long Warcraft Frozen Throne takes to load each level on my Geforce3.

 

[bloodbob]

Hard disk/CD/DVD drive is number one depending then probably cpu. AGP will only become a bottle neck if all the textures are totally loaded into ram before trying to uploaded.

 

[tobbe]

My reply would be more interesting if this was posted in the right forum =]

 

[Quitch]

The hard drive(s).

 

[jjayb]

Having texture compression turned on will drastically increase load times for many games I've played. If the games have an option for texture compression try turning it off.

 

[AndrewM]

Having texture compression turned on will drastically increase load times for many games I've played. If the games have an option for texture compression try turning it off.

That would most likely depend on whether or not the game is using precompressed textures or not. Texture compression is good - Leave it on (if the game supports it).

 

[vrecan]

In newer games shader usage can easily cause longer load times but since we are talking about two games with no shaders or almost no shader usage its mostlikely your hd speeds slowing you down. What are you using?

 

[KimB]

In newer games shader usage can easily cause longer load times but since we are talking about two games with no shaders or almost no shader usage its mostlikely your hd speeds slowing you down. What are you using?

I really don't think so. Shaders are a few kilobytes in size, and are vastly smaller than textures.

The major factors in game/level load times should be, in order of importance:

1. Hard drive speed.
2. Amount of RAM.
3. CPU speed/memory bandwidth.

Of course, I'm not considering software-side aspects that may increase load times here.

 

[DeanoC]

Processing time and seek time usually.

If you have lots of small files, that need a lot processing before use (compression, XML decoding, object creation, etc) spread all over the disk load time will be slow.

If you have one big file, with the data in a format close to in-use then it will load fast.

Actually physical loading (excluding seeking on CD/DVD) is a tiny part of actual load times, because even off CD you can hit a few megabytes per second once it gets going, which would load even the largest of levels in a minute.

 

[Doomtrooper]

System Ram is also a issue, going from 512 to 1GHZ of ram on Xp shows huge load time changes. Kind of rediculous to require that much ram, but some games like UT 2003 create huge swap files.

 

[rwolf]

In newer games shader usage can easily cause longer load times but since we are talking about two games with no shaders or almost no shader usage its mostlikely your hd speeds slowing you down. What are you using?

7200 RPM

 

[Pete]

OK, but what HD exactly? My old Quantum Fireball LM Plus 30GB 7200pm is no match for my WD 800JB 80GB 7200rpm in terms of speed.

OTOH, my WD is no match for my Quantum in terms of noise.

 

[Doomtrooper]

Cache is the determining factor today for IDE hardrives. Modern 8 Meg Cache hardrives with a ATA 133 interface (I personally pefer Maxtor Diamondmax as they are only company so far supporting ATA 133).

I have a older Maxtor 2 Meg cache 7200 RPM drive that gets its ass handed to it by the newer 8 Meg cache drive.

Same RPM, Same Seek Time.

 

[rwolf]

System Ram is also a issue, going from 512 to 1GHZ of ram on Xp shows huge load time changes. Kind of rediculous to require that much ram, but some games like UT 2003 create huge swap files.

Wow, thats interesting. I bet memory performance and latency would have a larger impact on load times then when the game is actually running.

 

[Doomtrooper]

I used to own a computer company, still play with friends PC's alot...when they screw them up of course
I went from 512 to 1 ghz of Ram on XP a while back, loading games like Dungeon Siege when playing online I used to join a game same time as everyone online, now I join and sitting there waiting for them.

UT 2003 loaded faster, but I removed that game.

You would be surprised.

 

[Humus]

Having texture compression turned on will drastically increase load times for many games I've played. If the games have an option for texture compression try turning it off.

That would most likely depend on whether or not the game is using precompressed textures or not. Texture compression is good - Leave it on (if the game supports it).

Yup. Precompressed textures loads much faster than uncompressed textures since they are smaller.

 

[bloodbob]

System Ram is also a issue, going from 512 to 1GHZ of ram on Xp shows huge load time changes. Kind of rediculous to require that much ram, but some games like UT 2003 create huge swap files.

Are you using RDRAM doom trooper?????

 

[Doomtrooper]

PC 3200 OCZ, Nforce 2 Barton 2800 at 3200.

 

[Tim Murray]

Cache is the determining factor today for IDE hardrives. Modern 8 Meg Cache hardrives with a ATA 133 interface (I personally pefer Maxtor Diamondmax as they are only company so far supporting ATA 133).

uh, I'd rather have a drive that uses ATA100 and actually gets somewhere in the ballpark of maxing out the bus.

 

[Doomtrooper]

Need to buy SCSII for that