Game loading time

[Sturm58]

Hi. I have observed a strange game behaviour.

If I load the game from main manu it takes about 25 seconds. If i do it from within the game it takes aver one minute.

Where is the difference comming from?

[Oozinator]

10 minutes ago, Sturm58 said:

Where is the difference comming from?

I tell you, when you find all!
 

[chemie]

fastest: exit game, restart, and load

next fastest: exit to main menu, then load

Slowest: load from within game

 

reason: Same reason you get 10 second delays at start of every cycle.  klei wants to punish you.

[gbudiman]

32 minutes ago, chemie said:

fastest: exit game, restart, and load

next fastest: exit to main menu, then load

Slowest: load from within game

 

reason: Same reason you get 10 second delays at start of every cycle.  klei wants to punish you.

Wait what? I thought the delay at start of new cycle is the autosave delay?

[peachkillu]

1- small cloud top right 

2- nostrils 

3- missing dot on red egg

4- stone on road 

5-flower bottom right 

I would say the dots on the top right but I feel like that’s not part of the game @Oozinator

[ToiDiaeRaRIsuOy]

Maybe we can actuallytry to answer the question of this poor soul? I personally experience this at long cycle big base saves. Is it perhaps a process in the game where it first needs to 'unload' the current simulation before loading up the new one?

[SharraShimada]

If you load a game from main menu, there is nothing in memory, and the engine has no load at all. If you load from a running game, the engine is at max, and memory has to be flushed first, before loadet with the new stuff. 

If you fill a bucket with water, and you want to fill it with a different liquid, does it take longer to empty the bucket first, and then fill it again. compared to an already empty bucket?

[Sturm58]

23 hours ago, SharraShimada said:

If you load a game from main menu, there is nothing in memory, and the engine has no load at all. If you load from a running game, the engine is at max, and memory has to be flushed first, before loadet with the new stuff. 

If you fill a bucket with water, and you want to fill it with a different liquid, does it take longer to empty the bucket first, and then fill it again. compared to an already empty bucket?

well not rly since you can overwrite memory and you cant overwrite water but i get the point.

[Heinermann]

23 hours ago, SharraShimada said:

If you load a game from main menu, there is nothing in memory, and the engine has no load at all. If you load from a running game, the engine is at max, and memory has to be flushed first, before loadet with the new stuff. 

If you fill a bucket with water, and you want to fill it with a different liquid, does it take longer to empty the bucket first, and then fill it again. compared to an already empty bucket?

I feel like that's just poor memory management. Games should really make use of overwriting/recycling objects instead of deallocating and reallocating memory, and make good use of contiguous memory structures that can be read/written easily.

[SharraShimada]

4 minutes ago, Sturm58 said:

well not rly since you can overwrite memory and you cant overwrite water but i get the point.

Sure you can. But thats quick and dirty. When it comes to overwriting, you always risk something not linked to the current game remains in memory, 

This will cause errors some time. Its not a matter of may, but a matter of when it will happen. So you make sure, nothing old remains, to prevent errors. Thats part of every suitable game engine out there.  So first comes flushing, then new filling. Depending on the amount of data, this will take some time. 

[Sasza22]

This reminds me when i played Red Alert 1. When clicking continue game after opening the Esc menu it took about 3 minutes to close. It was faster to save the game from there and then load it.

[nets]

Constructing and Deconstructing objects (memory things) in any application takes time. Memory has to be allocated, function stacks allocated, some things needs to be copied. Memory allocation is actually a pretty big logistics task in computer programming. Then deallocation is basically the reverse but usually a bit faster. The reason is that these are only tiny chunks allocated/deallocated. When you exit the application, its entire memory space is freed in one big swoop instead of in hundreds of thousands of operations. That's why. You get one more benefit if you exit the application too, you'll ensure that nothing creeps over from the previously loaded game (like dead objects or other discrepancies).