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FPSC Classic Product Chat / !!!LONG!!! Loading Time

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Walking Dead Productions
18
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Joined: 6th Apr 2006
Location: USA
Posted: 22nd Apr 2006 01:32
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Hello, I have just built my first game. It is just 1 level. On the build settings, I chose Soft Lightmaps and Medium Textures. But when I try to play the newly-built game, it takes like 10 minutes or more just to load, when I select New Game from the menu.

I play Battlefield 2 with all the video settings on High, and it takes less than a minute to load maps. It shouldn't take this long to load the game I built, since BF2 has better graphics than mine.

My specs:
3.4 GHz Intel Pentium 4 processor
2 GB of DDR2 RAM
GeForce 6800GT 256MB video card

Why is it loading soooooooo slow?
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Les Horribres
19
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Joined: 20th Nov 2005
Location: My Name is... Merry
Posted: 22nd Apr 2006 03:50 Edited at: 22nd Apr 2006 03:50
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Pentium = bad, AMD = good...

BF has a better ENGINE, graphics are nothing.

Besides, you obviously aren't a gamer, if you were you would have experianced the out-of-date syndrome and be use to long loading times.

As for your game... I estimate around 2-4 min max.


Try cutting down on level complexity and level size.

We all have our inner noob. Join the NJL, and have more fun!
I believe society is flawed; our notions on life, on child rearing, stem too far back to be of relevance in this day and time.
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Walking Dead Productions
18
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Joined: 6th Apr 2006
Location: USA
Posted: 22nd Apr 2006 06:05 Edited at: 22nd Apr 2006 06:08
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So it's the FPSC engine which causes the long loading times?

When I upgraded from 1 gig of RAM to 2 gigs a while back, I experienced a major speed-up in loading-time for Battlefield 2. I guess the amount of RAM you have must not affect FPSC games' loading times.

Quote: "Pentium = bad, AMD = good..."


I seriously doubt that's the problem...
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Benjamin A
19
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Joined: 31st Oct 2005
Location: The Netherlands
Posted: 22nd Apr 2006 14:54
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Your level must be very complex to get such loading times. Can you give some more details what is all in the level? It's hard to give advice when we have no clue what you have created.

I've just created a test build of my game. Even the largest level takes 5 minutes at the most to load on the lowest spec machine (P3-1Ghz,384MbRam,Abit T400 64Mb), much faster on others.

The FPSC engine doesn't only cause long loading times in itself, it's also the user and the way he/she has set up the game in FPSC. If you set up your map in a very complex way and create huge 40x40x20 tiles buildings for example, it's going to take a long time to load the level.

If you use large open spaces, with a good number of static entities in those large open spaces, your going to experience long loading times.

One of the disadvantages of FPSC is that somehow it doesn't take the full advatage of prebuild levels, while other game systems, use pre-build levels to the max, which load much faster.

Bored of indoor? Add outdoor to your FPSC games!
http://www.aeilkema.dds.nl/mega/index.html
Need music for your games? Check the above link also!
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Black Terror
18
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Joined: 22nd Mar 2006
Location: Pulse Game Development
Posted: 22nd Apr 2006 15:54
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If you use large lights then it will take very long to load.

Black Terror
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//// - FPSCS Support - \\\\
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BIG computer geek
19
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Joined: 22nd Jul 2005
Location: Manchester, UK
Posted: 22nd Apr 2006 21:22
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!!!BIG!!! Level Size
!!!LONG!!! Loading Time

The 'Ghastly Panic' Is in production as 'Version 2'

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Les Horribres
19
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Joined: 20th Nov 2005
Location: My Name is... Merry
Posted: 22nd Apr 2006 23:19
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Ben A, I think you are a bit confused. FPSC doesn't have long loading times becuase of 'prebuilt levels'... which really wouldn't make much sense in the first place. The level models are complete, and entitys are already positioned via array.

FPSC has long loading times because of what it loads, how much it loads, and how effiecently it loads it.

The thing is, FPSC loads EVERYTHING. Games like BF2 load only the most common textures and models, including the level model. As you progress it will pull up the textures you need before you go there. FPSC, on the other hand, will load EVERYTHING that is used. And because of THAT you get

a) Lag, the memory usage means there is less space for calculations
b) Long Loading times
c) Anti-Lag: Basically means that although lee COULD have made an algorithm to handle the loading, loading everything at once means that there can be no lag from loading.

We all have our inner noob. Join the NJL, and have more fun!
I believe society is flawed; our notions on life, on child rearing, stem too far back to be of relevance in this day and time.
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Benjamin A
19
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Joined: 31st Oct 2005
Location: The Netherlands
Posted: 22nd Apr 2006 23:52
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Quote: "Ben A, I think you are a bit confused. FPSC doesn't have long loading times becuase of 'prebuilt levels'... "


My goodness.... that's not what I said at all

Quote: "One of the disadvantages of FPSC is that somehow it doesn't take the full advatage of prebuild levels, while other game systems, use pre-build levels to the max, which load much faster."


That's what I said and there's a major difference between what you make of it and what I stated..... but nothing new when it comes to this.

Anyway, no one is really helped by getting into all kinds technical discussions and what Lee did or didn't do, in the end it's not going to help any of us.

I'm really not interested in what Lee did or didn't do, FPSC is as is and I'm stuck with it as is, so I need to learn to live with it as is and make the best of it as is.

As far as I'm concerned, if I get a full 14 level game working on a P3-1Ghz with only 384Mb Ram and an old Abit GeForce2 T400 64Mb, with even reasonable and playable framerates, then as far as I'm concerned Lee and his complete team did an awesome job!

Bored of indoor? Add outdoor to your FPSC games!
http://www.aeilkema.dds.nl/mega/index.html
Need music for your games? Check the above link also!
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