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geloxo

Map loading time increased by patches

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Hi,

I made some tests for map loading time in editor. I used no addons and no startup parameters and Unsung S.E.A map as basis as it has around 4 million objects. I started from vanilla versions and loaded the map, then patched the game and loaded map again an so on. All tests were done in the same day one after the other without changing anything on the computer nor in windows:

- Arma2 vanilla (v1.06): 30s

- Arma2OA vanilla (v1.51): 29s

- Arma2 (v1.07.71750): 10-20min

- Arma2OA (v1.52.71816): 28s

- Arma2OA (v1.54): 10-20min

- Arma2 (v1.08): 10-20min

- Arma2OA (v1.57): 10-20min

My specs: Intel I7 870 2.93 GHz / 8 GB RAM / NVIDIA GTX 285 (2 GB) / Windows7 64 bits

How can someone understand then that the patches have improved the game? It may be little bit more stable but since v1.07 and v1.54 this is a critic issue in my opinion if stability is going to mean years loading a map to play a mission that was loaded in 30s with vanilla edition. This is a must to be solved instead of creating so many DLCs that only add new models, textures and bugs to the whole mess... :mad: I, for sure, won´t buy anything extra till the game is really stable and improved for nowadays hardware standards. This is not the way I´m afraid...

Cheers

Edited by geloxo

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I have around 10 modder maps and they together with BIS ones load in 20-30 seconds for me since forever with or without beta patches :d:

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10-20min?

I've not heard of anybody else getting that in which case it ain't the game but your system.

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It´s not my system (it´s a new computer by the way) and it´s not the map (I used the same map during the tests). In the tests you can see that I started from vanilla version and it loaded in 30s. I then started to apply the patches incrementally and repeated the tests after each patching, till I got the long loading times. Obviously the patches produced this behaviour. I don´t know if they have changed the handling of either objects loading, memory usage or I don´t know what..

I can´t understand why, in the same conditions, it took 30s in the begining and then several minutes when game has been patched.

By the way, all players (10 people aprox) which played a mission in the latest days on the map with me in MP, using fully patched games, have the same long loading times (several minutes). No one could load the map in seconds, as is the case on other maps we use frequently.

Cheers

Edited by geloxo

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You need to binarize the WRP.

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So you wanted help or... What? :confused:

Sure Zipper, help to have an explanation to this behaviour. I also offer the results so that BIS can investigate to hopefully correct this :) I´m afraid it´s going to be an issue for all big or dense maps in the future unless it is corrected. I´m personally worried about it as I´m working on a jungle map which uses lots of objects and I would not want it to experiment the same issue or it won´t be playable by users :(

I do not experience these times, defrag ya drive.

I did it after applying each patch

You need to binarize the WRP.

Map is binarized by Unsung team (it´s not a map I created)

Cheers

Edited by geloxo

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Well, you didn't provide your graphics card information in your system specs, so how can you really be certain it isn't your PC when you don't remember to include what is usually considered vital information in order to diagnose any possible problems? Hell, you even put bits. Plural.

That leads me to believe you don't really have the knowledge of your PC needed to rule out the fact that it may in fact be your PC, because that's the only thing different between yourself and I at the moment, and you're having this issue and I'm not. ;)

What is your graphics card, when did you last defrag, what settings do you run Arma 2 on, what's your pagefile set to, and how much HDD space do you have left?

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- Arma2OA (v1.57): 10-20min

Could you be a little less precise?

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Zipper, I added card to the specs in the first post (GTX 285). Sorry, I missed that info you are right. And 64 is higher than 1, so yes, it´s plural :p

Independently from jokes, if you read the previous comments I did defrag after each patch was applied. Anyway I will provide the following info on your request: pagefile is set to windows auto, I have 260 GB free on a 290 GB partition were only Arma2 is installed and HD total size is 1 TB. Res is 1680x1050 and rest of game settings for tests were set as default after install. I even made the test with latest patches in lowest settings possible with same result. Several people experimented the same behaviour with diferent PCs and windows versions so, even if I´m not an expert in PCs (I´m not indeed), using common sense I have doubts about this being a hardware issue, mainly if you observe the action-reaction process: 30s with vanilla, minutes with patch, all in the same computer, same day and same conditions for the tests. Just to know, which patched version do you use to load the Unsung SEA map, Zipper?

And regarding the precision Tankbuster, no I can´t be less precise :D. Think that loading time is multiplied by 20 with the patch application, this is the important fact in my opinion.

Cheers and thanks everybody for support so far :) (I forgot to say it)

Edited by geloxo

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Anyone special in your rpt?

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Some users with dual core systems have reported significant loading time increase unless they have used command line -exThreads=0. You have a quad core, but still you might want to try this to check if perhaps your problem has a similar cause.

---------- Post added at 22:10 ---------- Previous post was at 22:07 ----------

Unsung S.E.A map

... or, once other users will confirm the issue with this particular map, I will be glad to profile its loading process if I will see the issue on my computer as well.

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Thats correct for me, using dual and getting extreme loading times so reverted to exThreads=0.

Strange on a quad, but as mentioned maybe step through the exThreads start-up settings, all info to test them and trial your timings can be found here:

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=100519

The above thread is all about this feature so give it a good scan through and check what may give you a sweet spot, unless of course its that map only.

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... or, once other users will confirm the issue with this particular map, I will be glad to profile its loading process if I will see the issue on my computer as well.

If this is consistently reproduced on multiple machines, just send me a link where can I download the map and I will definitely check it.

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Thanks to geloxo for starting this thread.

Thanks to Suma and others for your interest.

Adding '-cpuCount=3 -exThreads=0' into my shortcut for OA has brought the load time for S.E.A back to what it was prior to 1.57 patch.

My pc specs

MS Windows XP Professional SP3

Intel Pentium D CPU 3.4 GHz, 3.2GB RAM, ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO 512MB

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You mean UNS_lowlands? I played some coop last week with my friends there on 1.57 and the latest beta there. No one of us experienced the loading times and we all have quads.

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@Suma,

The Unsung/CSJ Terrain was taking me approx 40mins to load up in editor.

I added the -exThreads=0' ONLY to my mod launcher(Alpine) and now i load up SEA in approx 40 secs.

I am using a 2,85 overclocked Q6600 ,4gig 1066 Ram and a GTX 275 Gfx card.

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Some users with dual core systems have reported significant loading time increase unless they have used command line -exThreads=0. You have a quad core, but still you might want to try this to check if perhaps your problem has a similar cause.

---------- Post added at 22:10 ---------- Previous post was at 22:07 ----------

... or, once other users will confirm the issue with this particular map, I will be glad to profile its loading process if I will see the issue on my computer as well.

Suma, it´s so kind of you to have been interested on this topic. I have also to say a big "thanks" to all users who participated to help. I have tested and now with -exThreads=0 it takes only 19s to me to load it with v1.57.

In this case, I honestly know I must apologize myself for the words used in the first post cause, independently from my anger in this particular case, I should not had used this "shouty" approach to you. I hope you understand it and thanks again for the support and quick response ;)

Cheers

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Someone post a download link of a world for Suma..

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To start off, thanks for the interest in helping us solve this issue.

As stated above, any patches (OA) above 1.52/1.54 greatly increases the load time.

I will need to try and add this to my start up and hopefully it works. All signs are positive at this time.

As stated, SEA has around 4 million objects… We have two additional islands coming out (Ia Drang Valley and Plei Trap Valley) that each have approximately 4.5-4.75 million objects. It is not related to the bin process… these are rather large islands.

In fact, I am reaching a point with Visitor 3 that it is dinging at me and saying it is out of memory. This occurs at around the 5.25-5.35 million object range… Visitor dies… Then to have BINPBO bin the island successfully… it usually “times out†before the bin process is over… Causing me to delete objects from the map (Vis3) and get the count down to about 4.5-4.75 million objects… then BINPBO is happy again and we have a successful bin process. There should be no concerns with our binning process, we have been up and down this road for many months now. I am a little concerned about the object count limitation in Visitor 3…

Prior to this cure, any version over 1.54 in OA increased our in game editor times to several , several minutes… Load times went from 25-28 seconds, to over 5-10 minutes… some people were experiencing load times of 40-50 minutes… rather excessive…

Prior to cute, A2 on my machine at v1.08.xxxx took 1m 48sec to load up as of today. (pre fix)

I am hoping this fixes the issues so that we can release the next bunch of content for the community. Then I can maybe ask the BIS folks if there is a limitation in Visitor 3 for object counts and for BINPBO and the binning process. I’ve had to chop down my island to accommodate this restriction.

As far as a DL link to SEA, let me catch up with CSJ (author) and see where the latest link is at…

Many many thanks to you geloxo for posting this question so it can be addressed. This has been a headache for some time now.

Cheers to ALL for chiming in here,

PGI

My specs:

2.8GHz Intel Core i7-860

Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

GB PC3 10600 DDR3 SDRAM

1GB DDR5 ATI Radeon HD 5770

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Very nice... A2 v1.08 used to take 1m 48sec to load...

applying this to my target line: -cpuCount=4 -exThreads=0

Island now loads in 30.04 seconds.

Thank you for the heads up. Time to update OA...

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