How to improve loading time??

[sniperpr1]

I want to improve the loading time for DCS. I have it installed in a SSD, but even so, it takes a lot of time for it to load. Can anyone tell me some ideas on how to improve loading time in the simulator?

 

THX

[draconus]

Give me some numbers. What map, mission, aircraft, settings and how much time from mission loading start to fly button? What is your hardware?

Next step is NVME/M2 drive but contrary to the specs it will give you a few percent only of loading time. The better the CPU the faster it will process the loading time (again, only a few percent). Huge factor can be RAM if you're low on memory. Then there are settings. The lower they are the faster the loading time. The simpler module and mission the faster.

 

Btw: the first start of new map/module can be longer due to shader creation. Same if you delete shaders after update.

Edited August 20, 2020 by draconus

[Taz1004]

You can improve loading times somewhat by unzipping the large zip files in vfstextures folder. Provided that you have extra space on your SSD and make sure you have no mods editing those vfstextures.

Make sure to delete the zip file after unzipping into a folder.

 

Alternatively, if you have to keep them as zip for some reason, you can unzip and zip again with no compression. Using utility such as 7zip or winrar.

Edited August 20, 2020 by Taz1004

[sniperpr1]

Thanks. Tomorrow I'll check the specs and let you know.

[Gorn_GER]

No solution here?

[Mr_sukebe]

On 8/20/2020 at 9:17 PM, Taz1004 said:

You can improve loading times somewhat by unzipping the large zip files in vfstextures folder. Provided that you have extra space on your SSD and make sure you have no mods editing those vfstextures.

Make sure to delete the zip file after unzipping into a folder.

 

Alternatively, if you have to keep them as zip for some reason, you can unzip and zip again with no compression. Using utility such as 7zip or winrar.

 

I didn’t know that.

is this still valid?

[Johnny Dioxin]

How long are your load times?

I've noticed an increase - takes almost twice as long to start as it did before the single version change, though whether that is the cause is unknown. It seemed to take a while in 2.8 so I timed it and it came to around 2 minutes - which is actually about the same as other flight sims, so it was just me being impatient.

I noticed recently that it was taking a lot longer, so I timed it a couple of days ago and it was 4 minutes. Only difference apart from the official updates is the addition of the F-4E, OH-58D and Kola map. Maybe they are the cause, somewhere.

[freehand]

10 minutes ago, Johnny Dioxin said:

How long are your load times?

I've noticed an increase - takes almost twice as long to start as it did before the single version change, though whether that is the cause is unknown. It seemed to take a while in 2.8 so I timed it and it came to around 2 minutes - which is actually about the same as other flight sims, so it was just me being impatient.

I noticed recently that it was taking a lot longer, so I timed it a couple of days ago and it was 4 minutes. Only difference apart from the official updates is the addition of the F-4E, OH-58D and Kola map. Maybe they are the cause, somewhere.

Just tried 45 seconds , many variables involved depending on hardware e.t.c.

[Johnny Dioxin]

Nice! Do you have all the modules? I don't have everything, but not missing much - my install is 626GB (no mods)

[Mr_sukebe]

Note that this thread started 4 years ago.

There was an idea suggested in 2020 to unpack some of the texture files.

The implications being that you wouldn't be asking your CPU to unpack a zip file or have your RAM temporarily store it, which is a good thing.

However, RAM is MUCH faster than loading from even an SSD, meaning that it "might" be faster to load a zipped file, unpack it to RAM and then access the individual textures required, than to conduct a search for the file from storage (which can be slow, at least in relative terms) and then load it.

Any current views either way?  I've got close on 1 TB of space available on my NVME2 drive, so plenty of room to fill up.

[freehand]

1 hour ago, Johnny Dioxin said:

Nice! Do you have all the modules? I don't have everything, but not missing much - my install is 626GB (no mods)

630gb most but not all.

[Johnny Dioxin]

Just had another go while 'adminning' - I'm talking of 2D/Monitor start.

Just now was 2' 43" which is back well within the acceptable range. Second start immediately after closing was 37 seconds.

That's fine - reason for the previous 4 minutes+ is unknown, but these things happen.

 

*This may be  a delayed effect of removing aircraft mods

Edited June 26, 2024 by Johnny Dioxin