WTH happened to the load times?

[Angel101]

After reading this post I´m a little surprised, in my case the loading time is faster than 1.2.5 :huh:

[Mustang]

It would also seem that 1.2.6 is far less RAM hungry than 1.2.5 was, this might explain why loading times may be faster for some.

[cichlidfan]

From what little I have used 1.2.6 thus far (still running 1.2.5 as well). My load times are longer, but not as long as some here have experienced.

[Mustang]

It might be an issue with the DRM of some of the other modules, I only have A-10C, CA, FC3 and Ka-50 installed into my DCS World and I have very swift loading times...

[Ramsay]

Anyone else having this problem?

 

Yes, I played a couple of Instant Action UH-1H missions last night. I allowed DCS to auto update to 1.2.6 and GUI to mission and mission to GUI times must have ~ trebled.

 

Unfortunately I didn't time it, but ended "alt tabbing" to the desktop and web browsing whilst waiting for the switch between GUI and mission.

 

I'm usually patient and wait a couple of minutes but it just seemed silly watching a blank screen when I could find something to entertain myself whilst waiting.

 

Modules: A-10C, BS2 upgrade, CA, P-51D, UH-1H

Win7 x64, i7 860@ 2.80 GHz, 4 GB, Asus GTX 670, Saitek X52 Pro, TiR5

[ScottishMartialArts]

How long did it take to load the second mission ?

The first load after an update always takes a long time, then not so much after that ...

 

That was the fourth time I had loaded the game, and had been the longest one yet. I quite literally started loading, then took my shoes and jacket off, then went and made a cup of coffee, then came back and responded to twitter on my phone, and then still had to wait another minute or so during the transition between between load completion, and when framerate had sufficiently stabilized to start the mission, finishing my cup of coffee before I actually took control of the helicopter. It is very common for new patches to **** up the load time and performance. I thought 1.2.2 (or maybe 1.2.3, can't remember) was intolerable, but then 1.2.6 came along

 

Redownloaded everything over night, and am reinstalling now. Hopefully that will help, otherwise I guess I won't be flying much of the Mi-8 for a while yet.

[ScottishMartialArts]

6 seconds to load GUI. Instant action to seat on A10c takes me 22 seconds. Updated and not a fresh vanilla install.

 

Everyones PC is different as are their installations, software etc. If ED were developing for an Xbox then we'd all have the same times but they aint so you shouldn't jump to conclusions and assume its a DCS problem.

 

So it's not reasonable to expect the auto-updater to do its job and not **** up the installation each patch, leading to a myriad of problems that require a full reinstall? Gotcha.

 

Look, I'm not trying to be a dick here, but the simple reality is that I play a lot of games, and a lot of sim, and DCS is the only one where patches routinely take more steps back than ahead. I love DCS and ED, but at the end of the day, a lot of things about the DCS experience aren't up to standard. Limited budget, constraints of the niche flight sim market, small team, etc. I understand all that, but it doesn't mean you get out of jail free on problems that really shouldn't be there to begin with.

[ScottishMartialArts]

Fresh install, no modules installed, just the Su-25T. Initial mission load was LONG, so I discarded it as an outlier. Results from second mission load:

 

GUI to Mission: 4:02

Mission to GUI: 3:22

 

An improvement from last night I guess, but about 3 times longer than load times pre-patch for GUI to Mission, and more like 7 or 8 or times longer for Mission to GUI.

[Stacker]

Since the update I too have found significantly longer loads (though not as bad as the OP). It's hard to explain why some people are getting it and some aren't, I wonder if it's anything to do with DRM etc.. Perhaps the DRM is calling home during launch and this is why it's varying so much (contact with servers etc.. taking longer for some people and not for others). Not sure, just guessing.

[Geronimo989]

The load times in 1.2.6 are over 3 minutes for me, over 3 times longer than they used to be. It is making gameplay very annoying.

[Spetz]

Never had an issue myself, 30 seconds or so max for any mission.

[ENO]

I'm with you on that Spetz... I run it on 3 different platforms and haven't had any increase in load times. Not to say it isn't happening- I'm only running A-10C / DCSW and one platform has Combined Arms as well.

[bob charles]

I haven't timed my load times but they're no more than 20-30 seconds. The only extra module I have installed is BS2. I've mainly been flying the Su-25T in the DCS WORLD FREEFLIGHT_1.2.5.miz mission that I downloaded here. Also a mission pack that I downloaded from Steam called HoggitTNTpack-2.62.

 

I haven't a clue as to the excessive load times some are experiencing. I hope you guys get it figured out.

 

Bob.

[Teeps]

My load times are also much longer than before

[ENO]

Ummmm Teeps?

 

2GB of RAM?

[Teeps]

Is actually 4 now, I should change that! It's still a somewhat underpowered machine for DCS but it was in 1.2.5 as well!

Edited September 13, 2013 by Teeps
typo

[ENO]

Yes...

 

There's no formal ED statement on it but even guys with 6GB of RAM are struggling to keep 1.2.6 afloat. As the program expands I expect that minimum requirements will too.

 

With that said, you have a 64 bit processor so the upgrade should be easy enough... I highly recommend you do it soon to get the most out of this great sim!

[El Hadji]

Loading for me is just the same as before I run a SSD (Corsair Force GT) and like zaelu only place a few games on it that I feel benefit from it.

 

I use a Corsair Force 3 SSD (and 8GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 RAM) and the loading times are horrible in 1.2.6. Not as bad as for the o.p. but about twice as long as in 1.2.5. I also have problems with clickable buttons not responding on the briefing screen etc.

Edited September 13, 2013 by El Hadji

[Madone]

Yes...

 

There's no formal ED statement on it but even guys with 6GB of RAM are struggling to keep 1.2.6 afloat. As the program expands I expect that minimum requirements will too.

 

With that said, you have a 64 bit processor so the upgrade should be easy enough... I highly recommend you do it soon to get the most out of this great sim!

 

+1, it's time to upgrade to atleast 8GB of RAM if you can, I already saw the game using 4.2GB by itself...

[Harrysound]

I use a Corsair Force 3 SSD (and 8GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 RAM) and the loading times are horrible in 1.2.6. Not as bad as for the o.p. but about twice as long as in 1.2.5. I also have problems with clickable buttons not responding on the briefing screen etc.

 

The Corsair Force 3 isn't that good as it uses asynchronous NAND , but it' still an SSD.

I run the game off a standard hard drive . I have a fusion drive in my iMac. Does take a while to load but nothing I can't wait for I guess.

 

As for the briefing window not responding, last night I realised the old ' no mouse cursor clicks work unless you ALT TAB out and ALT TAB back in' bug was back.

[pappavis]

Do yoursef a favour. Invest in a SSD-drive >=120Gb. It makes one hell HELL of a difference!!

 

Fresh install, no modules installed, just the Su-25T. Initial mission load was LONG, so I discarded it as an outlier. Results from second mission load:

 

GUI to Mission: 4:02

Mission to GUI: 3:22

 

[Darkmater]

To jump into this, I have an SSD and my load times went up dramatically, but I would say, looking at the HD light it looks like there is more pausing within the loading period. This happened not with 1.2.6, but when I added the Huey to my 1.2.6 install. Just got it with the steam sale.

 

So I think its related, but not completely sure.

[SkateZilla]

Loading times from Menu -> Mission seem OK for me.

Loading times from Desktop -> Main menu on the other hand, are significantly longer.

 

It's only like a minute though.

[tiagooldman]

Such huge changes are not acceptable. Likely some mistake or side effect of patch changes. Hopefully developers will identify it and manage a solution. With 8 GB I cannot have anything else loaded on my PC to run a mission :/ Load times are around 3 minutes here.

[shagrat]

For me, nothing is different. After the update I have no real difference between load times... note that, the first mission load takes a bit longer, but not minutes. I guess because Windows is doing stuff in the background when just started. Check for updates, disk health check, NSA scan for interesting data... whatever!

A wild guess from my side would be DRM from Steam? I think Steam uses different DRM than ED.

Should be easy to check. If somebody with a normal ED download install and modules has the same issue my guess was wrong.

 

Edit: I have all modules and DCS World, all installed from ED website download only MI-8 through new module manager.

Edited September 13, 2013 by shagrat