Testing: Comparison of Load times v0.973 vs v1.5

[WeeGeez]

Hey follks
I would like to highlight differences in load times between the latest and earlier PR releases, and hope to encourage possible constructive / logical reasons about it.

The demos below are under equal conditions
- in both instances, map wasn't pre loaded in RAM, which can affect load times somewhat .
- The entire system (OS, runtimes and hardware remain unchanged)
- no background processes
- same map (while its qwai river, the same is true for all maps, atleast those that are in both releases)




The results prove that load times have doubled:
On this system this is not so bad and theres usually ample time before round start (usually around 3min) however, this is not respective (or fair I feel) for/of people with lesser systems, where the times in 1.5 will probably be longer.

seperately I have tested on both Win7 and XP and results do not change between these os.

My crazy wild guess is that it may be related to newer CPU instruction sets.

thoughts?

[Suchar]

It's simple: more and more content is being added and the game is hardcoded to load vast majority of the content, doesn't matter if the content is used on a map or not. There are quite a few ways to confirm that, with the easiest one being debugger. Here is an example - logs taken from Saaremaa Contact! tournament edition (features US and GB): Debug Log BF Log

I'm just going to copy random errors from the logs:

Code: Select all

Debug assertion failed!

Version: 1.1.2878-710.0 Build date:
Active geom template: argrif_fmfal
Module: Console
File: D:\DiceCanada\BoosterPack2\Code\BF2\IO\Console\Console.cpp
Line: 1407

Expression: 0
Text: Unknown object or method!: ObjectTemplate.reverbLevel 1  (Objects/weapons/handheld/argrif_fmfal/argrif_fmfal.tweak)

Current confile :O bjects/weapons/handheld/argrif_fmfal/argrif_fmfal.tweak



Debug assertion failed!

Version: 1.1.2878-710.0 Build date:
Active geom template: ch_jet_j10
Module: Console
File: D:\DiceCanada\BoosterPack2\Code\BF2\IO\Console\Console.cpp
Line: 1407

Expression: 0
Text: Unknown object or method!: ObjectTemplate.setMinRotation 0/-9/0  (Objects/vehicles/air/ch_jet_j10/ch_jet_j10.tweak)

Current confile :O bjects/vehicles/air/ch_jet_j10/ch_jet_j10.tweak



Debug assertion failed!

Version: 1.1.2878-710.0 Build date:
Active object template: pl_acv_star1466
ObjectTemplate Exported by user: Amok@ndy
ObjectTemplate Last modified by user: Amok@ndy
Active geom template: pl_acv_star1466
Module: Console
File: D:\DiceCanada\BoosterPack2\Code\BF2\IO\Console\Console.cpp
Line: 1407

Expression: 0
Text: Unknown object or method!: objectTemplate.usedByAi 0  (Objects/common/command_post/pl_acv_star1466/pl_acv_star1466.tweak)

Current confile :O bjects/common/command_post/pl_acv_star1466/pl_acv_star1466.tweak

So, according to BF Log, it looks like the game actually loads all assets (common, weapons and vehicles directory - 3 the biggest directories in the game)

Debug alsoo shows something interesting:

Code: Select all

D:\DiceCanada\BoosterPack2\Code\BF2\Geom\GeometryTemplateManager.cpp(282): Debug: Geom: purge()
[...]
D:\DiceCanada\BoosterPack2\Code\BF2\Geom\GeometryTemplateManager.cpp(302): Debug: Geom: releasing unused geometry template: pl_aav_shilka

So it looks like the game might be loading .cons and geometries and then it unloads geometries which won't be used?

More:

Suchar14/01/2020
The editor once saved wrong path to one object on a map (not sure how is that even possible btw. but it pointed somewhere to level custom statics (levels/<level>/objects/etc) instead of <mod>/objects/etc). The only way to make the editor load the object was to load whole /staticobjects/ directory - only then it would become visible.
Then I built the level and tested it in-game. The object was there, so the game must be loading whole /staticobjects/ directory.
#Confirmed

So the answer for the qestion 'Why are loading times longer than before?' is just one word. Starts with D and ends with E. Made of 4 letters, is a name of a certain game developing company from Sweden. Perhaps you know them?

#ProveMeWrong

inb4 I'm wrong

[Wicca]

Is it possible to create a custom staticobjects.zip for every map you play?

[Suchar]

Yes, but you would have to create custom vehicles/weapons/common zips to actually reduce loading times (by around 50% I guess). However, it would also result in a massive increase of required disc space (my guess is around 50-60 GB in total). Furthermore, preparing events like the tournament would become even more complicated and time consuming.
TL;DR It's not worth it.

[Fastjack]

Is it possible to create a custom staticobjects.zip for every map you play?

True and there would be also a way to make it that stuff from factions dont get loaded if it's not needed on the map.

For excample : PR Vietnam BETA
The Vietnam stuff got not loaded because the vietnam content was mounted as a map.

It's all about the file structures and how you mount archives and also creating them.

Remove weapons, vehicles, kits etc. from the main core.
Create for each faction and their equipment a folder that is located in levels.

GB_content
US_content
RU_content
IDF_content
MEC_content
[inset-here-the-rest-to-the-list]

Now you change in Beirut's Client and Server_archives.con's that the IDF_content and RU_content get mounted to Beirut.

If you play now Beirut, all the stuff from all other non-present factions on it dont get loaded.

The only filesize increase i see is the stuff that needs to be cloned that is shared with other faction.

I dont know if that would cause problems due to PR heavy modified nature but from the technical aspect of the Refractor engine it works like a charm and DICE did a good job to give us this possibilities for modding.

Edit: The textures catalogue …. i think that Needs also to be changed. That could also bring a Performance boost.

[WeeGeez]

Ah rigt, so its the client core zips used for all maps. I picked qwai cus there was little aesthetical change in-map but evidently that isn't relevant / the cause.

Thanks for the explanation!

OT: You can see in videos the font resolution update worked wonders the old fonts really were blurrrry

[WeeGeez]

BTw I think the main way of increasin load times is in fact ram speed, I recall whilst using other folks PCs (both were 2.4ghz DDr4, 16gb ram) the PR loads times were instantaneous, however the CPU was more or less the same as what I have in the above video ( two more cores).

thus I believe Ram is the main factor for load times, provided CPU isn't bottleneck.

[Wicca]

Yes, but you would have to create custom vehicles/weapons/common zips to actually reduce loading times (by around 50% I guess). However, it would also result in a massive increase of required disc space (my guess is around 50-60 GB in total). Furthermore, preparing events like the tournament would become even more complicated and time consuming.
TL;DR It's not worth it.

Why is there no like button

[Mineral]

Our best option would be to find a system to split faction files. And only load the two faction 'zips' for each map.

However, we share so many assets (models, textures, sounds, ...) amongst factions that a 'common faction zip' would still be large.

But yeah, it would be a huge task for somebody to create such a system on our current fileset.

So in general, prepare yourself for 1.6 to be much much slower to load. Two new factions, tons of new assets for other factions and most of all a enormous increase in statics for our maps.

[qs-racer]

Computers also evolve. Few people play with the same computer now since the 0.9. It is not a big deal, even a 5 years old laptop can play the game smootly and load the map before the timer 2:00.

[Wicca]

All servers don't allow squads to be created before 2:00, loading times isn't an issue in pr to be honest, it's not like other games where spawning early can give u benefits, hog has 4 minutes delay to load the map, prta has 5 minutes etc..

The perfect amount of time to make some tea, boil some noodles or take a quick piss/smoke a fag.

Honestly, all games should follow this mechanic. Hell, I usually spend 5 minutes talking about the last games with the guys before the next round starts.

[WeeGeez]

Actually quite a valid point.