As I'm progressing into development for my project, the load times are getting slower and slower! Do you guys have any general tips on how to prevent slow load times or best methods?
Are you referring to the loading time of your map when starting or to general load times within the editor?
Ingame loading time is usually most dominantly affected by the amounts of assets loaded at map initialization; all models, sounds etc, which are present on the map from the start or get preloaded via trigger increase the loading time. To reduce this, you can reduce the amount of assets loaded at map initialization, for example by removing all units of the map and placing them via trigger ingame, after some delay. However, this just delays the inevitable, because the assets still need to be loaded, jut now it happens ingame, resulting in lags.
Also, your map should load WAY faster, if you don't close SC2 and start your map another time, because the assets will stay in the RAM and not be loaded again.
As for lags within the editor, especially when working in the data editor, there are some tips on how you can improve the performance, like disabling the object explorer, not showing objects from all sources, always entering anything in the search bar so it doesn't load the entire list etc.
Part of the problem is my terrain. It'll be slow no matter what you do, unfortunately. That said, the load times actually aren't very bad compared to a lot of much smaller maps on Bnet.
One tip that might help is to leave the game running while you work. Then, when you test again, it loads up in about 5 seconds, since all the art assets and terrain are loaded already. This helps a lot during development.
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If you're working on triggers, you may be able to develop the systems in a seperate map with no data and terrain, and then import them to your main map when done. That would allow you for very fast testing everytime you are in need of it.
I do this already for testing purposes. I want to be able to reduce the loading time somehow for when it's actually played by other players. Right now on a computer with a Radeon 7970 it loads in 45 seconds. And on my 5870 it takes over a minute to load. (I'm just guessing, I didn't actually time) I want to somehow optimize load times. Do the amount of triggers affect load time? For example, if something can be made in one trigger but instead is being made on 2, does it increase load time even though they have roughly the same amount of code? Do lots of events with "Map Init" cause longer loads to?
The amount of text in a map does increase load times, but by a very small amount. Triggers are just text loaded in. How fast do you think your computer could open a 100 page document in word pad? Say, 3 seconds? Add in the small amount of time it takes for that program to actually run.... Not long.
Things loaded on "map init" add considerably to load times though. If you have any reference to a player (picked player) player(1) ect, that will add to your load time by a good deal. Players don't load as the same time as your triggers, so a trigger might be left wonder "What players?.... What players? ... What players?...." Until the players are loaded. <<This was completely true for WC3, and while helping a friend lower their load times, i removed an action like this from their init, and it took about 7 seconds off their load.
If you have a lot of units pre-set on your map, you can load them in with triggers, to limit load time. At the .5 second mark or something, you can load in units through a trigger; so they are not spawned on the map while the map loads.
Mods, custom models, ect, can add a good bit to your load time as well. Most people dont want to part with them though.
As I'm progressing into development for my project, the load times are getting slower and slower! Do you guys have any general tips on how to prevent slow load times or best methods?
EDIT: Also, what makes the game load longer?
Are you referring to the loading time of your map when starting or to general load times within the editor?
Ingame loading time is usually most dominantly affected by the amounts of assets loaded at map initialization; all models, sounds etc, which are present on the map from the start or get preloaded via trigger increase the loading time. To reduce this, you can reduce the amount of assets loaded at map initialization, for example by removing all units of the map and placing them via trigger ingame, after some delay. However, this just delays the inevitable, because the assets still need to be loaded, jut now it happens ingame, resulting in lags.
Also, your map should load WAY faster, if you don't close SC2 and start your map another time, because the assets will stay in the RAM and not be loaded again.
As for lags within the editor, especially when working in the data editor, there are some tips on how you can improve the performance, like disabling the object explorer, not showing objects from all sources, always entering anything in the search bar so it doesn't load the entire list etc.
@Kueken531: Go
Loading times of the map when starting it.
@Enexy: Go
Part of the problem is my terrain. It'll be slow no matter what you do, unfortunately. That said, the load times actually aren't very bad compared to a lot of much smaller maps on Bnet.
@Enexy: Go
One tip that might help is to leave the game running while you work. Then, when you test again, it loads up in about 5 seconds, since all the art assets and terrain are loaded already. This helps a lot during development.
If you're working on triggers, you may be able to develop the systems in a seperate map with no data and terrain, and then import them to your main map when done. That would allow you for very fast testing everytime you are in need of it.
@zeldarules28: Go
I always leave SC2 up and rerun tests without closing. It still leaves me with lengthy load times :( No where near the 5 second range hehe.
@ScorpSCII: Go
I do this already for testing purposes. I want to be able to reduce the loading time somehow for when it's actually played by other players. Right now on a computer with a Radeon 7970 it loads in 45 seconds. And on my 5870 it takes over a minute to load. (I'm just guessing, I didn't actually time) I want to somehow optimize load times. Do the amount of triggers affect load time? For example, if something can be made in one trigger but instead is being made on 2, does it increase load time even though they have roughly the same amount of code? Do lots of events with "Map Init" cause longer loads to?
The amount of text in a map does increase load times, but by a very small amount. Triggers are just text loaded in. How fast do you think your computer could open a 100 page document in word pad? Say, 3 seconds? Add in the small amount of time it takes for that program to actually run.... Not long.
Things loaded on "map init" add considerably to load times though. If you have any reference to a player (picked player) player(1) ect, that will add to your load time by a good deal. Players don't load as the same time as your triggers, so a trigger might be left wonder "What players?.... What players? ... What players?...." Until the players are loaded. <<This was completely true for WC3, and while helping a friend lower their load times, i removed an action like this from their init, and it took about 7 seconds off their load.
If you have a lot of units pre-set on your map, you can load them in with triggers, to limit load time. At the .5 second mark or something, you can load in units through a trigger; so they are not spawned on the map while the map loads.
Mods, custom models, ect, can add a good bit to your load time as well. Most people dont want to part with them though.
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