Loading time is killing me
by Kevin James · in Torque Game Builder · 11/22/2007 (7:48 am) · 8 replies
Hey!
Work on Glatte2 has resumed in full and we were lucky enough to get some great sound designers and musicians working for us. Its been a bear though.
Probably the only problem that has me totally perplexed at the moment is how to eliminate the 10-30 second loading time when my game starts up. Perhaps if I wait to execute the datablocks cs then make some kind of loading screen, that may help. I may also be able to load them in different groups and alleviate the issue. Let me know what you think.
Work on Glatte2 has resumed in full and we were lucky enough to get some great sound designers and musicians working for us. Its been a bear though.
Probably the only problem that has me totally perplexed at the moment is how to eliminate the 10-30 second loading time when my game starts up. Perhaps if I wait to execute the datablocks cs then make some kind of loading screen, that may help. I may also be able to load them in different groups and alleviate the issue. Let me know what you think.
About the author
Hobbyist game developer -- free and open source games FTW.
#2
I think you can unload specific datablocks in script, but I'm totally new to this sort of thing, so I could be totally wrong. If that is the case though, it'd be easy to load resources that you need and unload ones that you don't.
Game tips are a good idea for loading screens. A gui bitmap might work best.
11/22/2007 (9:06 am)
Cool, thanks for pointing that resource out, Brian. I'll give it a try.I think you can unload specific datablocks in script, but I'm totally new to this sort of thing, so I could be totally wrong. If that is the case though, it'd be easy to load resources that you need and unload ones that you don't.
Game tips are a good idea for loading screens. A gui bitmap might work best.
#3
11/23/2007 (5:46 pm)
Is that resource appropriate for TGB? I assumed TGB was already optimized for single player, but maybe this would help a little?
#4
11/24/2007 (6:22 am)
Hmmm, you could be right, there isn't any mention of what engine the resource was for. 
#5
11/24/2007 (3:38 pm)
It doesn't seem to apply to TGB.
#7
11/25/2007 (11:04 am)
Well the functions don't exist in the TGB sources, so I'm making an educated guess ;)
#8
11/25/2007 (4:22 pm)
Haha! Thanks for telling me before I found out the hard way.
Torque Owner Brian Wilson
www.garagegames.com/index.php?sec=mg&mod=resource&page=view&qid=12879
Not sure if you are experiencing issues between missions, but I've seen blurbs here and there about saving unloads until after the mission is loaded, and also figuring out a flagging system so that you aren't unloading/reloading common resources between missions, but that sounds like engine mod stuff, and not sure if you are looking to do it outside of script.
Certainly adding graphical stimulation while loading will help reduce the appearance of long load times. This is why many games have a selection of load screens along with game tips to counter the dullness of load times.