Slow load times with F2?

L

Lys

First time out of the vault
I've finished F1, so I decided to play through F2 again. However, I'm noticing that loading save games is much slower than in F1.

F1 finished loading even the ending areas within 30seconds, but loading Klamath in F2 takes 1min+

Have I set something wrong, or is the slow loading to be expected with F2? I remember F2 loading faster when I played it last.

I've tried various install sizes, tried running it with and without the 1.05 patch, and the long load times are still there.
 
I've had problems with slow loading myself. The only thing you can do as far as I know, is eh.. reduce number of deaths and fuckups.
 
The load times are slightly faster with the patch, but they're going to still be slow. That was just a problem with FO2 that wasn't really dealt with, cause it didn't matter all that much.
 
i gotta say both FO1 and FO2 load in less than a second ...

that of course depends on your pc and OS. i suppose it could be because fallout 2 preloads a lot more art and grafics. (maybe?)
 
F02 has been criticized for slow load times before because of the size of the maps and number of entites on those maps.

FO2 loads quite fast on my 800 MHz P3. It only takes like 5-10 seconds to load games or to enter another area. Starting the game only takes a few second.

On my 300 MHz P2, FO2 took forever to load.

Make sure you install the game with humongous or large installation. The other installation options reads stuff from the CD and that will increase the load time a lot longer because the CD may have to spin up.
 
I`m playing F2 for the `nth time right now, and I`ve played it on every PC i`ve owned in the last 5 years.
One thing I always notice is, that the more often you save, the longer the save and load times.
Saving at the very start of the game just before i "pokerize" the Dunstan brothers in Klamath only takes a second or so....
But saving just before I set off for the oilrig takes considerably longer.
I have zero technical knowledge, but from an "idiot`s" perspective, it makes sense that the more data and "game time" you accrue, the longer the loads and saves will take.

I run an XP1700 AMD with 256 ram and a humungous installation, and its about 8-10 seconds to load and save near the end of the game.
 
Loading time (please wait screen) goes from ~3s to ~1s (on a second run tests to make sure files were cached for both tests - which actually isn't even a fair test as I would have wanted them both not to be cached) on a p3-600 640MB RAM once the entire DAT contents are extracted AND the DAT files are deleted/moved elsewhere.

There are two reasons it is faster. The first is like FOT, the game looks for files on the HD - regardless of it being in the DAT file, if it finds it loads it, failing that loads the one in the DAT. So time is wasted checking for the file (regardless of the DAT file being there or not). Since it checks for it, might as well have it suceed and not try to load it from a more convoluted system of the DATs. The second is simpler to explain: the DAT format features compression, which obviously consumes some time whilst decompressing it.

Other more generic tips (and sometimes obvious)
- Use humongous installation (duh)
- Make sure the 1.02 patch is applied (it should be if you're using that 1.05 mod)
- Make sure no other (normal) apps are running (and other users are logged off on XP)
- Make sure to defrag - even if using NTFS (specially after the extration tip).
- Make sure to have a well setup computer (ie not tons of processes in the backround doing useless stuff; if you know how to optimize your OS for RAM and varous other things, do so)
- Possibly disable virus scanning software during play time.
- Copy the music files instead of inserting the CD-ROM. You'll need to update Fallout2.cfg... You can even omit them altogether :P

I recently installed XP on a Celeron300 (non-A!) w/64 MB RAM. I should install FO2 on it and see how it runs :P

The main reason the save times get longer is because of the inventory you store. Not just on you, in your trunk and NPCs too!
 
I always thought that's because the more areas (maps) you explore, the more data is saved in the savegame itslef and needs to be decompressed. Notice that the number of files in a savegame increases with time.
 
Obviously, the installation must have some file or files that represent the original maps and the state of the game. After you wander around modify the world, the new update has to be be done somewhere. My guess its saved in a new file under the save game slot directories. Each time you enter a new area, more and more stuff have to be saved.

If you compare the file layout in the save game directories, earlier saves have less files than later saves. The name of the files resemble to different maps in the game.
 
So what are you saying, Red - if we extract everything from dats to a HD, we'll get a better overall performance?

Sign me up!
 
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