Possible fix for long map loads

[Kinfyr]

I notice a few people have had this problem (uncluding myself) where it would take a overly long time for the map to load. Well, my map is coming up now in less than a second.

Now I have only done 2 things recently that would have cured this problem or at the very least improve the performance. The first being defragging my hardrive and the second was changing the display to use Open GL. I think it was the change to Open GL which seems to have solved this problem for now as defragging wouldn't have made that big of a difference. I keep a clean sytem and defrag regularly.

I would like a few of you to test this out if you can and post your results back here. Even if you don't have that problem with the map try and see if you can notice a difference. Hopefully this could get rid of a major annoyance of mine [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Merkin]

Well, I de-fragged just after loading the game, and always use Open GL unless I have problems with it. I still have slow loading maps. Not as bad as some, probably in the neighborhood of 5 sec., but still enough to put a crimp in the flow. And my system is way up to the game, I run the game in 1600 x 1200 32 bit flawlessly and fast. (1.2 AMD, 512 meg PC133, 64 meg G-Force 2 TI.) I also keep my system defragged and clean (AvP2 demands nothing less) I'm starting to think the map-load time is just a minor design flaw.

[Kinfyr]

If its only 5 seconds I wouldn't really worry about it. I was experiencing between 1 and 2 full minutes before the map would pop up.

This is my rig...

AMD 1.333
Gigabyte GA-7DRX
32mg DDR GeForce2 GTS
256mg pc2100 ram
Quantum AS 20 gig ATA 100
Maxtor 10 gig ATA 66
Lg 16x10x40 Burner
LG 52x cd rom
Soundblaster MP3+
Red Hat 7.2 and Windows XP

[Virgil]

I've found that the game really starts to drag after it's been running for a few hours. Zone loads and map loads take two or three times as long as when I first start the game.

[Saltheart Foamfollower]

Open GL does the trick. It has been recommended on other boards, and I tried it, lo and behold, much faster load times for the automap. One of the few times Open GL works better than DirectX

[Mage of Mystra]

Once, when i was playing for like 6 hours, at the end, i had a virtual memory warning lol. But now, it's been a few days i didn't touch that game, starting a new game with baldur's gate 2 and the darkest day.

[Merkin]

There *is* a memory leak issue in the game. I rhink this is completely seperate from the slow loading map issue. I know the tech-team is looking into it. I actually am using it as a timer. When the game starts to hang (usually after about 4 hours) it means it's time for me to get my but out of the chair and away from the screen. [img]smile.gif[/img] ...sometimes though, I just end up re-booting and playing another few hours...bad me

quote:

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Originally posted by Merkin:
When the game starts to hang (usually after about 4 hours) it means it's time for me to get my but out of the chair and away from the screen. [img]smile.gif[/img] ...sometimes though, I just end up re-booting and playing another few hours...bad me

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LOL Me too.
It takes a while for mine to start slowing down, I don't know why since it is not a state of the art system. (I'd have to ask for specs and Rex is in the other room glued to his monitor and his mouse \

Maps usually only load really slow the first time for me...the Mine Tunnels area took a full minute to load and the map almost as long. Of course, I had been playing for better than 5 hours, leaving the PC on while I went and ate dinner.
Talk about bad! [img]graemlins/biglaugh.gif[/img]
My parents just brought me up wrong, thats what it is!

[Lakisbrine]

OpenGL worked for me too!!!

[Krull]

I too have some problems with map loading. especially on the Arnika-Trynton road.

But I'm wondering if the problem is also causing what I think are abnormally long times when I quit Wizardry VIII to go back to the desktop. This can take between 3-5 minutes on occasions. Do other people have the same problem?

Thanks.