Loading times getting worse

minos_

Loading times have always been pretty bad for me in NS2, generally about 2-3 minutes. But with both patches 229 and 230 the loading times are getting worse and worse. The first few steps always take a while, but at least in 228 it would zip through the shader compile almost instantly and the precaching wasn't too bad. 229 and 230 have both significantly increased the time it takes to precache on every load, and now it can take as much as five minutes to load a game. I don't even know what it's like to command. I can go make a sandwich and come back before the game loads.

Specs:
Core 2 Duo e8400 @3ghz
Windows XP SP3 32 bit
6gb DDR2 RAM (only three addressable, thanks to 32 bit OS)
ATI Radeon 4800

A_Pajander

What I would try first is delete the %APPDATA%\Natural Selection 2\cache folder, "verify game cache" on Steam and then run the game and let it completely redo the compiling and caching. No idea if it would help but that's what I would try. :)

Shader compiling should only appear on the first time loading a map. Precaching does appear to me every time, but it takes less than 5 seconds nowadays.

Thunder246

Im getting pretty long loading times too.

minos_

<!--quoteo(post=2029871:date=Nov 20 2012, 04:26 AM:name=snaga)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (snaga @ Nov 20 2012, 04:26 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2029871"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->What I would try first is delete the %APPDATA%\Natural Selection 2\cache folder, "verify game cache" on Steam and then run the game and let it completely redo the compiling and caching. No idea if it would help but that's what I would try. :)

Shader compiling should only appear on the first time loading a map. Precaching does appear to me every time, but it takes less than 5 seconds nowadays.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

I tried this 'fix' and am not thrilled, to say the least.

First load went as expected, very slow building of shaders. Second and third loads showed no improvement in loading times.

However, taking these steps has introduced two game-breaking bugs, as well as deleting my custom crosshairs. I am now getting the bug where only a small handful of servers show up in the browser, even with filters off. On every server that I can actually join, the game is now unplayable thanks to lag from waiting for render thread, a problem I did not have before deleting the cache.

Can't say I recommend anyone else try these steps. Just live with your load times; they don't seem all that bad now. :/