90% Faster Game Loads?

[Freedom]

A way to get Banished to load much faster? I can get Banished (with <abbr title="Colonial Charter">CC</abbr>/<abbr title="MegaMod">MM</abbr>) to launch in 8 minutes 30 seconds, or in just 50 seconds on my PC.




Slow way: Click to start Banished and don't do anything more. Just wait for the screen to go black while the game loads. Eventually the Shining Rock logo appears followed by the start screen with the music. Elapsed time is about 8:30 (510 seconds). 




Speedy way: Click to start Banished. Alt-Tab back to the desktop (Banished minimized to toolbar). Wait to hear the game's startup music. Alt-Tab back to the game. Elapsed time 0:50 seconds. A 90% faster load time.




This is very repeatable. Exit the game completely and restart over and over with the same results. Anyone else get similar results? Or offer an explanation as to why results the results are so vastly different. I'm running via Steam on an average 64-bit Windows 10 desktop. I assume your times will differ but I'm curious if the overall effect is the same. I did find that from a cold start (from computer off) the slow way takes about the same time and the speedy way extended to 2:30. But still, that's a a 70% gain.






I guess this is what comes of trying to figure out why Gatherers stopped collecting wild oats, flax and rose hips with <abbr title="MegaMod">MM</abbr> 0.07 and Banished 1.0.7 beta. [img]<fileStore.core_Emoticons>/emoticons/wink.png[/img]/emoticons/wink@2x.png 2x" title=";)" width="20" />

[elemental]

AMAZING! Normal load time for me is somewhere between 5 and 6 minutes. Minimise Banished and it loads in 1 minute. No megamod for me, just <abbr title="Colonial Charter">CC</abbr> and other stuff.




 




How is this possible? And is there a catch? My save game took the normal amount of time to load. Everything looks normal. This seems too good to be true! [img]<fileStore.core_Emoticons>/emoticons/blink.png[/img]/emoticons/blink@2x.png 2x" title="O.o" width="20" />

[KevinTheCynic]

I have experienced the same thing, I'm also using the Steam version on Win10 desktop but I also have a ton of mods in my active list (about 160 enabled mods) so I expected it to be slow to start.




For me though, the Alt+Tab to desktop then back to the game doesn't take approx 50 seconds, it's still a few minutes of load time however it is significantly better than the six (and sometimes more) minutes it would take if I leave it to start by itself.




using the Alt+Tab method I still have enough time to go and get a cup of coffee but it does mean I haven't drunk half of it before the game starts!




 




EDIT: It's also worth pointing out that the version of Direct X you use for Banished makes a big difference. DX9 copes with Alt+Tab far better than DX10 or DX11 and is "maybe" contributing to the faster load time when you use the Alt+Tab method.

[stiles]

to me this is odd. if i minimze during load i run the risk of fatal error. then i'd have to completely start over. when i am playing the game i can minimize but not during load up or saving. i'm not using stea ,maybe that's the difference.

[KevinTheCynic]

It will depend more so on your computer specs, the OS (and the version of Banished - x32 or x64) and the version of DX you're using rather than something with Steam.

[elemental]

29 minutes ago, KevinTheCynic said:




It's also worth pointing out that the version of Direct X you use for Banished makes a big difference. DX9 copes with Alt+Tab far better than DX10 or DX11 and is "maybe" contributing to the faster load time when you use the Alt+Tab method.

DX11 here. Win7 64bit, 8gig ram. Not a super-powerful machine by modern standards. Wasn't even very powerful when I got it. Banished is installed on an SSD but the funny thing is the SSD doesn't make much difference at all to load speed compared to when I had Banished on a normal hard drive. And yet minimising the game makes a huge difference.




And I'm not alt-tabbing as such. Just tapping the windows key. Not that that should make any difference.

[Freedom]

Thanks for the feedback. Hope it lets you spend less waiting time...




To be clear, I've been using this Alt+Tab trick* at game startup for a long time. I've never have had an issue with it. No weirdness, no crashes, everything normal. It significantly speeds up the initial game load but not the loading of saved games. Nor would I try it while trying to save a game. 




Impatient me has always switched to do something else while the game loads.  It was only when I actually waited at the black screen that it hit me how long that way takes. 




For what it's worth, I use Direct X 9 as it works better with my dual monitor setup.  




 




*or as elemental points out, simply tapping the Windows key, in either case minimizing Banished while it loads