Cause of long load times?

[Inflicted]

What is the biggest cause of load times? Besides pre-loading. I've removed that, but I can't seem to find what else to do to reduce the long loading.

Perhaps too many different custom units/abilities is the cause?
A mass of triggers?

This is a severe issue, I would love to solve it as soon as possible.

(Would optimizers help at all?)

 

[Kayoss666]

everything you add to a map will make the load screen take longer but large triggers cause more then small ones and a multitude of custom variables, units, items will add to it but not much unless its a whole whole lot and you import alot of stuff. custom abilities make the load screen take more time as well. So a tun of custom units and abilities would cause the load screen to take longer. but you can't really take those out without causing problems.

 

[Inflicted]

I have very minimal custom models/icons in my map to reduce the filesize.
My question is what would reduce it the most, triggers or custom abilities/units?
That way I can pick a specific section to work on, and reduce.

 

[OMGOMGOMG]

Well, you could use a protection tool, that protects your map, and if you pick the right tools, can possibly reduce the map size a tun, but the bad thing is, you could possibly over-write your map.

My suggestion: Have two copy's Link:

http://www.wc3c.net/showthread.php?t=79326

 

[Accname]

Variables do not really increase loading time, neither do optimization tools decrease it.
The reason is that optimization only removes files from your map which are only needed to open the map in the editor.

What really makes up most of your loading time is triggers run at map initialization and every data in your object editor. Especially abilities and upgrades with alot of levels are "known" to increase the loading time extremely.

 

[Inflicted]

Yeah I realised having abilities with 50 levels for dummy purposes wasn't very effective so I've removed all of those.

I have approximately 80-100 custom abilties with either 1 or 5 levels depending on the use. About 40-50 units. No upgrades, about 20-30 buffs.
Triggers are pretty phat, but I dont think that matters. There are no triggers running off of map initialization.

The map takes approximately 2-3 minutes to load. Depending on the computer.
But if someone with a bad computer joins my game, it just takes forever to load. Not very convenient.

Map size isnt a problem, Iv done it in such a way that the map size is less than a mb.

Possibly pre-placed units and doodads that cause longer load time? I could trigger their placement, but I'm not sure if that would make a difference.

 

[Accname]

Preplacing is of course increasing the loading time. But do you think you benefit by having ingame lag or an ingame loading time after the actual loading?

 

[Inflicted]

I can rather do a "it will lag for a moment" message and preload then.
I'm slightly concerned the load time is partially causing the crash in my other thread. I'm trying to reduce it as much as possible and see if that helps.

Next step is to trigger the placement of everything :/

Does this include Vision Blockers and Pathing Blockers? Because I have quite a few of those.

 

[Accname]

Of course it includes anything placed on the map.
What is there needs to be loaded of course. Thats the idea behind loading stuff isnt it?

But really, i dont think preplaced objects are what causes this.
Look at all the other maps, sizes up to 480x480 filled with objects and yet the maps load in a bearable time frame.

 

[Inflicted]

Okay, well I guess I'l have to reduce all the abilities and units somehow.

Just out of interest but if a Field for a unit/item/ability is left default or blank does it improve the map in any way? Which is preferred? I mean on custom abilities.

 

[Accname]

Of course not, it is still information which needs to be saved somewhere.
Everything you do needs to be saved and what is saved needs memory and what needs memory needs to be loaded into your RAM from your hard drive. And depending on the speed of your drive and your ram and maybe the cables inside your computer this can take a little while.