Map Loading time.

[Frizz.Meister]

Some simple questions about map loading time.

What influences map load time the most, eg doodads, triggers ect?
What is the best way to reduce the load time of a map?
Is there any 3rd party program to reduce map load time?
How come some large maps have very short load time eg, dota?

 

[Never_Quit]

it takes the same amount of time to load as it does to open it up in world editor

look at the units that are being loaded while you open it in WE
the things that take longest (like simply drawing the units and tiles) are what will take longest.

one alternative is to not have anything but tiles on your map, then place the units/doodads after it has loaded and started

cinematic disable user control
pause game
run place everything code
unpause
enable user control

 

[LurkerAspect]

The answer to most of those questions is yes, the map loading time is dependant on the number of destructibles, doodad, units and objects that are on the map before the map is rendered. Everything you place before the game has started adds to loading time.

Loading time is not such a bad thing, try placing down all units before the game starts. The loading time goes up by +-20 seconds, but then the game will run smoothly, as no time is required to load those units/objects when they are created.

As far as I know, there are no programs around that speed up loading time.

Dota is fast probably because it creates all the objects directly after the map has loaded, instead of before.

 

[Frizz.Meister]

So what would be the place everything code?

 

[LurkerAspect]

If you want to place everything at the start...

Try making a whole bunch of regions (or rects as they're called in WEU) and use those as markers for buildings and such, then when the game starts, run a trigger that creates a building of a type at each of those markers.

 

[Frizz.Meister]

But surely such a large number of regions would also slow down the load time of the map, so overall no gain would be achieved.

 

[I_RULE_YOU]

The largest increaser of a maps loading time, by far, is custom models.

The way to decrease a maps load time tremendously is with a Widgetizer, its a program you can download from online which converts your world editor files into widget form, making them much easier to be loaded. You must Widgetize only when your map is completely done, because if I recall you can't work on it properly in world editor after widgetization. Also, if your optomizing your map, you must Widgetize first, then optomize. Heres a link to the one I used (it changed my map's load time from 5 minutes to 20 seconds.

http://www.wc3c.net/showthread.php?t=73504

 

[Frizz.Meister]

Thanks alot ill get back with the results in a minute.

Results:
average map loading time before was 39 seconds
average map loading time after was 31 seconds

So a negligable change there

My map has over 3000 doodads so i guess this is creating the problem any easy way to solve this?