Improving Loading Times
 

I've been trying to improve game loading performance by using an SSD to load Silent Hunter 3, here's my findings for anyone who is interested :-

I'm running GWX 3.0 with about 25+ mods ~ Merchant Ship Mods + Aces Combined Mods 1.3 etc (26GB of game & mod data). If you wish to boot win7 and play Silent Hunter 3 then you should be looking at least a 128 GByte SSD.

To compare disk v SSD performance I have identical game copies on the hard disk and SSD with win7 and the save game directories on a different disk.

My Equipment is as follows :-

64GB Crucial C300-CTFD SATA 6GBytes/sec mounted as an extra disk
3x Samsung Hard Disk 1TB HD103SJ (a fast hard disk!)
Q6600 Processor @3.1GHz
8 GB Memory
Win 7 64 bit
ASUS P5K-E Motherboard

I've measured the time to load a typical at sea saved game :-

Time to load via Disk 6m 25sec
Time to load via SSD 5m 50sec

As you can see the difference is small and I'm pretty disappointed since I was expecting a much larger boost but I'll continue to tinker to see if I can improve things! One thing I did observe was that loading via SSD seemed to be steady and continueous but via the hard disk the data seemed load in chunks resulting in an uneven load.

Any suggestions on how to improve loading times would be appreciated!

for the money outlay I would say madness.

core 2 duo, 2.5GHz, 2g ram, 1x noname 7.2k 160g hard drive with windows and programs (and swap file) 1x noname 7.2k 320g hard drive with games on. I have other programs running at the same time - outlook, MS vis studio.

GWX3.0. dunno how many mods, about a dozen? I havent removed any campaigns or optimized anything. First run of the day took 1 min exactly to get into the game and just under 8.5 mins (using the clock in the corner I was looking to the nearest 15seconds) to an "at sea" save.

What was mad 6 months ago is now affordable, I picked up my 64GB SSD for £63 on ebuyer.

SSDs still require a fair bit of tweeking to get the best from them, I found I had to switch on AHCI and format with the correct alignment to get decent performance.

My Hard disk manages a read rate of 115Mbs, the SSD 264Mbs and if I had SATA 3 it would be 355Mbs. Unfortunately this improvement only translates into a 13% improvement in loading times. On reflection I think it may be better to upgrade your processor and motherboard than buying an SSD!

If you do decide to buy an SSD I suggest you go for at least 120GBytes and make sure your motherboard supports SATA 3 otherwise you will not maximize the performance of your SSD.

A streamlined campaign and removing many really unused units would work miracles for much less money :)

For those of us with little time to play, a fast loading game is essential. So if you guys have 8 minutes to spend just staring at the loading bar .... I envy you :damn:

Agree, some time ago I had the same problem and I got a few less minutes in the loading screen after removing some heavy mods like MFM (great mod but caused me some problems).

I've been running my game in a windowed mode, makes using dual monitors easier, and saving frequently. Then, instead of closing the game when i'm done, I just pause it and walk away. With the saves, in case of wives, kids, CTD's etc, I can reload if I have to, but I can usually just pick up where I left off.

Its not that I have 8 minutes, I dont have £200. But I do have a kettle and children to put to bed whilst it loads. Oddly enough, I too run in windowed mode and since then I havent had a single CTD on my current career (run exclusively in window).

If I had 8 Gigs of memory?
I'd create a RAM Drive and a special boot up for SHWhatever.

This.

If you don't believe it, time how long it takes to load a stock game without any mods.

A bit of a warning though, when "streamlining" (deleting) unused traffic areas and lesser used units, be very careful about what you remove, and from where, and pay great attention to detail. I've done this myself some years ago, its a bit of a pain.

I`m interested at this point, to remove some files. I always play campaigns in the north atlantic, US coast and caribbean sea. I never use the grids in mediterranean sea, black sea, indian ocean, african and south american coasts. If someone knows which specific folders/files to remove it would be great for me.

Hi,

these scripts might be useful for you:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/down...o=file&id=1681

Cheers, LGN1

If u play GWX there are different campaign files, one for everything and one for every area u want to play e.g. one file with just the mediteranian files.
Dunno if it really helps because i dont care much about loading times. I start a game then i go for a beer and a smoke and when im back im in my Boat ;)

I tested an example script in my current campaign, enabled with JSGME without problems. That was just what I was looking for. Many thanks.