Fun New Sub-Game

Ways to Kill Time while Loading Game

from Sins Forums

Ok, I admit it, I don't have the fastest machine in the Known Universe.  Indeed, it's not the fastest machine in the Known Neighborhood.  It's a 1.6GHz dual core laptop with 512MB ram and a 5400 rpm disk.  But it plays Sins.

(I'm buying more memory for it so it can handle pirate raids without the OS complaining about needing more virtual memory.)

I timed it, it takes about 2 and a half minutes to load, from pressing the "Play the Game" button to the point where you are suddenly way too close to one of your planets.

But there's a peculiarity during this load time ... the progress meter always stops at around 3/4th of the way!?  Then it doesn't move at all, until the game is finished loading.

Again, I timed it ... approximately 1 minute to reach the half-way point, and it keeps going, then 1 and a half minutes to reach the 3/4th point ... where it stops and just stays there for about another minute.

Hmmmm.

So, anyhow, my sub-game ...

What I do is try to guess the exact point where the progress bar will stop!  I put the mouse pointer there, then I watch and wait ... closer ... closer ... oh, almost!

What fun!  If I make a good guess, and have the mouse within a few pixels of the stopping point, I give myself a nice prize!  20 minutes of extra play-time!  Whoo hoo!

(I'm such a cheater, I give myself an extra 20 minutes anyway.)

I wonder if anyone else has ideas on how to kill time waiting for initial load, for this or any other game for that matter ... and/or maybe some thoughts as to why the stupid progress meter stops progressing?

8,855 views 3 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
2.66 quad 3 gigs ram. It's fast for me :) I know muti-thread isn't really supported but I think it helps with running Vista 64 and anything else. In a year or two I'll problably upgrade to 8 gigs of ram.

using an 8800gt vid card. I plan to SLI that in a year or two to keep pace with "moderate" game settings.
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
As for mini games I do try to do specific strategies but make a mini game out of it...like taking carriers 2-3 planets deep into enemy territory and seeing how many structures I can bomb.
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Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
Graphics don't really seem to be what bogs me down. I can pause the game in any number of situations, and it becomes baby bottom smooth. Observations show that slowdown starts on larger maps, with large quantities of units present, but not nessesarily present on screen. My instinct tells me that it is actually something in the pathfinding that is slowing things down at this point. I can play other games, with far MORE complex graphics, with zero slowdown.

As for the OP, your slow loading is due mainly to your limited ram (I wouldn't ever go below 1GB these days, on any system). The less ram you have, the more the computer must rely on the hard drive to store data. It doesn't matter how fast your hard drive is, it will be many many times slower than even the slowest ram available. Remember that ram on your graphics and sound cards play a part as well. Having 8GB of ram, and 256K on the graphics card, can mean slow load times as it buffers in the texture files.