Is this a bug? Long Pauses in Slowing Dialogue

[2p1k3]

whether this would be a mod request or the issue has already been solved is a mystery to me.

 

Problem: There are Long pauses between the time a dialogue is entered or a choice is made, & the voice file actually plays. The next choice in a dialogue-tree waits until the voice is played before showing the next dialogue-tree.

 

I have Starfield through Steam. Could the Steam program be causing the problem? is there already a solution to this somewhere?

 

For sharing your time & energy, grateful am I.

[zanity]

Mods have already appeared to 'fix' delays in the UI interface that otherwise might have been assumed top be the natural slowness of the UI code.

 

It seems Todd wanted a snail's pace for the settee/TV console crowd, and PC gamers get the same approach whether they like it or not. However are you talking about pace, or LOADING issues cos your storage system is too slow? Everything streams from storage using Directstorage or something similar. This can go wrong even on very fast NVMe drives, even if your flash storage works perfectly in your other PC games.

 

Assuming that isn't what you are experiencing, faster response mods should be coming soon for all game mechanisms.

[2p1k3]

Thank you.

 

The game is on a SATA drive that runs Cyberpunk 2077 just fine.

 

An Example: The protagonist walks up to [ship Technician A] & initiates dialogue. Then during that dialogue, whenever protagonist makes a choice on what to say, it takes a myriad of seconds before the technician stops staring into the protagonist's eyes silently, & responds.

That is how all dialogues progress. I've had NPC's even turn away from me before responding. The response occur though, so it isn't completely game breaking…

Mods have already appeared to 'fix' delays in the UI interface that otherwise might have been assumed top be the natural slowness of the UI code.

 

It seems Todd wanted a snail's pace for the settee/TV console crowd, and PC gamers get the same approach whether they like it or not. However are you talking about pace, or LOADING issues cos your storage system is too slow? Everything streams from storage using Directstorage or something similar. This can go wrong even on very fast NVMe drives, even if your flash storage works perfectly in your other PC games.

 

Assuming that isn't what you are experiencing, faster response mods should be coming soon for all game mechanisms.

[2p1k3]

The mod [Undelayed Menus] makes the issue better. Without the mod, whatever is the issue manifests as npcs' staring into the protagonist's eyes for prolonged periods of time, before responding to the dialogue choice. Now they respond somewhat normally, but their lips fail to move as their voice plays.

[awkspace]

Starfield is designed for SSDs only. https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/for-the-love-of-all-things-good-do-not-install-starfield-on-a-hard-drive

[2p1k3]

OK, well for me it is running on an SSD.

Starfield is designed for SSDs only. https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/for-the-love-of-all-things-good-do-not-install-starfield-on-a-hard-drive

Hopefully XBox's PR people sat Mr. Todd Howard down and explained to him that saying it is the customer's fault, even when it is, earns them less money.

 

In addition, playing the game on the same PC through XBox has none of this intermittent pausing.

 

However, it seems that BSG knows of the issue and are working to resolve it because subsequent patches have lessened it. So that suggests that presumably it is caused by more than one problem.

[zanity]

As was said- running from an HDD is 'wrong'. Is it really 'wrong'?- well later discoveries suggest DirectStorage was inserted into Starfield under pressure from MS to 'normalise' this rather broken memory/storage system.

 

There is a mod that RE-ENABLES the natural file cache system that usually runs in Windows for every application. Even with an HDD, this mod restores a LOT of real-time fluidity, after the first time any storage asset is accessed by the game. However, file caches, because it uses your spare 'unused' RAM, needs spare RAM- ie., having at least 32GB of RAM helps.

 

Anyway, maybe you are not too technical, so let me explain the SSD issue a little. A 512GB SSD device has never been cheaper, and is child's play to insert into almost any PC- no tech skill needed. You open your case, and then you need two things. A free SATA port on your Motherboard (the massive flat rectangular thing everything is plugged into), a SATA cable and a free SATA style PSU (power cable). You simply plug these two cables into your SSD (which is a smallish flat plastic box), and then place the SSD into a free case bay OR simply tape it in place somewhere where you have space in your case (it ain't mechanical, so it doesn't care about orientation).

 

In Windows you will then need to Format and activate the SSD. To complex to explain how here.

 

Both these stages can be witnessed in many Youtube videos. Visual guides to give anyone confidence to do this addition.

 

Adding an SSD to a PC (or even a laptop- though the process there is a bit more involved) is cheap, safe and easy- with no risk involved (on the PC- a laptop may involved replacing a boot HDD with a boot SSD- something that does need some skill).

 

It is possible to use an SSD externally via a USB-3 connection (never USB-2 = too slow). However, it is hit'n'miss whether Starfield works well from external flash storage. I wouldn't like to bet on it. The issue is down to problems with how chips implement USB-3 standards, both in your PC and in the external caddy that holds the SSD- and DirectStorage doesn't play well with external devices.