Fallout 3

[mechine]

Eh? The item most linked directly to loading times is the Gridstoload setting in configs. Default is 5, an I have no idea what would happen if you messed with the setting. But 4 might work who knows or 3, only one way to find out though. Go see what the tweek guide says about it.

 

Then you don't have to blow yourself up, you can just double load the save game, which works better if you fast travel or enter a door, which forces a load of that cell, then spin the camera around 180, an press esc an load your savegame again.

 

Both ways the blowing yourself up or the double load saved game, works the same way as the very reason using the continue button is a bad idea. Because the game is so huge in raw data size, and also made up of various software elements working together. In the continue button the save game is auto-loaded while all that other stuff is being loaded as well. Hence why using Esc to create new saves works well, it pauses the game so nothing else is going on. Which the same is true for loading save games in general. Load it the first time an stuff is still just being executed. Then the second time that stuff is already currently running, where Esc has now paused the game, an durring the second load not much is going on. Besides a vast amount of data being purged or reset. Like when you die.

 

This suggests that if you were not using a mod like Longer Death Camera, where they system automaticly reloads the PC after death almost instantly. That those people would be better off using the double load save game method rather than the blow yourself up method, because you would have to press Esc an pause the game before loading your game, thus ensuring that nothing was going on in the background. The folks that had a longer death camera mod, when they blew themself up, would have to press Esc because of the 2 minutes or more it would take the system timer to auto reload. Auto saves go corupt so we have to figure the same would be possible if not true for Auto reload at death.

 

At any rate besides coruption issues, double loading save games, will allow more stuff to be run in the background. Take Mp3's for example, everybody is saying that Fallout 3 doesn't play Mp3's well in game, for one reason or another, hence the stutter problem. Which the root cause would be huge texture sizes taxing the CPU to max. Each time the CPU gets taxed or jammed up from vast amounts of raw data, skips an stutter would be heard, from the CPU chewing it's way thru all that data. (the default loading of 5 grids around the player, textures meshes, an more) Anyway once you have loaded the save game once already, most of that data is now in the system cache, meaning less tax on the CPU. So say you want to stream pandora while you are running around in the wasteland, pandora an internet explorer being the background programs. All you would do is load a save game, then move around a bit, load the save game again. Which between the pauses from pressing esc an the loading of buffered content, now buffered content, you wouldn't hear stutter, an frame rates would be smooth. Most of the stuff in fallout 3 is run in the background, besides what else you would run, be it pandora, WMP, the pipboy radio, save games...