Fallout 4 Loading Time

[Doom1991]

I just noticed that my load times for loading save games, loading screens, and so on are taking up to 3 times as long after installing mods. I'm not sure if it's the texture packs, which are 2k's, or another mod that is causing this. Anyone else get this as well?

[snapper69]

I presume that it has to load the mods, so it seems reasonable that the more mods you have, the longer it will take. I've installed mine onto a spare SSD, which has brought the time down quite a bit, but even so, fast, it ain't.

[zanity]

FO4 was optimised for John Carmack's texture streaming system from the infamous Megatexture library- and anything that deactivates the streaming system makes the load times vastly longer.

 

However, since the streaming system is extremely buggy (massively CPU and GPU intensive while frequently FAILING to bring in the best textures), most sane gamers have it switched off. But apparently the subsequent long loading times are then down to ANOTHER fundamental Bethesda bug (who'd have thunk it) where data loading is limited by the screen refresh rate (honestly, you couldn't make this up).

 

So there are mods that set refresh to 'unlimited' when loading- speeding up loading times significantly for many people. Some claim activating the console while loading has the same effect.

[ddavies10693]

The ways mods (especially textures) in this game work is that it loads all the default vanilla stuff first, then retextures and mods load after, which increases load times. The worst offenders will be large mods that don't use archives, which will increase this load time even further (the texture optimization project for example).

[BlackRoseOfThorns]

FO4 was optimised for John Carmack's texture streaming system from the infamous Megatexture library- and anything that deactivates the streaming system makes the load times vastly longer.

 

However, since the streaming system is extremely buggy (massively CPU and GPU intensive while frequently FAILING to bring in the best textures), most sane gamers have it switched off. But apparently the subsequent long loading times are then down to ANOTHER fundamental Bethesda bug (who'd have thunk it) where data loading is limited by the screen refresh rate (honestly, you couldn't make this up).

 

So there are mods that set refresh to 'unlimited' when loading- speeding up loading times significantly for many people. Some claim activating the console while loading has the same effect.

 

In Skyrim I had uncapped fps during loading screens and set limit with ENB when out of menu/loading screen. It helped a ton.

 

For now the loading screens aren't taking too long in FO4 with all the mods I have had installed, but it's not snappy either. Didn't bother me enough to edit it. Which tool are you using this time around?

[BlackRoseOfThorns]

The ways mods (especially textures) in this game work is that it loads all the default vanilla stuff first, then retextures and mods load after, which increases load times. The worst offenders will be large mods that don't use archives, which will increase this load time even further (the texture optimization project for example).

 

For those using TOP I would suggest unpacking original texture .bsa, replacing vanilla textures and packing it again. It can be a bit bothersome since everything is divided into few separate archives, but once it's done, it's done.

[ddavies10693]

While that is a good idea ^ it should only be attempted if you really know what you're doing and are confident in your own knowledge. If you mess up, you can potentially break your game, as this game in general has a tendency to immediately CTD when it realizes an asset or texture is missing.

 

Side note, any mod that has a paper clip symbol next to it when viewed in LOOT loads an archive. This can be used to quickly rule out anything if you notice you have drastically increasing load times. Although massive archives can still slow your game down (in theory, I don't know of any such mods thus far)

[BlackRoseOfThorns]

While that is a good idea ^ it should only be attempted if you really know what you're doing and are confident in your own knowledge. If you mess up, you can potentially break your game, as this game in general has a tendency to immediately CTD when it realizes an asset or texture is missing.

 

Overwriting existing files won't remove any necessarry assets. The only screw up there can be is when someone doesn't pay attention when packing folderds into archive and naming it. Simple "Verify cache" will redownload missing archives and fix the problem. Making archive backups on spare drive is also a viable option.