Slow Saving

[Juri]

Only i have this problem that game freeze for a while when saving ? LoG 1 didnt have something like that

[Skuggasveinn]

That's normal if "for a while" is a few seconds.
Savegames contain the whole state of the game, and depending on the speed of your computer/harddrive it can take a few sec when clicking a crystal or saving manually or with quicksave.

[Eldur]

It even takes several seconds on an SSD, so I think it is not normal. Grimrock 1 saves instantly.
Also notice this on loading and crystal usage. There's aways a 3-4 second delay which doesn't look right.

[Sitalk]

Loading times are abnormally long and the freeze when clicking the crystal is something wasn't there in Grimrock 1.

Here, two captures made in Fraps:

https://db.tt/I9F6RZtw
https://db.tt/upl9LXNL

Please note that for some reason in the first video Fraps was not able to capture the loading screen graphics but the time I usually wait is the actual one.

Specs:

SpoilerShow

Intel Core i7 920 @ 2.67GHz
6.00 GB Triple-Channel DDR3 @ 534MHz (7-7-7-20)
ASUSTeK Computer INC. Rampage II Extreme (LGA1366)
3071MB GeForce GTX 580 (EVGA)
977GB Western Digital WDC WD1001FALS-00J7B0 ATA Device (SATA)

[Skuggasveinn]

Maybe the AH guys can shed some light in this, but what I'm seeing in your fraps is the same I'm seeing on my computer.
I was in the beta test and it was a known fact that the game takes longer to load and save then LoG1, comparing LoG1 to LoG2 is comparing apples to oranges.
The entire game gets loaded when you start a new game or load your save, after that you transition between all levels without ever loading again, and when you save the state of the entire game gets saved, and LoG2 towers over log1 when it comes to the amount of textures, monsters, sounds etc it needs to load.

and if you read some of the reviews like this one http://news.necessarygaming.com/legend- ... ii-review/ you will see this

One very annoying issue I had with this game was the load times. Loading games takes a ridiculous amount of time

so as it stands today, its normal, maybe not good, but not something that's wrong with your system or anything, the game just take longer to load/save

Skuggasveinn.

[sapientCrow]

Slow saving slow loading and even lagging out on crystal use. Based on what I am reading this is normal since a beta tester said it was so during the test.

Do you think they might patch something that might increase load times. It is getting quite frustrating when doing puzzles and such to have to wait almost a minute to load game each time.

The game is excellent but those long breaks are harsh and not something expected. Game runs very smooth. Not sure on the choice to load everything all at once.
As it is I guess and hope for some kind of workaround or fix to lessen the time of loads just a bit.

[Sol_HSA]

Loading times are abnormally long and the freeze when clicking the crystal is something wasn't there in Grimrock 1.

Compare the save game sizes between LoG1 and LoG2. You'll find that LoG2 saves are significantly larger..

[eLPuSHeR]

Yeah. I have noticed that loading/saving savegames times have increased twice or thrice the time it was before. Not a big deal to me at least.

[Sitalk]

It is getting quite frustrating when doing puzzles and such to have to wait almost a minute to load game each time.
The game is excellent but those long breaks are harsh and not something expected.

I feel exactly the same.

Wasn't this discussed during the beta? If I get it right the game loads even distant and inaccessible areas right? Why this choice?
Anyway it seems the quick save/load is a little bit faster and the full saving/loading times are something one can maybe tolerate but the crystal feels really broken.
It feels like it triggers the application's hang.
Maybe if it is designed differently it can feel right, like this:

you click the crystal > animation and sound > text "Saving..." + hangs > text "Game Saved"

now is:

you click the crystal > hangs > animation and sound + text "Game Saved"

[antti]

The bigger/longer saves are not only because of the fact that the game is bigger: we now save the game's state much much more extensively than in LoG1. There's a few reasons for that:

- It's more flexible: Pretty much all of the objects in the game world are now dynamic so that we can now script almost anything in the game world if we want to. This is especially useful for modders who can do pretty wild custom stuff with this. For example, randomly generated dungeons should be much easier to do now without resorting to dirty hacks since the level layout is not so static anymore.
- It's easier to maintain: updating the main campaign is MUCH easier than during LoG1, where any change to a level could cause strange behavior to saves made with an older version of the game. The reason for this is that the save now contains so much more data than previously so that the state of the saved game will stay intact even if we change the levels themselves dramatically. Naturally these potential changes to the levels will be applied only when starting a new game but at least the old saves won't be outright broken. BUT with the extensive scriptability and dynamic objects, we can also patch old saved games, so that we can also apply some selected changes in the main campaign to old saves if we want to: we can fix level scripts, add items, change monster stats and placement, or even modify the level layout to some extent and so on... The more extensive saves should make modders' lives easier as well if they are going to be updating their WIP levels frequently.

So, going with the big saved games was a definite improvement from a developer's standpoint even though it has its disadvantages. I hope this clarifies the situation a little.