Main Thread for Long Loading Screens

LiquidPony

Two separate systems ...

1) Xbox One S, stock internal HDD, connected via WiFi. On this system I have constant loading screens. Specific instances:

* Any portal in Aetherian Archive. In one Trial run I got the infinite load screen on 3 portals, and had to force-quit three times to get to The Mage.
* That obnoxious load screen you hit immediately after starting Sanctum Ophidia right after going through the door (how is this a thing after all these years?)
* Porting in PvE, particularly when porting to busy areas. May be coincidental but porting to Rawl'kha or Wayrest was nearly impossible but porting to less populated areas was less problematic. I had to force-quit the game 8 times last night due to this, including multiple times where attempting to load in after the force-quit led to an infinite load screen

2) Xbox One X, Samsung T5 SSD, connected via ethernet

* Virtually any fast traveling in Cyrodiil, particularly when grouped, leads to a long load screen.
* In Maw of Lorkhaj, entering the door to the hallway before Rakkhat put 5 people in a long load screen (totally not mad about this one, would've had the #1 score on XB/NA if not for this)

Anecdotally I've had far more issues on the Xbox One S connected via WiFi. In particular I noticed that if I was in a group and combat began before I got out of a load screen, I would always get stuck in the load screen. This was particularly noticeable in Aetherian Archive on the first set of portals, where (and again, how is this still a thing after all these years?) people who go to the right are in combat before they even load (we had several people killed by that stupid Overchargers while they were stuck in the load screen.)

NordSwordnBoard

PS4 NA Disc/standard hard drive

Cyrodiil
Spawning after death leads to endless load screen
Travel to a keep that has action around it (siege listed) has a very likely chance of an endless load screen
It happened EDT morning, noon, and night on Friday 11/10 - I played as much as I could handle that day.

Odd point: Some people who were stuck in load screens but still visible to others in group were sometimes "rescued" from the load screen after interacting with the stuck player (like offering to trade).

I had no trouble in Imperial City with any load screens.

Edit: The occasional transitus travel will work. Forward camps also affected.
Since the previous post there has been little to no improvement.

BreakaerB

Xbox one NA. Internal hd with all other games and content on an external. Pretty much any load screen in cyrodiil has a 90% chance of trapping me in an infinite load screen. Occasionally happens in PVE. Just now had one on my initial log in for today.

Pathfindr

PC EU
CPU: i7-3930k
SSD: yes (but it also happened before I got the SSD and reinstalled the game)

For me it is not consistent, it seems completely random. Usually when I am
- in a trial (lobby or in progress), porting to a group member (to go repair or get out of the ground)
- in a trial or dungeon in progress, using the blue portal to join the rest of the group (after repairing or when joining mid-dungeon through group finder)
- zoning / wayshrining / porting to any house or player (seems to happen more often when I do this in rapid succession, ie. first porting to a friend or guildie, then using the wayshrine to get where I wanted to go)
- logging back in after relogging due to lag/stuttering or low fps
- logging back in after getting randomly kicked to login screen (not from idling, usually mid fight in a trial)

It also seems to happen a lot more often to my templar healer than to any of my dd's.
It happens with or without addons active.

Specific incidents:
- during witches festival when leading a group on the Alik'r wayshrine grind. As soon as I passed the crown to someone else I was fine. When I got the crown back the infinite loading screens also came back. Number of group members was irrelevant and I did not use an addon for grouping.

Possibly related:
Some times I rez, or exit a wayshrine or portal, and find myself invisible and unable to move, like I crashed during rezzing or porting. Only fix is to alt+f4 and log back in, waiting it out does not work.

UppGRAYxDD

Xbox NA
Xbox one Elite
Internally Downloaded

In PvP: everytime I die and try to respawn and almost everytime I wayshine. It is also happening when changing zones in Imperial City PvP and every once in a while after I leave at the end of a BGs game.

Hallothiel

PS4 EU normal version but ESO saved onto plug - in external hard drive.

No real problems until today. Have been in CWC & all good. Problems when go back to outside. Got to Belkarth fine; could not get to Elden Root. Had to close game. Same when trying to travel from Daggerfall.

Seems to be wayshrine related for me - have houses so have found can use those as work around. IE use Snugpod to get to Elden Root.

Others in guild have reported that Cyrodiil is basically unplayable, & that it is also affecting trials. Major hubs also seem problematic.

creeker5

System: Xbox One

HDD: Internal One that came with system 1TB

Media: Digital Download

Server: NA

Cyrodiil
Spawning after death to keep or to home base almost always leads to endless load screen.
Traveling from transitus shrine to transitus shrine can also lead to endless load screen.
The only way to recover from the long load screen is to reload the game.

NinchiTV

Is there any specific area or zone you consistently see a long loading screen? Cyrodiil
What are you doing when you experience a long loading screen? When i try to respawn after dying at a keep or outpost
Are you utilizing any sort of SSD? 1TB external SSD
If you play on Xbox, is the game installed on the internal hard drive or an external hard drive? external HD

WeylandLabs

The perfect break up with ESO, its not us its you ?

They know our internals on consoles. They and cannot be adjusted or modified, its an online game and data packets is saved bye sony and microsoft. Only our storage space SSHD and or HDD, and has 0% to do with loading screens Im actually very shocked that Zenimax Online Studios would say this ?


But i dont blame the staff, I blame the management to understand it how it works. Like any fortune 500 company i have work for there is always people that fake it to make it. And seems thier are a lot there and ZOS. Im sorry if they feel this is an insult, and maybe be flaged but they cant deny the truth or it would be fixed.

Thogard

I’ll tell you exactly what’s causing this.

TL:DR the system that checks to see whether or not to “load” uses a different, stricter criteria than the actual loader, especially in PvP.

Background: Most infinite loading screens are caused by a shader precache error. The problem is that certain images will come already cached, so the shader doesn’t bother to render them again. This can be a problem if there’s a discrepancy between what is ACTUALLY precached and what the system THINKS is precached.

For instance, we know that if you are in BGs and see a teammate “in the ground” (ie not rendered) then when you die you’ll get an infinite load screen. You only see teammates in the ground when you are already in a group before loading in. You can’t force a render by zoning, but you can force a render by running really far away and then running back.

Summary: the system glitches and will assume certain images are “precached” when they are actually not. When a subsequent loading check happens, the check notices that the desired image is missing, which forces a “load” but then the loading screen thinks the image is already there.

So far this has been related to grouping with people in different zones or instances and then porting straight to them... the “going from out of range to into range” that usually forces a precache is skipped, but your precache system THINKS it’s loaded so it doesn’t bother to reload, forcing an infinite loop the next time you enter a real load screen.

But this is different. Same root problem (precache) but different cause.

This patch not only forced a change in the order in which images are rendered. It also changed the priority in which images are rendered. This means that some images, especially friendly player or enemy player images, will now be rendered sooner than before. If there is only limited computing resource available, it prioritizes the players over obscure weather evironlents, etc

But here’s the problem... the consoles already precached many of these characters. The shader files were already created, and the consoles don’t have the computing power to render everything twice. And I don’t think that ZOS can delete the shader shader cache file on the consoles like it can with PC...

So think back to that group bug. The system thinks you already precached your groupmate, but you DIDNT, and so when you hit a load screen it notices something is missing, but the loader doesn’t try to render something that’s already rendered... hence infinite.

Now imagine that instead of the system glitching because it thinks it already rendered your groupmate, imagine it glitching because it literally has already rendered everything, albeit on a different priority. Now it’s trying to render things in high quality that it rendered in low quality before (and vice versa) but those things are already rendered! So it hits the same infinite loop, but this time on everything.

Morgul667

PC EU i7
Cyrodill when resurecting, tp, critical rush charge
Dont use SSD

Used to be better but got way worst with Clockwork city patch

xXMichonneXx

Xbox One, game is on internal hard drive. Every single time I try to travel from keep to keep or die and try to rez at a keep, I end up having to log off and restart the game. This can happen after I die or also has happened going from the north gate to a keep. This has also occurred in overland areas of PVE.

firedrgn

I have only had two infinite load screens. 16 minutes . Restarted computer and it did not fix.

Tried again next day and habe not had problem since.

OutLaw_Nynx

PS4/NA
Regular PS4

I get long loadscreens with the following:

Cyrodiil
Traveling via wayshrine
Dying and using wayshrine
Loading in sometimes takes forever
Random portals (crow boss in CWC comes to mind)

mildlylucid

PC/NA
Intel Core i7-4710HQ 2.50GHz CPU
No SSD

Recently been getting long loading screens after dying in a Battleground. Doesn't happen all the time but when it does happen it'll happen for the next few deaths as well.
Seems to stay in the loading screen until the "If you remain inactive you will be kicked from battleground" message appears.

LifeIsAGrave

Platform: XBOX One s & Xbox One X Scorpio
Both on internal drives.

The loads happen everywhere off and on in PVE - requiring a dashboard. Then 10-60 minutes of thrying to relog with error 303's, and "You need an active/online profile", "You must be signed in...".

PVP is the worst. Once loaded in, I'd say you get 2-3 free teleports/death-ports before the game hangs in the endless loadscreens on travel. Sometimes it does it without even traveling anywhere.

Kuramas9tails

PS4 (standard)
North America

PVP and PVE.

Every time I die and have to resurrect, I get put in an inflate load screen and have to close the app. It's a 50/50 when porting from keep to keep and a 50/50 when going to a world boss in Clockwork.

saruhrose1

Similar issues as quoted
System: PS4 1st Gen, Hard drive is a replacement 2tb

Nothing specific to report. Sometimes I am able to load fine in areas, others I am not.
Cyrodill is the worst. If I die and try to respawn anywhere I get a load screen for about 5 min. I'll leave and go to the bathroom or get a drink and come back still In a load screen and I have to force close app. Can't believe I'm still paying eso plus and having all these issues. Pay the overtime ZOS. Figure it out. It's getting a bit old.

dotme wrote: »

System: PS4Pro
Zone: Cyrodiil mostly (It's where I live...lol)
Doing: Anything that triggers a load screen. That can be respawning at a keep or camp, fixing a wall, riding across the map and hitting one of those transition-zone load screens, or using wayshrines to travel to any keep or outpost.
Hard Drive: OEM - Out of the box, non-modified console

Additional Info: The load screens aren't "long" - they are infinite - they simply do not end no matter how long you wait for them. Force-closing the game and reloading is the only way out. I'm encountering them about 95% of the time.

I've deleted game save data, no improvement. Dropped a bunch of quests, no improvement. Tried 4K vs 1080 Enhanced, no improvement.

Normally the "spinning wheel" on the load screen "catches" and stutters during a successful load. The wheel spins freely when you're in an infinite load screen and it never pauses or stutters like it does on an ultimately good load. When that wheel doesn't hesitate while spinning, you know you're in for a restart.

One potentially helpful discovery... I was clearing nightblades out of Kingscrest last night (My alliance owned the keep and it was not flagged) and when they killed me inside the keep, I would always be able to respawn at that keep with no problem. Any attempt to fast travel to another keep, or the gate, though, was met with an infinite load.

Population doesn't seem to matter - This happens even with no-bars or one-bar per faction. Hope this helps...

- Edited to add hardware info

chenbot

• Regular PS4, NA.
• All PVE zones; non-DLC and DLC: Tamriel, Clockwork City, Hew's Bane, Gold Coast.
• Wayshrine for most, once at a portal to World Boss in Clockwork City.
• No SSD, but upgraded the orig HD for larger drive.

wunderer

In groups with party chat, and I load into an area. But the effect does not occur until I hit a reload screen after I already load into an area and I am running around. I was not using rapids.

A great example is in Mournhold but that is not always the place. Xbox One S North America. Internal drive.

i b Apathy

Xbox one, NA server. All eso data stored on hard drive/ disc. Cyrodill load screens 75% of the time respawning after deaths. Wayshrine transport to out posts. 50% of the time keeps flip and you get a load screen. Keep to keep wayshrines all cause load screens. I can't really call these long load screens because they are 99% of the time DC'S. Also another point to make in cyrodill alot of the time other players can interact with you while you are in a load screen and you can see/hear people in area chat .

Gigglez

Xbox one
NA
Every single thing that would require loadscreen in Cyrodiil causes infinite load screen.
Swapping to another app/game then immediately back to ESO causes a game reload.

Game is literally unplayable.
Not so sure I believe " we’ve made a number of performance optimizations resulting in better frame rate and shorter loading times. " from the patch notes...

geonsocal

Thogard wrote: »

I’ll tell you exactly what’s causing this.

TL:DR the system that checks to see whether or not to “load” uses a different, stricter criteria than the actual loader, especially in PvP.

Background: Most infinite loading screens are caused by a shader precache error. The problem is that certain images will come already cached, so the shader doesn’t bother to render them again. This can be a problem if there’s a discrepancy between what is ACTUALLY precached and what the system THINKS is precached.

For instance, we know that if you are in BGs and see a teammate “in the ground” (ie not rendered) then when you die you’ll get an infinite load screen. You only see teammates in the ground when you are already in a group before loading in. You can’t force a render by zoning, but you can force a render by running really far away and then running back.

Summary: the system glitches and will assume certain images are “precached” when they are actually not. When a subsequent loading check happens, the check notices that the desired image is missing, which forces a “load” but then the loading screen thinks the image is already there.

So far this has been related to grouping with people in different zones or instances and then porting straight to them... the “going from out of range to into range” that usually forces a precache is skipped, but your precache system THINKS it’s loaded so it doesn’t bother to reload, forcing an infinite loop the next time you enter a real load screen.

But this is different. Same root problem (precache) but different cause.

This patch not only forced a change in the order in which images are rendered. It also changed the priority in which images are rendered. This means that some images, especially friendly player or enemy player images, will now be rendered sooner than before. If there is only limited computing resource available, it prioritizes the players over obscure weather evironlents, etc

But here’s the problem... the consoles already precached many of these characters. The shader files were already created, and the consoles don’t have the computing power to render everything twice. And I don’t think that ZOS can delete the shader shader cache file on the consoles like it can with PC...

So think back to that group bug. The system thinks you already precached your groupmate, but you DIDNT, and so when you hit a load screen it notices something is missing, but the loader doesn’t try to render something that’s already rendered... hence infinite.

Now imagine that instead of the system glitching because it thinks it already rendered your groupmate, imagine it glitching because it literally has already rendered everything, albeit on a different priority. Now it’s trying to render things in high quality that it rendered in low quality before (and vice versa) but those things are already rendered! So it hits the same infinite loop, but this time on everything.

muchas gracias @Thogard ...I think you just melted my brain...what you wrote there sorta kinda made sense...

between your explanation and the fact zos is still testing after 4 days - i'm much less than highly encouraged...

a break from pvp for awhile - probably isn't such a bad thing...i'm sure I'll get a lot more done around the house

i b Apathy

I literally consider PvP as hardcore mode ....its no longer role play, it's legit one death and your out.

GhostRiDeR84

PS4 NA server
Regular PS4
All of the above posted about the load screens are happening

But also since the update it like my charcters cant run for more then 3-5sec then it slow down like am walking again. And it take like 10 sec to load the charcter when starting the game or switching area.

chenbot

GhostRiDeR84 wrote: »

And it take like 10 sec to load the charcter when starting the game or switching area.

Same. Loading into an area from a wayshrine makes my character disappear and seem invisible for a few seconds.

zacvanm

PS4 stock Hard Drive.
Infinite loads every time there’s a load screen in Cyrodiil.
Anytime I travel from wayshrine to wayshrine in EVERY PvE zone.
Travelled to an empty house (zero furnishings) and got infinite load.
Only workaround is if I travel to a player in a zone I want to go to and closing app as soon as I travel.

I understand the issue takes time to find and fix but I hope there will be some kind of compensation for not being able to play like we should. Maybe 2000 crowns

RebornV3x

Xbox One S NA server Internal Drive
Same problem with load screens mostly every other spawn in Cyrodill both in Kyne and Shor
Also I occasionally get it in pve when loading the game after selecting my character at the character select screen

But what I've noticed is when me and or my friend get these infinite load screens is our characters still load in at the teleported location but something after that isn't resolving and makes the load screen hang or never end.

Pwnyridah

System: regular PS4
Zone: Occurs everywhere. Cyrodiil, imperial city pvp, trials.
Doing: anything that causes you to zone can do it: using transit in cyrodiil, zoning between districts in IC, reloadui in trials, reviving from death, etc...
SSD: yes

priforce

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

Hello everyone,

We’re creating this thread so there’s a central place to have discussions and provide updates on the long loading screens that many of you have been experiencing. We know this issue is extremely frustrating, and for some, is preventing you from playing all together. We’re doing everything we can to get this fixed as quickly as possible, and have made it a top priority for our engineers. Our QA team has been testing various scenarios so we can collect as much data as possible, including hopping in and out of PvE zones, dungeons, Trials, Cyrodiil, and Battlegrounds, all with varying amounts of players (we’re utilizing bots for situations requiring higher numbers). We’ve also been able to pin down a solid reproducible case for us to investigate that our own Game Director Matt Firor was encountering.

As of now, our only update is that our engineers and programmers are still working to pin point exactly what’s causing this. Until we know, we won’t be able to put in a fix. As for what you can do to help…

• Let us know which system and megaserver you’re on if you’re currently having this issue.
  • If you’re on PS4, please specify if you’re on a regular PS4 or PS4 Pro.
  • If on Xbox, please specify if you’re using an Xbox One, Xbox One S, or Xbox One X.
  • If you’re a PC player, let us know what sort of processor you’re running.
• Is there any specific area or zone you consistently see a long loading screen?
• What are you doing when you experience a long loading screen?
  • I.e.: Using a wayshrine, resurrecting, looting, etc.
• Are you utilizing any sort of SSD?
• If you play on Xbox, is the game installed on the internal hard drive or an external hard drive?
• If you’re on PS4, are you using the first party hard drive or a replacement?

Thanks for your patience on this, everyone. To reiterate, our priority right now is fixing this issue as soon as we can. We’ll provide updates in this thread as we receive them.

PS4Pro and happens whenever I'm posting to different keeps in pvp, or when entering the next part of a dungeon. Original hard drive.