What is it with the Infinite Loading Screens lately?

Slurg · December 2014

grimsfield wrote: »

ETA till mods move this thread over to support in an attempt to kill it?

Well it hasn't been moved yet like the others and the response is "we'll look into it" instead of disable your add-ons, refresh your router, blame your ISP, etc. So maybe this is our Christmas gift!

On a side note, I installed a bunch of add-ons and I don't seem to get the loading screen problem anymore. But that could be as random as anything else anyone has done.

Oh and I recall seeing a thread a while back where someone had complained they were told by CS the minimum system requirements went up with one of the more recent patches and their PC no longer met the minimum. There may be something to that.

SteveCampsOut · December 2014

Lord_Kreegan wrote: »

SteveCampsOut wrote: »

... 24 Gigs RAM ...
So, I suggest a new PC is in order....

ESO is a 32-bit application. It can't even address 4GB. So, even if you had 16 TB, it wouldn't affect gameplay. Sorry to pop your bubble.

Hope you got a 64-bit OS or you wasted your money.

The graphic card makes a difference of course, but if we all have to buy a new rig every time a new game comes out, that's the deathknell for that game... and some devs and a whole marketing department needs to be fired.

In the for what it's worth column, whenever I buy a PC it's a top of the line monster because I intend to get at least 5 years out of it. This rig cost $5K.

My Old PC, 500 Gig Boot HD, 8 Gigs RAM and 2 GIGS Dedicated Video RAM. I'm not saying the 24 GIG's of RAM had anything to do with it, obviously something in the different specs did though.

Aeratus · December 2014

Infinite loading screens are extremely common for me.

Moreover, when they happen to me, they also happen to at least one member of the group. So I think the problem is related to the server's processing, and not directly related to the client side.

Lord_Kreegan · December 2014

UPDATE:

Deleted the cache file again; it did take a little longer to load the game as has been previously suggested was the case from Beta.

Played about 20 minutes in Grahtwood. No hitching. Went into a delve; no extended loading screen; no subsequent hitching.

Exited the delve; no extended loading screen; no subsequent hitching.

Deliberately used a wayshrine to go into Elden Root since it was mentioned as a hitching nightmare. No extended loading screen, but -- TA DA!! -- still a hitching nightmare...

Exited the game. Deleted the cache file again. Restarted the game with the same character in Elden Root... no hitching... I didn't stick around very long, however, to see if the problem recurred.

The difference between the first Elden Root case and the second is use of wayshrine teleportation to get there, so that may be related to the hitching problem. So, use a wayshrine to go where you've got to go, exit the game, delete the cache, and then re-enter the game at that location?? Shouldn't be like that, but if it makes playing in the big cities better, maybe I'll try that.

I'm not prepared to say the cache file is associated with the hyperextended / infinite loading screen problem, but at this point I have no doubt it is related to the graphical hitching. And there seems to be a link between the problems and teleporting, but I need to explore that further.

If so, it's similar to the SW-TOR cache problem.

I could make some suggestions as to the root cause, but ZOS doesn't pay me enough to solve their design issues... ;-)

Robocles · December 2014

Lord_Kreegan wrote: »

UPDATE:

Deleted the cache file again; it did take a little longer to load the game as has been previously suggested was the case from Beta.

Played about 20 minutes in Grahtwood. No hitching. Went into a delve; no extended loading screen; no subsequent hitching.

Exited the delve; no extended loading screen; no subsequent hitching.

Deliberately used a wayshrine to go into Elden Root since it was mentioned as a hitching nightmare. No extended loading screen, but -- TA DA!! -- still a hitching nightmare...

Exited the game. Deleted the cache file again. Restarted the game with the same character in Elden Root... no hitching... I didn't stick around very long, however, to see if the problem recurred.

The difference between the first Elden Root case and the second is use of wayshrine teleportation to get there, so that may be related to the hitching problem. So, use a wayshrine to go where you've got to go, exit the game, delete the cache, and then re-enter the game at that location?? Shouldn't be like that, but if it makes playing in the big cities better, maybe I'll try that.

I'm not prepared to say the cache file is associated with the hyperextended / infinite loading screen problem, but at this point I have no doubt it is related to the graphical hitching. And there seems to be a link between the problems and teleporting, but I need to explore that further.

If so, it's similar to the SW-TOR cache problem.

I could make some suggestions as to the root cause, but ZOS doesn't pay me enough to solve their design issues... ;-)

I have some blue food... is that enough to solve their design issue?

hutchinsonhatch · December 2014

Lord_Kreegan wrote: »

hutchinsonhatch wrote: »

ers101284b14_ESO wrote: »

It only happens to certain people at certain times because....reasons.

I can actually reproduce this phenomenon in Auridon, when I run from wayshrine to crafting area immediately after my character appears on the screen. I assume, the content hasn't been completely loaded into memory.

Yes.

I assume they're using caching techniques to minimize loading times for graphics when you cross zone/sub-zone boundaries, but caching introduces its own problems. When there is a major change (such as using a wayshrine to move between areas), the engine has to not only load the new vertices, textures, etc. for graphical objects, it also has to clear out the objects already in the cache. Since they're using a disk cache (same as SW-TOR), you can hear the disk thrashing...

BUT...

It shouldn't lock up the game.

In SW-TOR, you could actually delete the disk cache before playing (the engine simply created a new one) and the game ran much more smoothly for a couple of hours (no need to clear out the cache). I haven't found an identifiable caching file for ESO yet, so it's probably embedded in the other files.

To be honest, I didn't change any settings after installation. I don't even mind that "issue" I have, for I just have to wait a moment before running to give my old machine the time it needs to catch up.

My graphics card, on the other hand, suffers from a known issue that it doesn't always properly empty the VRAM and starts to create a kind of swap file, but that is a different story.

hutchinsonhatch · December 2014

Robocles wrote: »

SteveCampsOut wrote: »

I have to suggest that as they've been updating this game and adding content right and left, it is highly likely that it is outgrowing the original minimum system requirements. I was experiencing these loading screens with increasing frequency and duration until I broke down and bought myself a new MSI GT70 gaming laptop with 24 Gigs RAM, 6 Gigs dedicated Video RAM, 256GIG SSD Boot drive and 1 TB HD. I no longer see ANY random loading screens! Ok, well I think I saw one once for a microsecond but I could have been hallucinating..... So, I suggest a new PC is in order....

If that's what is needed to play, then they need to hire real coders.

Your comment about changes to the game has merit, though. I would imagine certain areas are not very well optimized for rendering.

No, I can confirm that it runs beautifully on an Intel Core2Duo E6750 with 2 gig of RAM and an Radeon HD 5850 with 1 gig of VRAM.
You just need to know your machine's weaknesses, like you don't hurry your grand-dad through intense traffic

Robocles · December 2014

hutchinsonhatch wrote: »

Robocles wrote: »

SteveCampsOut wrote: »

I have to suggest that as they've been updating this game and adding content right and left, it is highly likely that it is outgrowing the original minimum system requirements. I was experiencing these loading screens with increasing frequency and duration until I broke down and bought myself a new MSI GT70 gaming laptop with 24 Gigs RAM, 6 Gigs dedicated Video RAM, 256GIG SSD Boot drive and 1 TB HD. I no longer see ANY random loading screens! Ok, well I think I saw one once for a microsecond but I could have been hallucinating..... So, I suggest a new PC is in order....

If that's what is needed to play, then they need to hire real coders.

Your comment about changes to the game has merit, though. I would imagine certain areas are not very well optimized for rendering.

No, I can confirm that it runs beautifully on an Intel Core2Duo E6750 with 2 gig of RAM and an Radeon HD 5850 with 1 gig of VRAM.
You just need to know your machine's weaknesses, like you don't hurry your grand-dad through intense traffic

I can confirm it runs great on my machine, too... except in certain situations... which is what the main thrust of this thread was about.

The fact is that certain areas are poorly optimized.

Or did you have some specific point to make?

NotSo · December 2014

You let a load screen go for 30 minutes? I only give em about 30 seconds before I hit the ol' alt+f4.

Robocles · December 2014

ian92415b14_ESO wrote: »

You let a load screen go for 30 minutes? I only give em about 30 seconds before I hit the ol' alt+f4.

Yeah... same here. Does that make me impatient?

hutchinsonhatch · December 2014

Robocles wrote: »

Or did you have some specific point to make?

Did you?

Moonshadow66 · December 2014

Dagoth_Rac wrote: »

Olern wrote: »

I get this quite often when I zone into Grahtwood (Elden Root)and run to the Undaunted area.. As soon as I get ready to leave the tree, this happens.

I get this a lot when leaving the big tree in Elden Root, too. I do Undaunted from Stormhaven, not Grahtwood, but I still see this unexpected loading screen when leaving the big tree. Only seems to happen when leaving via the south arch/exit of the big tree. The other two ways in and out of the big tree are OK.

While I only get that loading screen via the south exit, I get universally bad performance in Elden Root. I avoid that town as much as possible. If
I am in AD, I much prefer making my "home base" Vulkhel Guard or Raw'khel because I can get my vend/bank/repair/decon done so much faster due to the superior game performance compared to Elden Root.

I have tweaked all kinds of graphical settings and they make little difference in Elden Root. FPS just drops to the teens and single digits constantly. I have similar problems in caves in Grahtwood.

With every character of mine that has been in Elden Root so far, I was trying to avoid staying there longer than I had to. At least on my end, it's one of the worst performance impacts of the whole game. But, as I do get these loading screens (infinite or too long, or crashes during a loading screen) in some other parts of the game pretty often, in Elden Root it just stutters like crazy. It's the tree, sometimes I'd really like to chop it down.

And the more things were added to the game (Guild Traders with their own "clutter", and additional to that, all that Undaunted clutter), the more does the game stutter in cities in general. Or it cannot load anything anymore (to get back to the original topic).
But, this alone cannot be the only reason for the loading screens, though, since it happens trying to leave dungeons and such as well which are not located in cities.

Lord_Kreegan · December 2014

LAST UPDATE:

Curse of being old, I woke up at three this morning, so I've been doing some more testing.

Using different alts (all in different zones), I deleted the cache, played the zone for some time, then exited the game to delete the cache and then play a different zone.

No graphical hitching... at all.
No extended-time loading screens other than the very first screen when the game is loading and recreating the file.

So, I conclude the cache file is related to the two problems, if not the cause (as in a corrupted file over time).

YMMV. Anyone suffering hitching and loading screen problems should at least try this workaround and then report on it here so others will know whether or not it works.

Lord_Kreegan · December 2014

Robocles wrote: »

ian92415b14_ESO wrote: »

You let a load screen go for 30 minutes? I only give em about 30 seconds before I hit the ol' alt+f4.

Yeah... same here. Does that make me impatient?

Obviously you guys haven't been married for over 40 years if thirty minutes is too long to wait...

grimsfield · December 2014

Lord_Kreegan wrote: »

LAST UPDATE:

Curse of being old, I woke up at three this morning, so I've been doing some more testing.

Using different alts (all in different zones), I deleted the cache, played the zone for some time, then exited the game to delete the cache and then play a different zone.

No graphical hitching... at all.
No extended-time loading screens other than the very first screen when the game is loading and recreating the file.

So, I conclude the cache file is related to the two problems, if not the cause (as in a corrupted file over time).

YMMV. Anyone suffering hitching and loading screen problems should at least try this workaround and then report on it here so others will know whether or not it works.

Were you grouped for any of this? Did you try porting to a player in your group? Were you grouped inside a dungeon and then did you try porting to a player in the group?

Sukenlihol · December 2014

Hey, ESO gives a chance for us to spend time in the real life, but you're watching the circle, aren't you?

Meh.. Don't worry.. me too

My wife says: "What is it?" "Why are you watching that picture for hours?" "is this a game?"

AshySamurai · December 2014

Totomushen wrote: »

Hey, ESO gives a chance for us to spend time in the real life, but you're watching the circle, aren't you?

Meh.. Don't worry.. me too

My wife says: "What is it?" "Why are you watching that picture for hours?" "is this a game?"

And you answering: "Yes, honey, this is the best part of this game."

Robocles · December 2014

hutchinsonhatch wrote: »

Robocles wrote: »

Or did you have some specific point to make?

Did you?

Well, yes. Your post did nothing to add to the conversation.

But, if you enjoy bragging about your machine, good for you.

Robocles · December 2014

Lord_Kreegan wrote: »

Robocles wrote: »

ian92415b14_ESO wrote: »

You let a load screen go for 30 minutes? I only give em about 30 seconds before I hit the ol' alt+f4.

Yeah... same here. Does that make me impatient?

Obviously you guys haven't been married for over 40 years if thirty minutes is too long to wait...

O.O

Lord_Kreegan · December 2014

grimsfield wrote: »

Lord_Kreegan wrote: »

LAST UPDATE:

Curse of being old, I woke up at three this morning, so I've been doing some more testing.

Using different alts (all in different zones), I deleted the cache, played the zone for some time, then exited the game to delete the cache and then play a different zone.

No graphical hitching... at all.
No extended-time loading screens other than the very first screen when the game is loading and recreating the file.

So, I conclude the cache file is related to the two problems, if not the cause (as in a corrupted file over time).

YMMV. Anyone suffering hitching and loading screen problems should at least try this workaround and then report on it here so others will know whether or not it works.

Were you grouped for any of this? Did you try porting to a player in your group? Were you grouped inside a dungeon and then did you try porting to a player in the group?

No, for testing purposes, strictly solo... any fix solo-world should extend to grouping... I would hope... unless Zos really, truly, completely has their proverbial heads up their asses when it comes to coding. Don't mean to insult anyone, but I've been around a long damn time and -- with all the years I spent in senior management -- don't have a lot of tolerance for stupidity... and that would be sheer and absolute stupidity.

grimsfield · December 2014

Lord_Kreegan wrote: »

grimsfield wrote: »

Lord_Kreegan wrote: »

LAST UPDATE:

Curse of being old, I woke up at three this morning, so I've been doing some more testing.

Using different alts (all in different zones), I deleted the cache, played the zone for some time, then exited the game to delete the cache and then play a different zone.

No graphical hitching... at all.
No extended-time loading screens other than the very first screen when the game is loading and recreating the file.

So, I conclude the cache file is related to the two problems, if not the cause (as in a corrupted file over time).

YMMV. Anyone suffering hitching and loading screen problems should at least try this workaround and then report on it here so others will know whether or not it works.

Were you grouped for any of this? Did you try porting to a player in your group? Were you grouped inside a dungeon and then did you try porting to a player in the group?

No, for testing purposes, strictly solo... any fix solo-world should extend to grouping... I would hope... unless Zos really, truly, completely has their proverbial heads up their asses when it comes to coding. Don't mean to insult anyone, but I've been around a long damn time and -- with all the years I spent in senior management -- don't have a lot of tolerance for stupidity... and that would be sheer and absolute stupidity.

Should is my favorite word... You would think that right? However I have never really noticed the loading screens when I was ungrouped. This appears to be a problem with grouping.

I would suggest you try testing again, but this time from within a group.

Rune_Relic · December 2014

Normally when my PVE performance goes crap.... its exactly the time I see EP has dropped the scroll.....DC has picked up the scroll.

So I put all this down to server load created in PVP. One of the reasons I play at 11pm-2am. Although many more people seem to be night capping lately.

Had my 1st crash to desktop fighting young miss tharn and the DC finale. MIdway through the battle. Just as the scroll reports were going nuts.

Lord_Kreegan · December 2014

grimsfield wrote: »

Lord_Kreegan wrote: »

grimsfield wrote: »

Lord_Kreegan wrote: »

LAST UPDATE:

Curse of being old, I woke up at three this morning, so I've been doing some more testing.

Using different alts (all in different zones), I deleted the cache, played the zone for some time, then exited the game to delete the cache and then play a different zone.

No graphical hitching... at all.
No extended-time loading screens other than the very first screen when the game is loading and recreating the file.

So, I conclude the cache file is related to the two problems, if not the cause (as in a corrupted file over time).

YMMV. Anyone suffering hitching and loading screen problems should at least try this workaround and then report on it here so others will know whether or not it works.

Were you grouped for any of this? Did you try porting to a player in your group? Were you grouped inside a dungeon and then did you try porting to a player in the group?

No, for testing purposes, strictly solo... any fix solo-world should extend to grouping... I would hope... unless Zos really, truly, completely has their proverbial heads up their asses when it comes to coding. Don't mean to insult anyone, but I've been around a long damn time and -- with all the years I spent in senior management -- don't have a lot of tolerance for stupidity... and that would be sheer and absolute stupidity.

Should is my favorite word... You would think that right? However I have never really noticed the loading screens when I was ungrouped. This appears to be a problem with grouping.

I would suggest you try testing again, but this time from within a group.

No...

Would never get group concurrence to do so... I refuse to play the guild "dynamics" game with all the guild politics and guild egos and guild CRAP in general, not at my age, and that is the only way to test this sort of thing at a group level since PUGs are unlikely to concur with the need to play these testing games... and besides, it occurs all the time during solo play, so testing it in groups proves nothing.

Lord_Kreegan · December 2014

Rune_Relic wrote: »

Normally when my PVE performance goes crap.... its exactly the time I see EP has dropped the scroll.....DC has picked up the scroll.

So I put all this down to server load created in PVP. One of the reasons I play at 11pm-2am. Although many more people seem to be night capping lately.

Had my 1st crash to desktop fighting young miss tharn and the DC finale. MIdway through the battle. Just as the scroll reports were going nuts.

I think that's a different issue...

Banners upon banners upon banners telling me that Joe Blow has dropped a scoll so Billy Bob could pick it up so Billy Bob could get some bogus achievement is not the same thing... that's just stupid coding relative to HFE...

grimsfield · December 2014

Lord_Kreegan wrote: »

grimsfield wrote: »

Lord_Kreegan wrote: »

grimsfield wrote: »

Lord_Kreegan wrote: »

LAST UPDATE:

Curse of being old, I woke up at three this morning, so I've been doing some more testing.

Using different alts (all in different zones), I deleted the cache, played the zone for some time, then exited the game to delete the cache and then play a different zone.

No graphical hitching... at all.
No extended-time loading screens other than the very first screen when the game is loading and recreating the file.

So, I conclude the cache file is related to the two problems, if not the cause (as in a corrupted file over time).

YMMV. Anyone suffering hitching and loading screen problems should at least try this workaround and then report on it here so others will know whether or not it works.

Were you grouped for any of this? Did you try porting to a player in your group? Were you grouped inside a dungeon and then did you try porting to a player in the group?

No, for testing purposes, strictly solo... any fix solo-world should extend to grouping... I would hope... unless Zos really, truly, completely has their proverbial heads up their asses when it comes to coding. Don't mean to insult anyone, but I've been around a long damn time and -- with all the years I spent in senior management -- don't have a lot of tolerance for stupidity... and that would be sheer and absolute stupidity.

Should is my favorite word... You would think that right? However I have never really noticed the loading screens when I was ungrouped. This appears to be a problem with grouping.

I would suggest you try testing again, but this time from within a group.

No...

Would never get group concurrence to do so... I refuse to play the guild "dynamics" game with all the guild politics and guild egos and guild CRAP in general, not at my age, and that is the only way to test this sort of thing at a group level since PUGs are unlikely to concur with the need to play these testing games... and besides, it occurs all the time during solo play, so testing it in groups proves nothing.

Well im not a group racist (please forgive the phrasing) and I can say for sure, these loading screen occur a lot more when you are in a group then they do when you aren't.

Lord_Kreegan · December 2014

grimsfield wrote: »

Lord_Kreegan wrote: »

grimsfield wrote: »

Lord_Kreegan wrote: »

grimsfield wrote: »

Lord_Kreegan wrote: »

LAST UPDATE:

Curse of being old, I woke up at three this morning, so I've been doing some more testing.

Using different alts (all in different zones), I deleted the cache, played the zone for some time, then exited the game to delete the cache and then play a different zone.

No graphical hitching... at all.
No extended-time loading screens other than the very first screen when the game is loading and recreating the file.

So, I conclude the cache file is related to the two problems, if not the cause (as in a corrupted file over time).

YMMV. Anyone suffering hitching and loading screen problems should at least try this workaround and then report on it here so others will know whether or not it works.

Were you grouped for any of this? Did you try porting to a player in your group? Were you grouped inside a dungeon and then did you try porting to a player in the group?

No, for testing purposes, strictly solo... any fix solo-world should extend to grouping... I would hope... unless Zos really, truly, completely has their proverbial heads up their asses when it comes to coding. Don't mean to insult anyone, but I've been around a long damn time and -- with all the years I spent in senior management -- don't have a lot of tolerance for stupidity... and that would be sheer and absolute stupidity.

Should is my favorite word... You would think that right? However I have never really noticed the loading screens when I was ungrouped. This appears to be a problem with grouping.

I would suggest you try testing again, but this time from within a group.

No...

Would never get group concurrence to do so... I refuse to play the guild "dynamics" game with all the guild politics and guild egos and guild CRAP in general, not at my age, and that is the only way to test this sort of thing at a group level since PUGs are unlikely to concur with the need to play these testing games... and besides, it occurs all the time during solo play, so testing it in groups proves nothing.

Well im not a group racist (please forgive the phrasing) and I can say for sure, these loading screen occur a lot more when you are in a group then they do when you aren't.

Need to test that separately then... are you volunteering? Please say "yes"... I'm an old dog [Get off of my lawn!!] and not an appropriate animal to test the games' grouping problems. I only group when I need to (not against it; I actually like PUGs, but hate the politics of grouping), so I haven't seen an increased problem while grouping.

OrphanHelgen · December 2014

Update: Me and my friend are leveling alts. Around lvl 20 in deshann EP EU. This loading bug have happened 4 times in one hour. Both of us.,

Lord_Kreegan · December 2014

OrphanHelgen wrote: »

Update: Me and my friend are leveling alts. Around lvl 20 in deshann EP EU. This loading bug have happened 4 times in one hour. Both of us.,

Do us all a facor: delete the cache file and play a while, then let us know if there is a difference in what you are experiencing.

If there is, then it confirms what I've suspected. If not, then we need to research this further...

I'm absolutely 100% sure this isn't netcode, so European experience Vs American experience should be the same.

Okay... I'm taking a break... need some Scotch (I hate to say it, but European whiskey beats American whiskey hands down).

Kevinmon · December 2014

SO MANY LOAD SCREENS!!!