Zone load times

[Harlan]

Folks,

I've been frustrated with my zone load times since returning to EQ. I no longer make any zone time in under 30 seconds and zoning into PoK or the Guild Lobby is often of the order of minutes.

I pulled out some old log files from when last I played (2005) and looked at the time I got the "Loading ..." message to "you have entered ..." I never saw a load time longer than 27 seconds (PoK) and usually I was done loading in 12 seconds or less.

I used to play on (slow) DSL but now have cable so my bandwidth should be higher.

I can't imagine it's a computer hardware issue. My current computer would run circles around my computer of 5 years ago. It's not a disk issue as I'm running off an SSD that maxes the SATA bus on consecutive reads. I think I've got all my graphics settings set such that things are uncompressed, etc. and ready to go but perhaps someone can point me at more obscure settings.

Has anyone else noticed that zoning in EQ takes longer than it used to? Perhaps someone that spends much time analyzing their logs might be able to pull up some ~5 year old log files and see if they used to zone faster.

Otherwise I'm open to suggestions on how to speed up my zoning process.

Thanks in advance,

Harlan
The Rathe, err,... Zebuxoruk, ... Xegony

[Hulkling]

Ain't there an option to store zone files so they dont' have to boot up each time you zone? I vaguely remember something like this......

[varutia]

There was a lot of problem with loading zone at one stage, SOE put in zone cache thing to speed it up, but I think at end they fix the game up enough that it is recommend people to actually turn that option off when playing. Still worth the trouble to play with it to see if it makes any difference for you.

[balladish]

There is a setting deep within the Options -> Graphics -> Advanced window in the bottom left hand corner where you can set memory usage to high or low. I forget the exact name of the dropdown list. I have found that setting this to low - namely, do not load all graphics as you zone in, but have the game paint zone surfaces/mob surfaces as you spend time in the zone - speeds things up a LOT.

[Normy]

Not being in front of my computer, I can't give exact instructions (I'm at work), but there is an option to help control memory usage. The default is the highest memory usage possible, and makes it appear that you load twice every time you zone. They said it was actually an optimization, but then allow you to adjust the settings so not as much of it is being loaded into ram at one time.

The second load bar that plays across is damn annoying, because it's length depends strongly on how many people are around you. It loads all character animations into memory as well as a bunch of other data that probably does make it slighly more smooth running around, but slower to actually zone. Play with those settings a bit and see if it helps.

What OS are you using?

Keep in mind that the game has gotten much more complex in the last 5 years, with alot more data hitting the generally used game files and global graphics files. Still, taking minutes to zone anywhere is a problem. My computer I'm using for EQ is about 5 years old and it never takes me that long to zone into PoK or lobby. I run with 1.5 gigs of DDR RAM, my whopping 2.0ghz athalon 64-bit processor, and my bada** 256mb GeForce 6800 graphics card all running from my IDE hard drive, and I zone in about 20-30 seconds at the worst.