[Solved] 1.2.1 - loading time for large ships longer than earlier versions?

[Magzimum]

Ok, so I have a large ship, of around 700-1000 parts at the moment (depends which version). I have launched huge contraptions in 1.1.2 before, and they did load slower than the smaller ones. However, since I play 1.2.1, the loading time has gone up to 2-4 minutes before I see my ship on the launchpad, whereas in 1.1.2 it was certainly less than 30 seconds. It is really significantly longer than in 1.1.2, to the point that I now grab my phone to read the news while the launchpad is loading. Does anyone know what causes it, and is there a fix? 

This issue, if it is an issue, occurs with the stock game. (I generally play with only KER installed, but I just tested it without KER and the issue remains). I play 1.2.1.1604 (LinuxPlayer).

Unfortunately, the ships that I built in 1.2.1 are incompatible with 1.2, so I cannot use that older version to test whether it has anything to do with the ship specifically. But the slower loading time happens with multiple versions of the same ship, which each have hundreds of part different. I do know that I launched a 997 part ship in 1.1.2, which was fine and loaded reasonably fast, so my computer can handle the load.  

Not sure if completely related, but I get the feeling that the other screens, including the main menu, also load slower than in the past. But here we're talking possible 1 second slower, so not a deal-braking problem. 

Edited November 7, 2016 by Magzimum
[Solved]

[sal_vager]

It is going to depend heavily on the vessel, especially if lots of fairings are used, a lot of things are calculated and cached while launching to avoid doing it later on, helping with frame rate while in flight, but certain vessels are going to take longer to reach the launchpad.

There's not really a 'fix' for this as it is one of the costs for higher performance while in the flight scene.

Out of interest though can you post the vessel?

I may still have some craft that NathanKell and Claw gave me that showed this quite severely.

Here, the CLS-H Block 4 VB LT and the Helios 1 LT, these used to take a long time but thanks to their work they don't any more, so your ship must be a beast.

Edit:

Actually, can you test without those mods and check the log for spam, thanks.

[Majorjim!]

Craft with a lot of farings in 1.2.1 now take an enormous ammount of time to load. A bug report has been submitted and it has been confirms by myself and a few others too. I gave up and quit the game during loading but a more patient player let it load, it took 20 minutes.. 

 This did not occur in earlier versions.

Edited November 7, 2016 by Majorjim!

[Magzimum]

I can confirm that the fairing was the cause of the huge loading time. This monster of a craft took me several minutes to load.

Below you can see what the fairing contained: lots of small parts of my lander(s). Without the fairing, the load time is reduced to at most 15 seconds. 

Thanks guys, for an awesome answer. You have solved my problem. I can now continue testing the launcher, using no fairing (most explosions happen very early on before drag sets in anyway). Then I will place the fairing quite late in the test-phase... (or perhaps I find out I don't need one - but I doubt that).

Edited November 7, 2016 by Magzimum

[sal_vager]

Or just one big fairing to cover the whole thing...

[Magzimum]

8 minutes ago, sal_vager said:

Or just one big fairing to cover the whole thing...

How would that look? Wouldn't an even larger fairing cause even more delay in loading? 

[sal_vager]

It might look unprintable, and I don't know, one fairing might be alright especially if it's set to fewer sides and to clamshell mode, the ships I posted above use one fairing each and they load fine.

Edit:

Actually, thinking about it it's probably due to the payload, as every part has to be checked for collision with the fairings which are solid until staged.

Is it still really slow for you with no payload?

[Magzimum]

@sal_vager, I took the same launcher, removed the entire payload, and placed an empty large fairing in its place (roughly same shape, same total mass of fairing (10 tons)). It loads in 15 seconds. So, it's the combination of a complex payload with a large fairing that causes the delay in loading. 

[edit] I also tried to change the fairing into just 2 sides, with Clamshell enabled, but that did not reduce loading time at all - it's long enough to make a pot of tea and eat some fruit. (So, there are advantages to it too, lol). 

I may need to mention that in the design that loads so slowly, the fairing is mounted upside down, with the fairing 'deck' all the way at the top - so that I could decouple it. Not sure if the upside down use of the fairing may have something to do with it too, but I thought I should just mention it - just in case.

[edit 2] Sorry that I haven't tried to download the .craft files you supplied - Dropbox asked me to make an account, and then I just went with all the other suggestions you gave me, which already solved my problem. 

In summary:

• Huge & complex payload + large fairing (regular settings) -> slow
• Huge & complex payload + large fairing (clamshell) -> slow
• Huge & complex payload + NO fairing -> normal
• No payload + large fairing (regular settings) -> normal

Understanding what causes it makes it easier to live with. Hopefully it gets solved in future versions. Thanks again for your help! 

 

Edited November 7, 2016 by Magzimum

[sal_vager]

As I thought, not the fairings alone, the invertedness shouldn't be a problem but comparing to a similar ship with the fairing the usual way up wouldn't hurt.

Also, I bet a tiny fairing that's stuffed with loads of parts (not phsicsless though) also loads slow.