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The Witcher 2TW2 sometimes extremely slow to start/load(23 posts)(23 posts)
(23 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted May 31, 2011
I have a problem that isn't exactly specific to TW2, but I thought someone here might still have some insight.

Sometimes, particularly when my PC has been on for a few hours, the game (GOG version) is extremely slow to load and savegames take such a long time I've just given up as the loading circle keeps spinning away seemingly endlessly. Opening the task manager actually shows the game loading into memory quite slowly. I think the game uses 700-1000MB of RAM while running, and after a couple minutes of loading it might only be up to 300MB or so.

When things are alright, the game takes 10-20s to load and savegame load times are reasonable. Also, lighter programs run fine with no apparent performance change whether this problem is occurring or not.

My setup is less than a year old, no malware found on scans with multiple programs (avast, malwarebytes, advanced system care). The specs are as follows:
Win 7 home premium
Core i5-750
4GB RAM
ATI Radeon HD 5700 1GB
SSD system drive, dedicated separate software drive, both seemingly functioning fine with plenty of space left, not fragmented.

What gives.. anyone?
No posts in this topic were marked as the solution yet. If you can help, add your reply
Posted May 31, 2011
The times I have seen long load times, I remove a bunch of old savegames. That fixes it for me.
Posted May 31, 2011
Thanks for trying, but removing all but the newest few savegames didn't do a thing. And I think whatever this is, it also affects the time it takes for the launcher to load. Even that seems sluggish and the game loads very slowly, as I explained.
Posted May 31, 2011
Sounds like you may have an overall issue with your PC, rather than just the game itself - but make a shortcut from the witcher2.exe located in the game \bin folder and start the game from that. The launcher has some weird tendancy to hang, or take forever to shut itself down.

Simply don't use the launcher, unless you need to change something in it's options.
Posted May 31, 2011
You could try turning off unnecessary background tasks. A lot of programs leave a bit of themselves running, so as to start up faster, and you don't need, say, iTunes, eagerly standing by if you're playing a game.
Posted May 31, 2011
i think im experiencing a similar issue, my workaround is this one:
I reload a previous savegame, after a bit the circle is spinning i press CTRL-ALT-TAB and i go on desktop, i click into the task manager window doing anyway nothing, at this point i ususally experience a 2 second freeze, after that i ALT-TAB in game i click the screen and i press esc.
For some mysterious reasons at this point the game starts.
I have the feeling about that the game after a reload stay frozen for some reason in the loading screen, while actually the game is ready, duno why, but this workaround is working for me.

Edit:
Intel E8500 (dual core duo 3.2ghz)
3 gb ram
ATI 5770 1 gb
Post edited May 31, 2011 by gas.gas
Posted May 31, 2011
updated my graphics card help my load times - your 5700 is better than my 5450 my load times are less than 2-3 minutes. Before updating my card, it was 30 minutes!!!

May want to check your to make sure you have the latest driver for your card.

Another thing you can do is in Task Manager, change the priority of the witcher to high. View update speed - select witcher. While there you may want to make sure nothing is hogging your system.

Also, check your rrating and perforance info: Control Panel - System & Maintenance Performance info & Tools -- you want a rating of 4 or better.
Posted May 31, 2011
30 minutes to load? So you think 2-3 minutes is acceptable? There are some serious issues at play here. No one should have a PC that takes that long to load.

Even if you have a lot of "startup stuff", you should still be at a stable (loaded) desktop in a minute, maybe a minute+. First thing to do is get rid of all the startup stuff, and simply make shortcuts to it so you can start it when you need it. Do you really need Office and iTunes running in the background while you're trying to play a game?
Posted May 31, 2011
Thanks everyone.
avatar
Peetz: Sounds like you may have an overall issue with your PC, rather than just the game itself ... Simply don't use the launcher.
I definitely think I do, as I said this isn't specific to TW2. Unfortunately, bypassing the launcher didn't help at all.

To clarify, I have no unnecessary background tasks running, I like to keep a clean machine to limit bs like this to a minimum. I think I'm pretty good with basic Windows stuff, so this issue isn't likely to have a very obvious solution like that. Windows 7 is still surprising me though (10+ GB winsxs folder and still growing...) so I guess it might be some "feature" in the OS I've never thought of (along the lines of automatic defrag, search indexing etc.)

Like I said, something seems to be happening that makes the PC act sluggish loading TW2 after being on for a few hours. Restarting the computer and playing the game seems to work, even after playing for hours it doesn't slow down as long as the game started up fine originally. I've also found the game to be otherwise quite stable with maybe one crash in an entire playthrough.
Post edited May 31, 2011 by Ravenburger
Posted May 31, 2011
each savegame file has an associated bitmap preview shot that will load when you open the save menu.
Post edited May 31, 2011 by soldiergeralt
Posted May 31, 2011
I get long load times sometimes.. no idea why, like 5 minutes + ..

I find if I alt tab out, and back in.. it loads within a few moments

quite odd
Posted May 31, 2011
avatar
Ravenburger: Thanks everyone.
avatar
Peetz: Sounds like you may have an overall issue with your PC, rather than just the game itself ... Simply don't use the launcher.
avatar
Ravenburger: I definitely think I do, as I said this isn't specific to TW2. Unfortunately, bypassing the launcher didn't help at all.

To clarify, I have no unnecessary background tasks running, I like to keep a clean machine to limit bs like this to a minimum. I think I'm pretty good with basic Windows stuff, so this issue isn't likely to have a very obvious solution like that. Windows 7 is still surprising me though (10+ GB winsxs folder and still growing...) so I guess it might be some "feature" in the OS I've never thought of (along the lines of automatic defrag, search indexing etc.)

Like I said, something seems to be happening that makes the PC act sluggish loading TW2 after being on for a few hours. Restarting the computer and playing the game seems to work, even after playing for hours it doesn't slow down as long as the game started up fine originally. I've also found the game to be otherwise quite stable with maybe one crash in an entire playthrough.
Have you ever cleaned out your PC? Physically? Take it out to the garage, start up the air compressor and put on the little nozzle with the lever so you can squirt out air. then start blowing out your PC. Make sure to get in both sides of the Power Supply. Just put your finger on the fans to keep them from spinning so they can get blasted clean. Blow it out until you see no more dust flying - from anywhere.

Your computer will like you for it.


[edit] - Y'know... someone is going to think I was joking, or playing a trick on someone unaware. I'm not.
Post edited May 31, 2011 by Peetz
Posted May 31, 2011
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Peetz: Have you ever cleaned out your PC? Physically?
Well, yes. I'm not just going to let the dust and crap build up, am I?
My current one isn't that dirty, though, so that's not the problem either. Since I built this one late last summer, I've had very few problems overall. These slowdowns are the first real head-scratcher.
Posted May 31, 2011
LOL. Sounded like I offended you.

OK. Check. Clean PC.
Posted May 31, 2011
avatar
Ravenburger: My setup is less than a year old, no malware found on scans with multiple programs (avast, malwarebytes, advanced system care). The specs are as follows:
Win 7 home premium
Core i5-750
4GB RAM
ATI Radeon HD 5700 1GB

What gives.. anyone?
I have a lower spec setup than yours but I think the load times are bearable. They are around 20-30s.

Win 7 home premium
Core i3-530
4GB RAM
ATI Radeon HD 5750 512MB

You did not mention the graphics settings you are using. Mine is mostly High and I turned off Bloom, Motion Blur, Ubersampling and Anti-aliasing.

The savegame cleaner utility is helpful as well as the save files can easily go over 2GB.
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The Witcher 2TW2 sometimes extremely slow to start/load(23 posts)(23 posts)
(23 posts)