What is the reason why the system map takes time to generate?

[Monsoon]

This is one of the things I don t understand why it isn t instant data or why it can not be overlayed on the main viewer
As you arrive in a system, shouldnt the game already have downloaded from the server what the system is?
Does anybody know why it take a little while to generate and especially why it has to regenerate it everytime you call it even if you just displayed it it still needs to reconnect

 

[ky4jw]

I have noticed that my maps have done the same thing lately. I don't think it is your machine. I think it is on there end.

 

[GeoFalke]

actual reason, it's because your computer has to pull the info available from Frontier's database and there's a LOT of systems to go through.

lore reason, same thing, but in !!SPACE!!

 

[AnnuverScotinExile]

This is one of the things I don t understand why it isn t instant data or why it can not be overlayed on the main viewer
As you arrive in a system, shouldnt the game already have downloaded from the server what the system is?
Does anybody know why it take a little while to generate and especially why it has to regenerate it everytime you call it even if you just displayed it it still needs to reconnect

We don't know, though there is speculation on the thread you should have posted in ?

Personally, I think the delay is looking up first found data, since that requires a handshake with the server. Why it happens every time, though, is not obvious, so my speculation could be wrong. My understanding is that the system itself does not need to be looked up - it is procedurally generated from seed data so that it is always the same, but is not physically stored on the server. Indeed, if no one has been there, we don't know what is in it.

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actual reason, it's because your computer has to pull the info available from Frontier's database and there's a LOT of systems to go through.

lore reason, same thing, but in !!SPACE!!

This is almost certainly not correct. They do not pull system data from a database on the server. FD have said that the biggest lump of data they store is the first found data.

 

[shreddog]

I'm guessing it's because the game has to generate all the planets in the system everytime you check that map.

 

[AnnuverScotinExile]

I'm guessing it's because the game has to generate all the planets in the system everytime you check that map.

And suddenly it has slowed down because? Perhaps every system has many more planets to generate than they used to have? Special promotion for the upcoming anniversary of the game launch?

 

[Sapyx]

It really slowed down once version 1.4 came online, for me at least and numerous other players have reported the same.

If you fool around with the graphics settings, it can speed things up a little (I managed to get the load time of the Kaushpoos system map from 38 seconds down to 22 seconds). So it seems to be a conflict between the 1.4 update and the graphics settings on your computer.

 

[_neuron_]

I've often wondered this myself. It's not game-breaking, but it really is annoying, especially when you're exploring and having to open it and wait hundreds or even thousands of times over the course of a journey.

 

[shreddog]

And suddenly it has slowed down because? Perhaps every system has many more planets to generate than they used to have? Special promotion for the upcoming anniversary of the game launch?

Perhaps they upped the surface detail showed on planets in the system map? Remember the galaxy is procedural. That meaning the game has to construct every astronomical object every time you encounter them.

 

[AnnuverScotinExile]

Perhaps they upped the surface detail showed on planets in the system map? Remember the galaxy is procedural. That meaning the game has to construct every astronomical object every time you encounter them.

You are missing the point (and apologies for the rather snide reply last time). The slowdown is patchy. For some people it can take a couple of minutes to open the system view. For me, most of the time it is a couple of seconds, but sometimes it is much longer - up to 10 seconds or so, with no obvious difference in the amount of work that is being done. Behaviour like that will not be the result of changes of details of what is done, because the slowness does not always occur. If every system map opening had slowed down post 1.4, then that could well have been the culprit. But that is not the case. Given that the slow opening (when I experience it, at least) occurs when other things that need the server are slow, it seems pretty certain that it is due to network issues. There may be some extra slowness due to 1.4 chages, but they are insignificant compared to the network stuff.

 

[aRtFuL]

Since this game uses an self-evolving algorithim for planetary and stellar data, I suspect something probably actually needs to be calculated everytime you open the maps.

 

[Nomadski]

It takes some people a couple of minutes to open the system map? Wow, that sucks.

There is a noticeable delay, but generally it's open within a couple of seconds tops for me. Still not instant as we would all like, but more than bearable.

 

[_neuron_]

It takes some people a couple of minutes to open the system map? Wow, that sucks.

There is a noticeable delay, but generally it's open within a couple of seconds tops for me. Still not instant as we would all like, but more than bearable.

Even though I was one of the ones complaining about it earlier, my typical load time is 10 seconds or less. Not a big deal in everyday trading, PP, combat, etc. in the bubble when system map use is infrequent, but it does add up enough to be an annoyance when you're opening it after almost every jump while exploring.

Like you, I'm startled to find that others are having load times in the 30+ second range. The wide variation from person to person does lend credence to the idea that it's primarily a function of hardware.

 

[5AnaHalfHatsize]

This is one of the things I don t understand why it isn t instant data or why it can not be overlayed on the main viewer
As you arrive in a system, shouldnt the game already have downloaded from the server what the system is?
Does anybody know why it take a little while to generate and especially why it has to regenerate it everytime you call it even if you just displayed it it still needs to reconnect

It's gotta be the "First discovered by" data.

They've said that is their biggest dataset and you can see why, and it'll only be getting bigger. They also moved that database with the 1.4 (I think) update as it was so big, and I believe it was shortly after that people started to complain about it being slow.

But most of the data on that screen would be known when you first jump into the system as you said, so they could move the discoved by lookup onto a separate processor thread and show you the static stuff first while letting the CMDR names come through at their own pace. Certainly for me 95% of the time I use that map I only want the static system data.

Fingers crossed that's on a TODO list somewhere.

 

[Mysturji]

I'm guessing it's because the game has to generate all the planets in the system everytime you check that map.

I would have thought that would be downloaded while you're in hyperspace, and thereafter (until you jump out of the system) it would be stored locally on your PC/Mac/Xbox.

 

[AnnuverScotinExile]

It's gotta be the "First discovered by" data.

They've said that is their biggest dataset and you can see why, and it'll only be getting bigger. They also moved that database with the 1.4 (I think) update as it was so big, and I believe it was shortly after that people started to complain about it being slow.

But most of the data on that screen would be known when you first jump into the system as you said, so they could move the discoved by lookup onto a separate processor thread and show you the static stuff first while letting the CMDR names come through at their own pace. Certainly for me 95% of the time I use that map I only want the static system data.

Fingers crossed that's on a TODO list somewhere.

I argue that we do not need to have 'real time' first found data. In theory, every time you open the map you need to check the server to get the first found data, because it might have changed - someone a gazillion LYs away may have just sold that data. In practice, who gives a damn? So grab the first found data during the hyperspace jump, when they are getting other stuff, and never need to go to the server when you open the system map. Problem gone.

The server-side stored data is also probably the main reason why we do not have details shown on the galaxy map of where you have been. The galaxy map is a marvel: just think of it. You get the impression that you have all 200 billion systems at your finger tips. You can pan and zoom anywhere seemingly instantly. Yet we also know that it is procedurally generated, and all that data is not stored server side, and is not transferred across your internet connection. The speed of the thing is wonderful when you think of what it is having to do. Now add on top of that the need to access a server-side database to grab details of where you have been to overlay onto the map: yo can see great potential for the galaxy map becoming very slow to use, unless they are clever with caching the data. But they do manage it with a few icons of where you have ships (and similar stuff). I just wonder how scalable that is to thousands of places you have visited.