Loading screens??

[Evil Storm]

Loading screens??

I haven't found anything about it and I am wonder if Blizzard will return them to D3, or is it going to be just like in D2...? I hate loading screens...

 

[Firvagor]

Re: Loading screens??

Would you rather just stare at a black screen instead? What are you expecting, since loading the next area or whatever will likely not be instantaneous?

 

[Kingbob]

Re: Loading screens??

I kind of like how titan quest has all the areas connected. You just walk into the cave or tomb or whatever and it opens up around you. But we already know it won't be that way because the dungeons will be random and above-ground will be static.
it doesn't really take that long to load between place anyway it is just annoying sometimes to impead the flow of movement.
Note: Will monsters be able to follow you into/out of dungeons? That would be cool. It wouldn't be an automatic escape.

 

[NASE]

Re: Loading screens??

In diablo, you can't predict where a person is going. You can easily change act, change waypoint in act and perhaps even change checkpoint.

You aren't seriously assuming they load the whole game into the memory?


I'm sorry to say, yet we are stuck with them. All we can do is hope they are a bit faster then in diablo II, perhaps with interesting feature (i.e. oblivion offers lore here).

 

[Putz]

Re: Loading screens??

We can expect loading screens much like Diablo 2.

If you look at the Diablo 3 map and possible areas to venture (http://www.blizzard.com/diablo3/world/worldmap.xml) It would not be in possible, but functional to have loading areas. The world is much bigger this time around. I am expecting anywhere from 20-30 hours of game play to complete Diablo 3.

 

[Romak]

Re: Loading screens??

NASE is right, it's not even a matter of opinion, it's simply 'the best way'. Even in Titan Quest, when you changed acts and maps, there was a pretty boring loading screen, this loading screen would take less time if there was another loading screen in caves, tombs, etc. when you enter them. Because just like NASE said, you can't predict where the player is going and it's stupid to load up places he's not even going to. In Diablo 2 it's not such a big deal because the map files are not really this heavy or take long to process. In a 3-dimentional difficult-to-load game, it becomes serious business.

 

[Starving_Poet]

Re: Loading screens??

There is no need for loading screens for these sorts of games anymore. You might not know where the player is going, but you can keep enough the starting area of his possible destination choices in memory to have constant load-on-demand.

 

[NASE]

Re: Loading screens??

And ruin my 3 year old computer from playing it?

No tanks, I'll cope with some loading screens.

 

[Putz]

Re: Loading screens??

It's hard to think Blizzard would approach loading screens any differently then Diablo 2. They weren't terribly long or obnoxious.

At least the way it was done for each area you were in, the place was loaded. Den of Evil was a separate place, so it would need to load that 'zone.'

 

[Starving_Poet]

Re: Loading screens??

I think that's a faulty approach because you could apply that mentality to item drops, graphics, sounds, skill trees, etc. So much time has passed. Unless you're changing Acts, they should not be needed anymore.

I think it would simply be a blunder to not include something that TQ was able to pull off years ago. Heck, Metroid Prime 3 pulled it off, and that's on a system that has the processing power of an iphone.

 

[Putz]

Re: Loading screens??

It's not a faulty approach to a game engine. Item drops are based on calculations. The "zone" you are in is not.

Now if you are talking about "open world" concept, something like grand theft auto or far cry 2 then that would work. I don't for see Blizzard using an open world concept for an rpg. Specifically an rpg that is not an mmo.

 

[raveharu]

Re: Loading screens??

What's wrong with loading screens, I don't see anything wrong with them.

What I hope for is when traveling through continents it will require a certain amount of time and effort, and not like in D2 whereby you can travel to anywhere in a blink of an eye. Yes it simplified the game, but it made the players lazy.

An example would be to make it like Baldur's Gate, in which players have to travel through specific maps to reach different towns.

 

[Risingred]

Re: Loading screens??

All we can do is hope they are a bit faster then in diablo II

I don't know if that's possible. onder:

I don't even see the screen anymore. It just blinks and I hear the noise.

 

[Kingbob]

Re: Loading screens??

Will they be able to make monsters follow you through loading screen areas?
Oblivion did it.

 

[sreda]

Re: Loading screens??

I haven't found anything about it and I am wonder if Blizzard will return them to D3, or is it going to be just like in D2...? I hate loading screens...

I am highly against the loading screens you're thinking of.

My example of a loading screen, that will match Diablo 3 would be something dark and still very scary. The loading screen could potentially take away from the immersion so I suggest a black or near-to black loading screen, with an animation that moves on progressively as you load, and finishes just as the loading finishes. So maybe something like in Resident evil (when you open up a door), you see a door, slowly creek open as you approach it, and darkness on the other end. This would keep the players on their toes.

Another idea would be just be a big pentagram, or a small one like in Doom 3, that has it's 5 points on fire, and a ring that connects all 5 where the flame travels along as it lights up the next points in it's course on the ring, ultimately hitting the final point and igniting the whole pentagram (can't be too epic or it takes away the flow of the game in progress).

 

[Akse]

Re: Loading screens??

Think about how huge areas there are in Wow.. there are like 4 loading screens, kalimdor, eastern kingdoms, outlands and northrend in the outdoor areas. This is mostly because some of the areas are connected to a different servers and also because the areas are quite huge.

I'm not sure how they have created it but I suppose the game loads the nearby areas to memory while playing and continues to do that while you move forward in the world and at the same time deleting the older areas from memory. They could probably do something like this in d3 also. Well dunno we will see how it is done. At max I guess we have loading screens between acts which isn't so bad.. in D2 I load them almost instantly.

 

[Risingred]

Re: Loading screens??

So maybe something like in Resident evil (when you open up a door), you see a door, slowly creek open as you approach it, and darkness on the other end. This would keep the players on their toes.

That was incredibly creepy. Interesting.

What would be kind of funny and work after a fashion in propelling the gameplay is to have the loading screen be black, but in the center of the screen you'd see a random monster from the act. It would be illuminated from above with fog at its feet or whatever, and when the game finally loaded it would spawn where you are and attacked you right away lol

I'm sure that would get obnoxious pretty quick though.

 

[Putz]

Re: Loading screens??

Think about how huge areas there are in Wow.. there are like 4 loading screens, kalimdor, eastern kingdoms, outlands and northrend in the outdoor areas. This is mostly because some of the areas are connected to a different servers and also because the areas are quite huge.

I'm not sure how they have created it but I suppose the game loads the nearby areas to memory while playing and continues to do that while you move forward in the world and at the same time deleting the older areas from memory. They could probably do something like this in d3 also. Well dunno we will see how it is done. At max I guess we have loading screens between acts which isn't so bad.. in D2 I load them almost instantly.

It's designed the same way an first person shooter map is designed. Go in to a dev mode in any fps and you'll see a large area but lots of area as well that is not used. WoW utilizes it the same way.

 

[nEgativezEro]

Re: Loading screens??

According to Bashiok:

[blue="http://www.blizzblues.com/us/loading-screen-in-d3-18031190662.html"]There aren't any loading screens. Personally I think it's amazing and I don't understand the magic the programmers have worked, but the game is instant or near instant. The same is true for initial game load. Start up the game, create a character, click a button and the game world shows up. No waiting and no real discernible pause. Mileage may vary slightly of course, but it would (from what I've seen) be in the realm of a second or two second pause at most."]There aren't any loading screens. Personally I think it's amazing and I don't understand the magic the programmers have worked, but the game is instant or near instant. The same is true for initial game load. Start up the game, create a character, click a button and the game world shows up. No waiting and no real discernible pause. Mileage may vary slightly of course, but it would (from what I've seen) be in the realm of a second or two second pause at most.[/blue]

 

[Risingred]

Re: Loading screens??

Well, there we go!

Good call, sreda.