I've seen long sector load times (between jumps). Even when I jump to an empty sector. This problem is not present all the time, but it happens pretty frequently. It might be due to fluctuations in cellular data speed. However, is there a way to reduce sector load times withput changing the device or the internet connection? Any in-game setting?

I've tried reducing graphics quality, scene and distance level of detail and video resolution. I can't say whether these helped or not, since there might be other factors as well which I am unaware of.

On PC there is an option to load assets when the game starts.. I have no idea if this is the case on mobile, or if it's doing that already. Besides this particular setting, it's pretty much all about your internet connection.

The option is there on mobile as well. Will enabling this have any other effects? I don't have much of an understanding, but it sounds like it's going to download the resources of the entire game every time I start the game. I'm on a limited cellular data connection, so if it's like that then I probably can't use it.

I think it loads all the assets in your memory. There's likely no download required.

Ok. I'll try it. Thanks!

I'll be interested to hear if this helps?

If you're on Android, it should (EDIT: should NOT) really be needed, due to the way that does background loading now.

But, if there's a delay due to cellular data transfer, that's really.. not something we control.

I've just started playing on PC, but I'll play a bit on mobile to test it out. See if I can reduce the load times. They're fine usually, but there are times when it takes a long time, usually due to slow internet. I was asking more for a way to reduce the load time, even with a bit slow internet. Just lower than what they are usually with slow internet...not necessarily back to normal.

While we're on the topic, I'd just like to say there's two different types of sector-not-loading problems I have seen. First is the one where you're just not able to control your ship, and you see the green bar which indicates how much the sector has loaded. This one I have observed both on mobile and on PC, usually due to slow internet speed.

Another is where you're sort of suspended in limbo between jumps. Your controls still work, so when you turn your aiming reticle moves. You can also accelerate/decelerate or turbo. But the background is full black. No green sector loading bar. This one I have observed only on mobile, and I've seen other mobile players complain about it on 100 as well. In my experience, it has happened when I log off in an empty sector, then log back on and jump to another sector quickly. Lasts between 30 seconds to even 2-3 minutes.

I haven't had the issue where background doesn't load. Even if I log off in a sector rather than at a station.

Another is where you're sort of suspended in limbo between jumps. Your controls still work, so when you turn your aiming reticle moves. You can also accelerate/decelerate or turbo. But the background is full black. No green sector loading bar.

That sounds like a graphics bug. Basically, the sector loads and instantiates you properly, but the background never renders on your device. This is usually due to some kind of driver issue on the device. Mobile is sort of a nightmare-land of crappy driver support. But, it could be an issue on our end.

That would be a candidate for the Bugs Forum.

Right so on PC it's working like a charm. Much lower load times. Jumps to empty sectors are almost instant, wormhole sectors take around a second and the leviathan sector took about 3.

On mobile it didn't really work out. My game crashed. But that could be because of my mobiles low RAM (2GB).

Also, a question for Incarnate:
Where does your ship go between jumps? Like if I have a crappy connection, it would take maybe 5 seconds of just looking at the sector loading bar. Maybe more. During this time, is my ship seen
a) in the sector where I jumped from
b) in the sector I jumped to
c) it just disappears into thin vaccum until the jump is complete

Eg. If a pirate is chasing me, and I jump and am stuck with the loading screen. Will the pirate see me just standing still in the same sector and be able to kill me, or jump after me and kill me in the next sector before I even know I've completed the jump, or go "WTF!" because I've just vanished from both sectors.

Because of the differences in load-times of varied hardware capabilities, we generally do not instantiate the player's ship-object into the next-sector until their client has actually loaded the sector.

The full description of how this all works, including the sector-handoff process, is a bit complicated. But, generally speaking, the situation you're referencing (pirate chasing you, etc) is not an issue.

The visible result is effectively "C" on your list:

c) it just disappears into thin vaccum until the jump is complete

As I mentioned earlier (but apparently mistyped, upon re-reading it now), "preloading all assets" on Android should NOT be needed, because of the newer background threaded-I/O that is released on Android. This is not yet released on PC.

You should definitely not be preloading all assets on a device with 2GB of ram. But, I don't think it would win you much of any performance improvement, even if you had the ram to support it.

But, at the end of the day, the pure I/O performance of loading is not the only factor in seamless or fast sector load-times. The actual hardware itself, and the driver performance of loading shaders and other assets, is also a factor. (Plus the level of activity in the "next" sector, network quality issues, etc).