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How I cut GTA Online loading times by 70%

(nee.lv)
3883 points kuroguro | 7 comments | 28 Feb 21 19:38 UTC | HN request time: 1.481s | source | bottom
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breakingcups ◴[28 Feb 21 20:25 UTC] No.26296724[source]▶
It is absolutely unbelievable (and unforgivable) that a cash cow such as GTA V has a problem like this present for over 6 years and it turns out to be something so absolutely simple.

I do not agree with the sibling comment saying that this problem only looks simple and that we are missing context.

This online gamemode alone made $1 billion in 2017 alone.

Tweaking two functions to go from a load time of 6 minutes to less than two minutes is something any developer worth their salt should be able to do in a codebase like this equipped with a good profiler.

Instead, someone with no source code managed to do this to an obfuscated executable loaded with anti-cheat measures.

The fact that this problem is caused by Rockstar's excessive microtransaction policy (the 10MB of JSON causing this bottleneck are all available microtransaction items) is the cherry on top.

(And yes, I might also still be salty because their parent company unjustly DMCA'd re3 (https://github.com/GTAmodding/re3), the reverse engineered version of GTA III and Vice City. A twenty-year-old game. Which wasn't even playable without purchasing the original game.)

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1. imglorp ◴[28 Feb 21 21:44 UTC] No.26297379[source]▶
> This online gamemode alone made $1 billion in 2017 alone.

There's the answer right there. They figure it's making $1B/yr, leave it alone. Maintenance? That cuts into the billion. Everyone moved onto the next project.

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2. tyingq ◴[28 Feb 21 21:53 UTC] No.26297441[source]▶
Or they fix it, see that their "in game time" average drops, and then back it out...
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3. themeiguoren ◴[28 Feb 21 22:28 UTC] No.26297712[source]▶
I would not at all be surprised if the long load time made for a sunk cost that kept people playing for longer sessions rather than picking it up for less than half an hour at a time.
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4. the_gipsy ◴[28 Feb 21 23:30 UTC] No.26298136[source]▶
You might be onto something here...
5. iknowstuff ◴[28 Feb 21 23:38 UTC] No.26298190{3}[source]▶
I don't know. In GTA Online you encounter loading every 15min.
6. simias ◴[01 Mar 21 00:03 UTC] No.26298319{3}[source]▶
I enjoyed GTA online but haven't touched it in well over a year, and the insane loading times are definitely a big reason why. For those who haven't played the game it's important to emphasize that it's usually in the 5minute range, and even then you'll regularly end up with connectivity issues or other problems that will kick you out of the lobby for yet an other ~5 minute load.

When I played it wasn't uncommon to spend 30 minutes mostly looking at the loading screen while you were trying to set up a play session with a couple of friends.

If you're an adult with limited playtime it's just a complete dealbreaker. You can't just decide to have a quick 20minute play session if you know that you'll have to spend at least half of it looking at loading screens.

7. antihero ◴[01 Mar 21 16:40 UTC] No.26304613{3}[source]▶
This is actually very possible - if they allowed people to dip in and dip out, they will. I remember when CP2077 came out on GeForce NOW and the wait times were 30+mins. I'd play a 6 hour session until I was booted off simply to make it worth the wait.