Informatika és tudomány

  • Gunner
    #2710
    Long Loading Times: This is the single most common complaint about Call of Juarez, and stems from a combination of factors. Each time you alter your video settings in the game, Call of Juarez has to either create or alter many files in its shader cache to drive all the special effects in the game. The location of this cache is in separate folders under your \Documents and Settings\[Username]\My Documents\call of juarez\Out\cache\Shaders directory. There is one folder for each Shader version you have used. This is similar to the shader optimization routine Battlefield 2 goes through for example whenever you update your graphics drivers or change a graphics setting. The important thing to note is that there are around 3,000 or more individual small files in the shader cache. When you first load up after a setting change, or when loading up new maps/levels, the simple act of creating or modifying these files is very system intensive, particularly for slower or unoptimized hard drives with longer seek times.

    However even after you have settled on a stable configuration and don't change your settings, the game still can take longer to load not just due to the large number of shader files it has to load up, but also because it can load up to 600MB or more of the game into memory at the start of a level. The game does this not to bug you, but to minimize loading pauses during the game. So unlike games like Oblivion, it loads more at the start and much less during a game - hence the long loading times are actually a good thing, rather than a bad thing, as they greatly reduce in-game stuttering. However you can improve loading times: see the Memory Optimization and Drive Optimization chapters of my TweakGuides Tweaking Companion, and also refer to the topic below.

    Shader Cache Issues/Optimization: This is an important topic, so it deserves to be highlighted here. After you have changed your settings several times, particularly if you've experimented a great deal with the tweaks in the Advanced Tweaking section of this guide, it is important to clear the shader cache and let the game recreate the files the next time it loads up a level. To clear the cache(s), simply go to your \Documents and Settings\[Username]\My Documents\call of juarez\Out\cache\Shaders directory and delete all the sub-folders. Clearing the caches can fix several problems: it can resolve strange performance slowdowns and ensure optimal FPS; it will ensure that any setting changes you've implemented are correctly applied; and it can resolve any graphical glitches you may experience. During the course of preparing this guide, I often found that after a fair few setting changes the game would not display certain changes in settings correctly any more - so I cleared the cache, reloaded the game and everything would be fixed.

    To 'optimize' the shader cache, both to improve performance and loading times, do the following: Firstly make sure you have arrived at a comfortable configuration you feel will meet your needs. Close Call of Juarez and clear your shader cache manually (see above) - permanently deleting all the sub-folders in the \Shaders\ directory. Now restart the game and load up a saved game or start a new level; it will take a while longer to load as the cache is being recreated. Now quit Call of Juarez, and defragment your entire hard drive. The next time you go to play the game, it should load faster, it should perform at its best, and you should have no graphical glitches or incorrectly applied effects. This is a necessary step, so please do not ignore it.