Check for updates first, load assets later

Post your ideas and suggestions how to improve the game.

Moderator: ickputzdirwech

Post Reply
sillyfly
Smart Inserter
Smart Inserter
Posts: 1099
Joined: Sun May 04, 2014 11:29 am
Contact:

Check for updates first, load assets later

Post by sillyfly »

Simple change, which may or may not be easy to do:
Why does Factorio load all assets (sprites, mods, sounds, etc.) before checking for updates? If an update is indeed available and the user chooses to update their installation, all assets have to be reloaded.
This probably won't save too much time (depending how fast your computer is :D ), and won't be as relevant once a final stable version comes out, but it seems to me that checking for updates first thing makes more sense.

Doesn't it?

User avatar
SuperSandro2000
Filter Inserter
Filter Inserter
Posts: 741
Joined: Sun Jan 12, 2014 3:54 am
Contact:

Re: Check for updates first, load assets later

Post by SuperSandro2000 »

+1

User avatar
bobingabout
Smart Inserter
Smart Inserter
Posts: 7351
Joined: Fri May 09, 2014 1:01 pm
Contact:

Re: Check for updates first, load assets later

Post by bobingabout »

Yeah, I've got to agree, and have wondered why it didn't do it that way around in the first place.
Especially when you have mods installed, it can take a couple of minutes to load, time wasted just to be told you need to download a small update and restart the client.

I think the best time to check for updates would be after loading and verifying the mods list(check that scenario pack is installed, etc.), but before loading any data from the mods themselves.
Creator of Bob's mods. Expanding your gameplay since version 0.9.8.
I also have a Patreon.

User avatar
Phillip_Lynx
Filter Inserter
Filter Inserter
Posts: 541
Joined: Mon Jul 21, 2014 6:00 pm
Contact:

Re: Check for updates first, load assets later

Post by Phillip_Lynx »

I second (fourth?) this :)

silenced
Inserter
Inserter
Posts: 39
Joined: Tue Jan 13, 2015 12:38 pm
Contact:

Re: Check for updates first, load assets later

Post by silenced »

Maybe it's even better to put in a button at first: "Check for update? YES/NO" before loading the whole game. There are still some people that play on systems without internet all the time, and there has to be some timeout for a server request before the program should continue, which again may delay the startup process due to no internet available at all.

So many circumstances to take into account.

warmadmax
Inserter
Inserter
Posts: 27
Joined: Tue Nov 11, 2014 11:15 am
Contact:

Re: Check for updates first, load assets later

Post by warmadmax »

+1 :!:

User avatar
Gandalf
Filter Inserter
Filter Inserter
Posts: 294
Joined: Fri Dec 19, 2014 10:15 pm
Contact:

Re: Check for updates first, load assets later

Post by Gandalf »

This might result in a launcher similar to the one(s) available for minecraft. Might not be such a bad thing, with profiles for modding etc. On the other hand it always felt like overkill to me. I don't really have a problem with the way it is, but then again it starts pretty fast for me anyway.
OS: Linux Mint 19 x64 | desktop: Awesome 4.2  |  Intel Core i5 8600k  |  16GB DDR4  |  NVidia GTX 1050 Ti (driver version: 410.104)    (2019-03)

FishSandwich
Smart Inserter
Smart Inserter
Posts: 1847
Joined: Sun Feb 23, 2014 3:37 pm
Contact:

Re: Check for updates first, load assets later

Post by FishSandwich »

Yeah, this has always bugged me, +1

User avatar
ssilk
Global Moderator
Global Moderator
Posts: 12888
Joined: Tue Apr 16, 2013 10:35 pm
Contact:

Re: Check for updates first, load assets later

Post by ssilk »

Someone made a bug report, answer from Kovarex:

https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... ate#p66982
Cool suggestion: Eatable MOUSE-pointers.
Have you used the Advanced Search today?
Need help, question? FAQ - Wiki - Forum help
I still like small signatures...

sillyfly
Smart Inserter
Smart Inserter
Posts: 1099
Joined: Sun May 04, 2014 11:29 am
Contact:

Re: Check for updates first, load assets later

Post by sillyfly »

I know kovarex said it is a very minor issue, but maybe with 0.12 going to steam it is worth re-considering?
The reasons are - more users, and more frequent updates (as per notes on the roadmap: https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... ?f=3&t=678), and presumably integrating into Steam would require at least some adjustments for the updating mechanism (as Steam has it's own).

So I'm just giving this a small bump :)

Zeblote
Filter Inserter
Filter Inserter
Posts: 973
Joined: Fri Oct 31, 2014 11:55 am
Contact:

Re: Check for updates first, load assets later

Post by Zeblote »

sillyfly wrote:I know kovarex said it is a very minor issue, but maybe with 0.12 going to steam it is worth re-considering?
The reasons are - more users, and more frequent updates (as per notes on the roadmap: https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... ?f=3&t=678), and presumably integrating into Steam would require at least some adjustments for the updating mechanism (as Steam has it's own).

So I'm just giving this a small bump :)
Steam will automatically update the game before launching it, so that actually fixes the problem.

Post Reply

Return to “Ideas and Suggestions”