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[playXray]

There seems to be a lot of confusion regarding the lack or presence of loading screens in Fallout 4.

A quick Google search for 'Fallout 4 loading screens' comes up with a whole load of 'There's no loading screens in Fallout 4' articles:

https://www.google.co.uk/#q=fallout+4+loading+screens

Most of these seem to stem from a Digital Spy article, where Todd Howard gives a slightly confusing response when asked about loading screens:

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/gaming/...me-building-and-map-size.html#~pmgxs0fz9tv17J

From what he says, I gather that the open world itself doesn't really have any loading screens, but then buildings and other places you 'enter' will have loading screens just like Skyrim/Fallout 3 etc.

Do we have any further clarification on this?

 

[gossi]

Todd's word is god, since he's the game designer. There are loading screens for buildings, same as Skyrim, Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas, Oblivion.

Edit: the sites saying they are no loading screens appear to be no name gaming blogs, who've copied it off each other?

 

[Machina]

Considering it's an engine from the previous gen running on modern hardware, I would've thought if there were loading screens, they would be very short. Just give us the same loading screens as Skyrim where you can admire a virtual statuette and I'll be happy.

 

[texhnolyze]

Loading screens in Skyrim/Fallout 3 were unnoticeable, right?
Other than startup and fast travel, I barely remember that there were loading screens.

 

[Solid Samus]

It appears as though there's a lot more buildings that are open and part of the larger world than there were in FO3/NV, and nearly all of the released footage of the game corroborates this, what with much of the action taking place outdoors with open buildings visible all around. Todd Howard also made the claim that there's a lot more open buildings, which, yeah yeah, but again, footage corroborates this.

So far we've only seen two areas which seem like they required loading screens (though no loading screens have been explicitly shown, just fades to black) - the Super Duper Mart in the leaked Gamescom footage (please note the large bank next to it, with the wide open door), and the building that Preston Garvey is holed up in in the Xbox E3 press conference footage (please note the several open buildings on either side of the street leading to Garvey's building). Large buildings being seperated by loading screens is understandable, considering the number of unique physics objects and NPCs each might house, and that Bethesda might have felt that some interior designs would benefit from not being constrained by the outside size and appearance of those buildings.

Nearly everything else we've seen has been open - there's houses, businesses, gas stations, large settlements, and even skyscrapers that aren't separated by their own interior loading cells and are in fact part of the greater world. And it's been confirmed that things like settlements, cities, and large outdoor areas aren't separated by loading screens (the hazy area with the Deathclaw from the initial footage reel might be its own cell but I forget where I heard that from), which marks a definite improvement over Fallout 3's heavily segmented DC and Fallout New Vegas's sectioned off strip/Freeside/Westside/Vault 3 Fiend Encampment/etc.

So, in other words, I expect large, intricate interiors to be the only examples of load screens this game will offer up, and I'm okay with that, given how load screens are much more commonly seen than in just that type of environment in the last two Fallouts, and how technical and creative constraints somewhat justify it.

Todd's word is god, since he's the game designer. There are loading screens for buildings, same as Skyrim, Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas, Oblivion.

And for those of you who read this and instantly think, 'oh man, things haven't gotten any better have they', keep in mind that we've been given looks at just two large interiors that might require loading screens from the overworld, and many more places that don't seem to, alongside confirmation that load screens for large and important world areas have been nixed entirely. Here's an assortment of examples I pulled from the two and a half minute combat trailer (which, for anyone who hasn't seen anything beyond the initial E3 streams, or for those of you in the inexplicable "hardly looks better than Fallout 3" camp, really deserves a rewatch since a higher quality version is now available. To the latter crowd, make sure to put in your goddamn contact lenses this time, lmao, because if you ain't seeing meaningful differences, you're literally legally blind.)

 

[playXray]

Loading screens in Skyrim/Fallout 3 were unnoticeable, right?
Other than startup and fast travel, I barely remember that there were loading screens.

It's more the loading screens when entering/exiting buildings that I found annoying, not least because it meant you couldn't have any proper windows! I'm hoping that the load times will be minimal on current gen hardware at least.

 

[TheGeordie]

interesting - I don't think they can cite technical issues anymore after the witcher 3 did interiors with no pauses / screens at all very convincingly.

 

[BigDes]

Ah, was hoping that inside and outside buildings were all the same cell this time round

Doesn't seem to be, oh well.

 

[SJRB]

No loading for ervery single house I enter is all I ask. I'm okay with loading screens when entering a Megaton-esque compound, but preferably not of course.

I mean, Witcher 3 really spoiled me in that regard.

 

[Krappadizzle]

I read the title in a Jerry Seinfelid voice.


Ot: I really hope load screens are non existent. It's what's bugged me about the series for so long. I just want to open a door and go in to a building.

 

[Solid Samus]

No loading for ervery single house I enter is all I ask. I'm okay with loading screens when entering a Megaton-esque compound, but preferably not of course.

I mean, Witcher 3 really spoiled me in that regard.

Seems like that's what we're looking at here. Footage released so far shows lots of open houses and other assorted buildings. I don't even think we'll be looking at loading screens for settlements. If Boston isn't blocked up by loading screens, then I doubt places like Fenway Park's settlement will be either.

 

[BigTnaples]

I have dreamed a dream, but that dream is gone from me now.

 

[Castef]

Todd's word is god, since he's the game designer. There are loading screens for buildings, same as Skyrim, Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas, Oblivion.

That's plain horrible in 2015.

 

[lifeexpectancy]

It's more the loading screens when entering/exiting buildings that I found annoying, not least because it meant you couldn't have any proper windows! I'm hoping that the load times will be minimal on current gen hardware at least.

There are no WINDOWS in the APOCALYPSE!

What foolishness is this??

 

[Solid Samus]

That's plain horrible in 2015.

Not really, though I'd love to hear your reasoning as to why you believe this. At any rate, like I said, we've been given two examples of large interior locations that might be separated from the outside game world by loading screens, and nearly everything else we've seen hasn't been.

 

[BocoDragon]

Loading screens through a door is a non-issue for me.

It would be "neat" if there were never loading screens. That they are there is no negative to me.

 

[Mivey]

The only disappointing thing about the loading screens in Beth games is that it creates these weird "pocket dimensions", where everything happening outside of it doesn't effect anything within. And you loose a lot of emergent gameplay possibilities because it, think about ghouls storming a large building and a side quest where you have to defend it from the inside.

But as long as they are hauling that old Gamebryo engine around, that will never change. And it seems that Beth has no problem with accumulating this technical debt, or are they planning of reusing and very slowly upgrading the same code base they have been using since Oblivion?

I mean, I don't really care too much, it just surprises me that they don't spend a bit of the money they made with Skyrim on future proofing their technology. I guess they simply don't give a fuck.

 

[gossi]

I mean, I don't really care too much, it just surprises me that they don't spend a bit of the money they made with Skyrim on future proofing their technology. I guess they simply don't give a fuck.

The new version of the engine is 64 bit and has physical based lighting (amongst many other things). Completely scrapping everything and starting from scratch would have delayed this game for years and possibly taken major steps back. They have the #1 played open world engine - I don't think they're shitting their pants any time soon. (Bethesda now outright own the engine, for those who don't know).

 

[NightShift]

Small buildings like houses have no loading screens as evidenced in the gameplay they shown which is a massive improvement. There was nothing more annoying in those games then going through a loading screen for a single 6x6m room.

The leaked gameplay a few weeks ago mentioned something about a cut between entering a building so it is assumed larger building will have them.

 

[Mivey]

The new version of the engine is 64 bit and has physical based lighting (amongst many other things). Completely scrapping everything and starting from scratch would have delayed this game for years and possibly taken major steps back. They have the #1 played open world engine - I don't think they're shitting their pants any time soon. (Bethesda now outright own the engine, for those who don't know).

That is great, but has, on its own, little to do with the inherent way streaming works in Gamebyro. Which, as it happens, is really bad for an open world game. You can change all these parts, but it is a bit like slowly upgrading a old dying car to a new one, at some point its just easier to start fresh.

You would think that a development house that is doing these kinds of games, would really try to make sure their tech is about as good as it gets for these kinds of ventures. Would also make their games a hell of a lot more stable. Which in turn would safe them QA money. But people are buying their games no matter how broken on release their are, so I guess their audience proves that they don't need to do anything about it anytime soon. Still, the thing about technical debts is, you always have to pay it. It just a question of time.

 

[playXray]

They have the #1 played open world engine

Wow, is that a fact? Does it include MMOs like World of Warcraft (which had one of the best open worlds I'd ever seen at the time)?

 

[Hedonism Bot]

To be fair, when that potato-cam footage leaked from the behind closed doors presentation, the only thing worth getting from that was when the player entered a closed building, it did have to "load" the interior but it was just a black screen that lasted a second, max. We all know this wasn't the case with the previous games, and in fact seemed rather instantaneous compared to bethesda's previous entries.

 

[RoadHazard]

It clearly started out as a cross-gen game (also, the engine sort of sucks), so I'm sure it will have loading screens when entering buildings and such. A shame. Being able to seamlessly go into any building, like in TW3, heightens the immersion a ton. EDIT: Ok, seems like they've made small buildings part of the environment this time around instead of loading them separately, which is a step forward.

 

[Lanrutcon]

Fuck loading screens, I'm worried about the freaking textures.

 

[Solid Samus]

It clearly started out as a cross-gen game

I don't know why people assume this. Maybe it's because it's the easiest way to explain what some of you view as being underwhelming visuals, but the stark limitations the last gen consoles would impact a LOT more than just the game's visuals... such a decision would hamfistedly prevent any real ambition of enhancing the scale or complexity of their open worlds. I view the assumption as being crazy talk at best. There's flat out no way that Bethesda's flagship game, the game they're using as the main driver for their current all out push into household relevancy, would have ever at any point in development been limited to a baseline 256mb ram and weaksauce CPUs from a decade ago. Given how Fallout 3, NV, and Skyrim looked and ran on last gen consoles, it's just... asinine.

Literally no way. It's not the no-brainer some of you make it out to be, not even close.

 

[BigTnaples]

Fuck loading screens, I'm worried about the freaking textures.

Silly.

 

[Solid Samus]

Fuck loading screens, I'm worried about the freaking textures.

Why? Because of how they looked in the horribly compressed E3 streams? Because they're not looking bad at all given the scope of the game and its up-close first and third person perspectives relative to other open world games... and that's XB1 footage.

 

[Stevey]

I'll near enough remove them by installing it on an SSD.

 

[Lurgan1337]

damn. loading screens were fine for a ps360 era. but I guess Witcher 3 did too much for me. No loading screens was too good.

 

[Makoto-Yuki]

didn't find the loading screens a problem in skyrim/fallout 3 and i was playing on PS3. on PC with an SSD it won't bother me a single bit.

that said though if they could have no loading screens at all then that would be preferable.

 

[Sande]

The only disappointing thing about the loading screens in Beth games is that it creates these weird "pocket dimensions", where everything happening outside of it doesn't effect anything within. And you loose a lot of emergent gameplay possibilities because it, think about ghouls storming a large building and a side quest where you have to defend it from the inside.

That's the main problem, really. I wouldn't mind waiting a little while otherwise.

 

[Turin Turambar]

Wow, is that a fact? Does it include MMOs like World of Warcraft (which had one of the best open worlds I'd ever seen at the time)?

Didn't Skryim sold like, 20 millions? And didn't WoW have right now around 7 million subscribers?

 

[Drazgul]

You would think that a development house that is doing these kinds of games, would really try to make sure their tech is about as good as it gets for these kinds of ventures.

It kinda is. If they were to use some other engine, it might look better, but it would also come at a cost. This has already been discussed in length in the other FO4 threads.

 

[Solid Samus]

It kinda is. If they were to use some other engine, it might look better, but it would also come at a cost. This has already been discussed in length in the other FO4 threads.

Indeed, but I think that people downplay the impact that individual objects being unique 3D models with physics (as an example of a feature that somewhat limits the visual fidelity a game like this can achieve) ultimately has on how the game is played and perceived in general. Lots of 'well who wants to pile up clipboards anyway' and very few considerations as to how that functionality impacts how one explores the world in a more immersive and freeform fashion, non-reliant on sporadic glowing static loot or magical loot shelves containing 2D art assets with text descriptions that pass for loot, or how it enables a whole nother level of scene decoration, on both the part of the designers and the player, with both gameplay relevant objects and clutter objects, alongside NPC bodies, enabling tons of interactive visual storytelling and an overall more immersive feeling to the simple act of scavenging for loot,...which in other RPGs usually entails the aforementioned "that one object amongst a room of static decorations glows so it must be useful" or "everything is always packed inside of magical bottomless chests/barrels". Plus, I'm a sucker for roleplaying, and there ain't much that pleases me in these games like finding a hole that my particular character can call home, and populating it with things that help to define my character and keep him or her alive.

 

[playXray]

Didn't Skryim sold like, 20 millions? And didn't WoW have right now around 7 million subscribers?

I think the total number of people who have ever played WoW is considerably more than 7 or even 20 million. It's probably into the 100+ million by now. How many people have played any of the recent Elder Srolls/Fallout games? It must be a lot, but not sure if it's as many as WoW.

 

[KORNdoggy]

damn. loading screens were fine for a ps360 era. but I guess Witcher 3 did too much for me. No loading screens was too good.

this.

tbh i'd have been able to accept another poorly written fetch quest filled bethesda RPG if it's world was at least seamless. but to go from something amazingly well written, with well thought out quests and a seamless world (witcher 3) to what is sounding more and more like fallout 3.5...i don't know if i can do that. i really hope there are no load times.

 

[Renekton]

Did Witcher 3 have see-thru windows? I remember it used the entrance transition to load the indoor assets.

 

[tuxfool]

Did Witcher 3 have see-thru windows? I remember it used the entrance transition to load the indoor assets.

Uh, yeah. You could look in or out of windows as you pleased. However, there are plenty of games that do the same albeit sometimes in more limited fashion.

 

[Solid Samus]

this.

tbh i'd have been able to accept another poorly written fetch quest filled bethesda RPG if it's world was at least seamless. but to go from something amazingly well written, with well thought out quests and a seamless world (witcher 3) to what is sounding more and more like fallout 3.5...i don't know if i can do that. i really hope there are no load times.

I think that from a strictly world-design oriented perspective, I'd take indoor environments filled with NPCs that are differentiated not just by their character models alone but by the unique physical ingame objects they've equipped, indoor environments populated by objects contextualized deeply within the game world itself, often arranged in such a way that they visually tell a mini story of their own, and left for me to discover on my own at my own pace, over seamless entry into buildings packing little amounts of glowing loot and loot shelves that ultimately amount to 2D art with descriptions in your inventory at most. Of course, different approaches work for different games, and I certainly appreciate Witcher 3, and wouldn't consider its approach to loot a detriment to the game given what it sets out to achieve through its particular loot system. Witcher 3 is more of a character story with a very strong RPG backbone than the personalized exploratory journey that Fallout games represent these days.

At any rate, what's making Fallout 4 seem more and more like Fallout 3.5 for you?

 

[SJRB]

Did Witcher 3 have see-thru windows? I remember it used the entrance transition to load the indoor assets.

It sure did. Witcher 3 even has wind physics inside if there are windows open or broken.

Witcher 2 had the transition animation, witcher 3 is load-free after the initial game load unless you move to a different map alltogether.

 

[dapperbandit]

"Just shut up and preorder the game you fucks."

 

[Dictator93]

Loading screens for buildings in 2015.

Really?

Did Witcher 3 have see-thru windows? I remember it used the entrance transition to load the indoor assets.

You can see in and out of buildings.

 

[Transistor]

I was fine with the way loading was in Fallout / Elder Scrolls, but, like someone mentioned above, more open buildings would mean the building could interact with the outside world more, and I'm all for that.

 

[Solid Samus]

Loading screens for buildings in 2015.

Really?

We don't even know yet how many buildings this applies to but it seems as though it's a lot fewer than in past Fallout games if word from the developers and the released footage so far are anything to go by. And load transitions into large buildings is still a far cry from load transitions into literally every significant zone like in Fallout 3 and New Vegas.

 

[Tovarisc]

I had already forgotten how horrendous HUD Fallout 4 had in E3 demo, I so hope they have redone it by release. Looks like something that was thrown together few days before recording demo.

I also have gotten spoiled by open world experience of Witcher 3, feels just too good to explore everywhere without loading screens. If Fallout 4 features return of loading screens it will be minus against the game in my books. I know that loading screen enables them to do interior e.g. 5x larger than exterior of the building, but why they couldn't just do them 1:1? I doubt game is going to have so many huge on surface structures that size of world would get that much larger.

 

[FyreWulff]

interesting - I don't think they can cite technical issues anymore after the witcher 3 did interiors with no pauses / screens at all very convincingly.

It all depends on what you want to do with the game world, how much you want to be held in ram at the same time, etc etc.

Just because one game has indoor and outdoors doesn't mean other ones can, or should.

 

[tuxfool]

Loading screens for buildings in 2015.

Really?

*shrug* it is what happens when you let your technology stagnate and instead just throw horsepower at older tech.´

I also have gotten spoiled by open world experience of Witcher 3, feels just too good to explore everywhere without loading screens. If Fallout 4 features return of loading screens it will be minus against the game in my books. I know that loading screen enables them to do interior e.g. 5x larger than exterior of the building, but why they couldn't just do them 1:1? I doubt game is going to have so many huge on surface structures that size of world would get that much larger.

I really hated that. Beyond the lack of windows (could be forgiven tecnologically), making the interiors larger completely breaks the physicality of spaces as they relate to the larger world.

 

[Bl@de]

I don't care about the loading screens. With a SSD they were under a second anyway. And there were window mods for Skyrim^^ Don't know how it is on consoles. Never played a Bethesda RPG on my PS3.

 

[Give War A Chance]

So there will be loading screens for larger, more important houses/caves/indoor locations? Sounds fine to me, as long as the loading screens are short and maybe contain some kind of info to check out while you wait.

 

[Enthus]

I had already forgotten how horrendous HUD Fallout 4 had in E3 demo, I so hope they have redone it by release. Looks like something that was thrown together few days before recording demo.

Bethesda has pretty consistently terrible UI. I think I'll just wait a few months for this game and pick it up once some quality of life mods drop, like they always do.