When undocking, my timer usually expires before the black screen clears.
It is usually better if I have been outside before undocking, which suggests this is todo with something not being cached on a “cold” undock.
Would it be possible to get all the files loaded/cached/sorted before exiting the station?
This is not an incentive for undocking in dangerous space.
My mac is not THAT old and has been able to cope well until a comparatively recent patch.
Anyone else seeing similar?
My mac is a 27" mid 2011, with 3.4GHz core i7, 16gb ram, and a Radeon 6970M with 1024MB.
I do have that set, however, I am talking here about the client copying the information needed from the hard disk to memory, so that it is available without delay on undock, not about downloading from CCP.
Mechanical disk or ssd? While I see the black screen occasionally on undock, its rarely more than 2 seconds (and usually only after an update), and its not a particularly beastly machine (pc though).
I know that is the slower one, but I played for years without this problem on this machine, it’s something that was done in the last 6 to 12 months that made it a lot worse. I did raise it on the old forum - but was utterly blanked…
Game textures got bigger, more detailed & complex models, higher detailed animated suns - it all has a toll on the performance of the game. It’s not the same EVE from a year ago.
I would look at upgrading to an SSD, I’ve upgraded quite a few family members older PCs to one, and it can make even a 5 year old machine fly.
You are right that that would probably help, but I don’t really want to disassemble the iMac to do it, and an SSD on a USB port wouldn’t get the same speed boost.
Having said that, the fact that it is fine if you dock then undock suggests that it could be fixed with a different approach to loading the required textures/models or whatever else is needed before undock.
Although I have no idea whether there is a simple fix, it couldn’t hurt to have a quick look…
I have found a 2.5" SSD, I could run it as a firewire 800 drive which would be faster than USB2.
I tried copying EVE online to it but it wouldnt run - which surprised me.
Has anyone managed to persuade it to run on an external MAC drive?
Just did a quick test.
Timing from when screen changes till when you can see outside.
“Cold” undock - just after log in - 10.6 seconds
“Warm” undock - just after docking - 2.4 seconds
This is repeatable, so there really is room for improvement.
It’s not that the hardware cannot handle it, its that something is being done during the 10 seconds timer that could have been done before starting the timer.
If you undock in null-sec under those conditions you can be dead before you can even see overview.
@CCP_Falcon I realise you are busy, but could you please spare someone to take a look at this?
It should only take a dev a short time with a low-spec computer to infer that there is room for improvement.
It could be as simple as moving more of the loading before the undock timer start, and if not, well, you can always put it on the “when we have time list”.
Knowing that if you undock in nullsec, you would be dead before you knew you had hostiles on grid is not really an incentive to play…
I’ve seen this issue, and I think most off t has to do with a buggy WINE version. the 2.* wine version is causing a lot of headache for eve players right now. lots of crashing on undock and/or gate jumping. pretty much any kind of session change.
The visible timer is your session change timer, but your invulnerability lasts 30 seconds. You’re loading slow, yes, but you’re still not vulnerable for another 20 seconds once you gain control of your screen.
As for improving the load times, I cannot help you with that.
Thanks @ISD_Fractal that makes things a little less scary.
I would still like to ask the devs to take a look though.
There is no reason for such a long black screen…
