"scott" <sco### [at] scottcom> wrote:
> > I guess that leaves us with, say, 1% of CPU and GPU bandwidth to be set
> > aside
> > for preloading maps - at most. And it's a task that can be easily
> > priorized:
> > There's no strict deadline to get the job done; for instance, in the heat
> > of
> > the action it can safely be deferred until after the fight (all the more
> > since
> > you usually don't move very far during a hot battle).
>
> Especially if you keep a low-res (both mesh and texture) version available
> for the surrounding parts of the map anyway, if there is any slight delay
> with the high-res versions loading it's not going to ruin anything.  This
> happened in GTA San Andreas, if you (maybe with a little hack (-:) drove or
> flew really fast then you could actually see these low-res models for a
> second until the high res ones could be loaded.

No hack! It happened all the time to me on the PS2 version, usually when I was
letting off some steam or trying for stunt bonuses in the super-taxis. When you
came to an abrupt halt, the low-detail high-speed versions of buildings etc
could be visible for up to half a second, sometimes more. I couldn't comment on
how this reflects on my gameplay :-}

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