The seemingly endless loading times of GTA Online will soon become less appalling, as Rockstar has confirmed that they are implementing a solution to a problem found by a player. At the end of February, someone known as ‘t0st’ had a good junk in GTA’s code to find out why Online loads so much slower than single player, and devised a solution that’s 70% faster on made their computer. Well, Rockstar says they have investigated the matter, confirmed it and made some changes that we will see in a future patch. Incredible scenes.
Update: can it be live now? Surprise!
t0st wrote a long blog post outlining their investigations into reverse engineering, and how they found that loading got stuck for centuries while the CPU analyzed a JSON data file. They thought the method used for this was very ineffective, and so they wrote their own patch that incorporated into the game with a faster method. It made GTAO load 70% faster for them, a number so wild that I was a little skeptical. Although some corrections for games were made by players, performed miracles, other problems were less reliable or misunderstood. Apparently this one is real.
“After a thorough investigation, we can confirm that the player has actually revealed an aspect of the game code related to the loading times for the PC version of GTA Online that could be improved,” Rockstar told the cheerful RPS- fanzine PC Gamer said. “As a result of these investigations, we’ve made some changes that will be implemented in an upcoming title update.”
I have never been so excited to throw up my hands and declare that I was wrong. I was wrong, and oh god, how wonderful that I was wrong. It’s grim to think that now at least a whole day of my life has been spent unnecessarily on the stupid drawer screens.
Rockstar did not say when the solution would come, nor what improvements players could expect. This is one of the problems that can benefit some computers more than others.
Update: A 380MB patch hit today. Although Rockstar has not yet released patch notes, many players report a major boost in loading speed. I wouldn’t say it loaded up fast for me, but I also didn’t have time to cook a three-course meal, so maybe it was?
As for the first time, they said yesterday in an update of their post: ‘Only pass $ 10,000 allocated through their H1 game in the game as an exception :)) (usually just for safety issues)’. Nice.
t0st has also released a “proof of concept” solution that people can see for themselves, even though they warn you that it could ban you. Having been banned myself once for a mod mix, yes, I would not risk it again. I’m glad to wait for the official solution to a problem that I’m once again incredibly pleased to have been proven wrong.
Disclosure: I have some friends who work at Rockstar, idk, stuff?