Loading screens will help the game not be laggy.

I don't know why people are complaining about loading screens being in the Sims 4.

The Sims 3 had loading screens and the parts that didn't have loading screens were atrocious (i.e. switching lots, scrolling over to other lots). Would you rather see GRAY-WHITE CHUNKS of NOTHING for a noticeable second than to have a short loading screen to hide that fugliness?

At least with the Sims 1 and Sims 2, if you had a good enough computer, loading screens would only be up for less than a minute. With the Sims 3, no matter what your specs, the GRAY-WHITE CHUNKS of NOTHING would still appear in lieu of a loading screen because the houses and community lots were still being loaded.

If you don't believe me, check out EA's official Sims 3 Roaring Heights Broadcast: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvQEL6IiL1Y

I'd rather have the fugly gray-white chunks than a load screen. =b

But I'm really happy they've said that the sims should go do things in the public areas automatically, since I'm really tired of boring home-body sims XD. If that feature necessitates load screens, and the load screens don't take forever like they do when I'm running the Sims 3, I'll accept it.

Each Neighborhood is a maximum 5 lots only including residental and community lots a world therefore is 25 lots with a six neifbourhood be a big community park, there will be no loading walking out of one resident in a zone, however there will be a loading time if you visit a neighbors house in the same neighborhood there will not be a loading time if you visit the park or open space. Hopefully we see proper in game video before release to see how this all works

What happens to me often is that the sims themselves have to load as well and whilst they are loading they look even worse than ps1 character models . If these loading screens make the game more polished and less laggy then I am all for them.

I know what we need. A subliminal loading screen.

Loading screens between every lot. And only 5 lots within the neighborhood. And only about 25 lots in town + 6th neighborhood-park. Sounds really unpromising, but this public area is a hope. Maybe. So park objects, bathroom, playground with a couple of benches, huh. I guess, that's what we get for more crowded lots. The no-bound-to-lot-borders thing is nice though.

The way the neighbourhood's described really reminds me a little of TS2 apartments. All the common areas were there, able to be used by everyone, and apartment residents did come out of their homes and use them, but if you ever wanted to visit your neighbours, there was a short pause while the game loaded their lot too. I'm honestly not bothered by the loading screens between neighbourhoods either, doesn't seem much different to me than the little five second screens I get walking to a new area of South Park in The Stick of Truth.

Well, thank you then for your rude and quite unconstructive response.

Perhaps you could have spent your post asking me why I personally have the opinion I do? I would have been happy to oblige. I just personally value being able to play rather than stare at loading screens, even at the expense of the not looking good for short periods of time. I chose to respond to your post because you asked would we rather have the partially loaded and ugly objects or loading screens. Well, I would. I never said my opinion was more valid than yours, and so I'll ask that you to respect mine.

I'd rather have a split second of white chunks then to sit through a loading screen. One of the big rules of game development is you don't take control away from the player. Loading screens reduce the fun factor.

Enlighten me.

Why would you rather have GRAY-WHITE CHUNKS OF NOTHING instead of a loading screen?

Have you ever considered that maybe, just MAYBE, that GRAY-WHITE CHUNKS OF NOTHING aren't that big of a deal to some people who aren't yourself? They would much rather have an awesome experience than be so petty that they're bothered by a split second or two of grey objects, and keep the gameplay continuous.

Amazing right?

--Sapphire

I have read complaints that a loading screen "breaks immersion" and I think it's funny coming from the same players who prefer GRAY-WHITE CHUNKS OF NOTHING, especially since there is nothing more immersion-breaking than having colorless blocks and sims flash before your eyes.

When you watch a movie, would you rather have everything fade to black before transitioning into the next scene or would you rather have the actors and set turn completely GRAY-WHITE before moving the story along?

I find loading screens more tasteful because they are similar to transitions in movies and television shows whereas GRAY-WHITE CHUNKS OF NOTHING make me think that something is either broken or not functioning properly.

On a level, I agree with you. My point, however, is that everyone has a different preference toward a specific situation such as this, where there is no right or wrong. Some people prefer the colorless blocks of empty void and others prefer loading screens. On another hand, if loading screens are as horrible as they were in TS3 for me...it'll be a hard sell. But seeing as they'll only be loading lots or neighborhoods, they shouldn't be so bad.

IMO, one should not become so immersed in a video game that grey blocks become this jarring to start an entire fuss about it, where your opinion about loading screens is SUPREMELY RIGHT and everybody else who disagrees is beneath you/wrong.

--Sapphire

When you describe your own preference as "fugly", you're pretty much saying that your standards are low.

Hello! I agree with you that the GRAY-WHITE CHUNKS OF NOTHING were awful and TS3 open world didn't work well at all. But I'm really worried by the loading (screens?and/or time?) and as you aren't perhaps you could give me some positive insight of this.

My main problem is thinking that if I play a family of 8 sims and each one is wandering in all 6 neighbourhoods, then if I want to control all of them it seems I will have to go through a loading everytime I select one of my sims. And that would really be A LOT of loadings .
And depending of how fast it takes to load each time, we could end having more loading time that actual playtime (Please tell me it won't be like that!)

I think for a lot of people it's not just that loading screens break immersion, it's that they take control away from the player. Similar to cutscenes, the player no longer has control over their interaction. They are forced to sit, watch, and wait. It's very annoying right in the middle of gameplay. And for some people this kind of loss of control can also break immersion much more than seeing "white chunks" for a split second.

Edit: If people were seeing untextured models for longer than a split second every now and then then it means they had some option in their graphics settings turned up too high. I had a mid-range gpu (Nvidia Gtx 570) and did not have this problem on a clean install with just expansion packs. And that was in 2010.

I don't know what the loading screens in the Sims 4 will be like, but from my experience with the first two Sims games, loading screens depend on the player's system. If you have plenty of RAM and a decent computer, they won't be troublesome at all. Adding EPs and custom content can make loading screens last longer, but again, if you have a powerful system, you should be fine.

If the Sims 4 loading screens are anything like the ones in the first two games, anyone bothered by them can "solve" their problem by upgrading their computer. From what the developers are saying about optimizing the game to run on low end computers, this may not even be necessary. And I say this as someone who has many complaints about the Sims 4 and EA in general.

Loading screens are not one of them.

With the Sims 3, it doesn't really matter how powerful your system is. The GRAY-WHITE CHUNKS OF NOTHING will always be there. Every time you scroll over to a section of your "open" world, you still have to wait for lots to load in such a jarring manner. No amount of upgrading can fix that.

So my standards for EA are low? After all the things that have gone wrong with The Sims 3, that's hardly a surprise or an insult. And with low standards, if they actually perform above par with the load screens, it's a happy surprise! Instead of one that doesn't exist.

--Sapphire

Not you, the person you were defending. They said they preferred "fugly" gray-white chunks, which I found appalling.

Thank you! That gives me a bit of hope as I'm planning to build a new PC in the next months to prepare for the Witcher 3 :lovestruc . I really hope loadings will work fine as I expect to have TONS of them...

Wait so will it be an open world like ts3? or...

I'm getting awfully tired of having to defend myself from your incendiary posts, so I'm going to assume when you say, "appalling" you are referring to the partially loaded objects, rather than my opinion.

When I said I preferred "fugly" I was merely paraphrasing *your* own words for the sake of irony. I don't find them to be visually upsetting, since all they are are models without their textures loaded in yet. I thought the implication is obvious, but apparently not. But even if it wasn't obvious, I don't see why I have to explain my exact meaning on this, or else risk people thinking my opinion is invalid, or stating that I have low standards in the thread, apparently. I disagree with you. Move on.

I'm still not over this. Only 25 lots in one world? There should have been more. ALOT more. I mean, I doubt the world will feel alive and have a lot of sims spreading around town with THIS amount of houses. Plus, I want to mention another thing that I've commented previously: It took the gym 15 seconds to load, right? If it took the gym 15 seconds to load on a SSD, just imagine how it will run on a HDD! And 15 seconds to load is pretty long too. I'm sorry but I'm expecting the worst now.

Calm down guys lets wait and see the next chapter of their work... I hope they launch asap the gameplay(neighborhood) before releasing it...