Fast level load: 1. Don't alloc (couple of big pool allocs are fine). 2. Have good data layout. 3. Bulk load data directly to RAM. 4. If you MUST do data transform/expansion (decompress, SDF volume gen, etc) optimize that code (AVX2, MT, etc). 5. Hide waiting with something else.
nickreal03
@nickreal03
Sep 23
Replying to @SebAaltonen
What is the top 5 things to do to load levels fast?

Last edited Sep 23, 2026 · 7:57 AM UTC

8
20
469
21,062
Sort replies: Relevant Recent Liked
Replying to @SebAaltonen
How do you approximate the amount of memory you need? Do you just build it measure then statically allocate that much or have a different workflow?
2
1
1,356
Replying to @SebAaltonen
Naive question: is it OK to mmap data and just ensure it is hot by a single read pass?
1
1
871
Replying to @SebAaltonen
Do you leverage memory mapping to init from paged data?
1
622
Replying to @SebAaltonen
Even if you need to process the data before you can move it from disk to usable data structures in ram, load it in large chinks instwad of ovject at a time or at minimum memory map the file
106
Replying to @SebAaltonen
6 use efficient binary formats, not some xml, json or yaml
1
1
87
Replying to @SebAaltonen
Be Spiderman devs and hide 40 seconds load time below a 40 seconds cut scene that costs 20K in storyboard / modelling / texting / animation / sound
14
788
Replying to @SebAaltonen
Sonic Team on the Xbox360 relied on xml parsing for a lot of their level layout loading. For the Wii and beyond, they came up with a binary format that can just be uploaded from disk to ram and very quickly solves pointer references, and they started using it on everything
5
357
Replying to @SebAaltonen
Its not that hard tbh. at least 1-3
359