Interesting finds for reducing load times and decreasing crashes in windows 10

[Spudknocker]

Hello CA!  I thought i would share this little tidbit I stumbled across late at night (couldnt sleep haha)  If you have a terrain lets say for example Desert4 if you extract the Desert.cat files and place all the files in the desert4 folder (being careful not overwrite any of the custom files in the desert4 folder) and then slash out the .cat file statement in the terrain.ini file this can DRASTICALLY reduce load times and potential crashes.  I believe this is due to the fact that the game engine doesn't have to unpack the compressed CAT file to find the missing pieces stored within it.  Ive tried this with multiple terrains all the to same great effect (CubaOTC and Iran-Iraq etc)  

 

The second thing ive discovered is that the File name callouts in the terrain.ini folder for example NationsFile=DESERT4_NATIONS.INI etc ARE in fact CASE SENSITIVE now using Windows 10, this wasn't the case before using Windows 8.1 and this has helped avoid issues with nations and flying CAS missions in seemingly random areas of terrains haha.  If any of this is old info I apologize but this has kinda been a light bulb moment for me and has alleviated a lot of frustrating issues.

[Wrench]

the old 1stGen trick was similar, excepting you moved the ***.cat file into the terrain folder in question, and then renamed it to match the terrain's name.

 

odd that Winge10 is now case sensitive to inis residing in particular folders, as I would more believe THAT to be more related to the game engine.

But, hey, it can't hurt, right??

 

 

(and yet another reason for W7 users to NOT go the winge10)

[Nicholas Bell]

Thanks for the insight regarding the case sensitivity in Win10.  That might explain why some maps work and others don't for me.

[Spudknocker]

Ya so look in your terrains folders and make sure everything is matched relating to cases and extracting the cat files seems to really help for what ever reason.  It could be the game engine reacting to something thats a little different in Windows 10 like maybe the new OS is looking for more specificity when its trying to find/archive files who knows haha This might be a litttle thing that could be good to put in the Knowlege base wrench or any other admins