Deprecation Notice
Loadstone will no longer be getting any updates. Starting with the release of v80, every feature provided by Loadstone is now included in the base game, including some extra features like Object Pooling that were never implemented in Loadstone. Please only use this mod for versions prior to v80
Loadstone
Reduces the stuttering experienced while loading levels, and will reduce or entirely remove the amount of time that the voicechat is unable to function for.
Warning
This mod is still in early development, and as such might be incompatible with other mods, and could potentially cause crashes. If any issue of this sort happens, please submit an issue report to the mod's github page.
Compatibility
This mod aims to be fully compatible with vanilla, and to have compatibility with as many other mods as possible. The following mods should run without errors:
- BiggerLobby
- MoreCompany
- LethalExpansion
- LethalExpansionCore
- LethalLevelLoader
This is not a comprehensive list, but rather, those mods should work without issue, and if they don't I will see to it that they work as soon as possible. Other popular mods like Skinwalkers, Ship Loot, HelmetCams, Mimics, Reserved Slot, Lethal Things, and more should also work just fine, but less commonly used mods aren't guaranteed to be compatible. If there's a mod compatibility issue, check the current issues to see if the issue has already been reported, and if not, feel free to report the issue. (It's very helpful if you can provide game logs and a mod list, as well as a profile code so that I can test and fix the issue as quickly as possible)
Configuring
This mod provides a few config options that can be used to customize exactly how loading happens. The default config is optimized to allow voicechat to work for the entire time spent loading in, while spending as little time actually loading as possible. If loading fails in some capacity, the provided config options should hopefully allow for the issue to be resolved.
All config options can be modified in-game without restarting through LethalConfig if it is installed.
- Async Dungeon Module
- Toggles Loadstone's forced async level generation. This is on by default, and if turned off will cause stuttering as the level generates. The vanilla game sets async generation to be off by default, and as such, most issues with level loading should be able to be fixed by disabling this option. The mod still improves performance in other places, but a lot of the performance uplift does come from this one option.
- Requires the Status Change Fix module to be enabled
- Async Gen Wait Time
- This config option tells the game's map generator how long it's allowed to spend each frame generating the level. Increasing this will reduce your framerate while loading, but allow for faster load times, while decreasing it will increase your framerate while loading, at the cost of longer load times. I hope to eventually convert the level generator to be truly asynchronous so that map generation can happen at full speed without compromising framerates, but that will require a deep rework of existing systems.
- Async Navmesh Module
- Enables Loadstone's async navmesh module. This module configures the game to generate the navmesh used for AI pathing in the background on multiple threads, rather than pausing the game until the calculations are done
- Dungeon Realization Module
- Enables Loadstone's dungeon realization module, which allows the dungeon to be spawned in across multiple frames to reduce lag
- Requires the Async Dungone module to be enabled
- Screen Darkening Module
- Affects the game's screen darkening effect on level gen. Can be configured between the vanilla mode (darken), a popup message, or disabled entirely, with a log message containing the level seed instead
- Status Change Fix Module
- This module fixes an oversight in LC's implementation of the dungeon completion callback which prevented it from ever being run correctly
- DunGen Optimization Module
- Optimizes the internal workings of DunGen, the tool that LC uses to generate facility layouts
- Object Pooling Module
- A highly experimental feature to cache object spawns and re-use them as needed, rather than deleting and respawning them. May cause a slight increase in ram usage, but may also heavily reduce load times
- Currently known to cause errors when used with CullCompany
- LocalPerformanceReporting
- Creates performance reports in the logs every time the ship lands to assist in debugging performance related issues
- LCSoundTool
- Should Loading Music Play
- Enable this if you wish to have music play while levels load in
- Loading Music Fade Time
- Determines how long it will take for the music to fully fade out once the level finishes loading. The default value of 15 seconds is intended to make the music fade out the moment you land on the ground
- Loading Music Volume
- How loud the loading music should be
Other
If you've read this far and this mod has been helpful to you, I'd like to ask you to consider donating. Keeping this mod up to date and making improvements takes a lot of time, and any support will help ensure I can keep supporting the mod into the future. My ko-fi can be found here if you would like to donate
