Portions of map do not load due to streaming issues (game-breaking)

Reproduction Steps
I found out recently in a game of mine that streaming has not been able to keep up.

On a low-end device with low memory, such as a phone or cheap laptop, I was able to run into the issue simply by playing on any graphics level. Personally, I ran into streaming issues such as this with both my Google Pixel 3 phone and Windows 11 laptop.

This issue can also be reproduced within the emulator.


Here is what my game does specically:

  • At the beginning of every round, a new map loads into workspace
  • When the player deploys, the game shows a loading screen while the area around the spawn point is pre-loaded with Player:RequestStreamAroundAsync()
  • From that point on, the player can proceed with the gameplay.

AGAIN, THIS ISSUE ONLY OCCURS ON LOW-MEMORY DEVICES / EMULATIONS

Expected Behavior
I expect that as I play the game, portions of the map will stream normally. If a part of the map is not loaded, I expect it loads shortly.

Actual Behavior
Here are some good visual aides:



In a sense, parts of my in-game maps do not show, ever. These screenshots are taken about 6-10 minutes after the match started.

Workaround
My workaround for this issue is to load the map into the client manually. However, this causes massive performance issues, due to all of the details being present at all times, and not being streamed out.

I hope this workaround is temporary, as it has harmed in-game performance, and this harmed retention (implied below).

UPDATE

The game now refuses to load most of the map, including the floor.
My entire project is now shut down because it is completely unplayable.

image

Issue Area: Engine
Issue Type: Other
Impact: Very High NOW CRITICAL
Frequency: Constantly

10 Likes

Thanks for the bug report. Are you able to share more details and/or a repro place of some kind? I’ve got a few questions:

  1. Does the failing to load happen on the first round, or only on subsequent rounds?
  2. Can you narrow down from the visit length when this started happening? I assume you think it started around March 17-18, but it is hard to tell from the figure.
  3. What is the place id this is happening on?
1 Like

On every round it fails to load.

That figure was a bit misleading, sorry. I put that there to demonstrate the impact of my workaround; the statistics before the dip included the issue.

6158075274, albeit it’s happening no more (due to me implementing the workaround).


If you would a direct repro from the game itself, please DM me for a copy of the game file ^v^

2 Likes

We recently had a reoccurrence of an issue where some visual components fail to load: Most assets fail to load - #71 by LordRugdumph

When that bug happens, some objects will fail to load their visual appearance, but the parts will still be there for physics (e.g. you won’t be able to walk through them). For your experience, are the parts “physically” there, but invisible, or are the parts fully not there? If the parts are “physically” there but invisible, try clearing your local cache to see if it helps, instructions in the previouslink. Another sign of the other issue will be many error messages in the output window about assets failing to load.

4 Likes

Sorry for the delay in responding! This is an issue that does not stream any data from the base parts, meaning that their collisions also do not load. No error messages.

1 Like

This issue is now updated to critical status as it has gotten worse. Read the update:

We were also experiencing this bug in smashing sim x where parts loaded on the client also weren’t loading in.

Had to design an entire custom streaming solution to fix, we too noticed a direct correlation between device memory and the frequency of the bug.

2 Likes

Circling back here - sorry for the late response. I can confirm this was fixed. Going to close out the report.

1 Like