Unreal Engine 4 starts very slow

Hello everybody,

I have a problem since new updater came out. My Unreal Engine 4 takes a lot of time to start actually, I looked up in tastkmanager what “UE4Editor” is doing, but under memory Usage it stays for a very long time on same value. It doesn’t even change and under CPU it stays under “01”. But it is first since new UE4 Updater came out, before new updater engine started up very quick. I tried to launch engine with editor .exe and also with via updater, nothing changes. Does anyone else have problem? What could I do? Perhaps it is a bug?

My UE4 is placed on a SSD and it takes around 5-10 minutes to actually start. Also I tried to completely reinstall UE4, didn’t work. Later when engine started and is showing me thumbnail it says “Initializing” and “Loading” and also this is taking a very long time around 5 minutes.

best regards

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Hello ,

After looking over your issue, I had a few questions for you that will help narrow down what issue it is that you are experiencing. This sounds similar to an issue that I had a few days ago.

Quick questions:

  1. Does restarting your computer have any effect on this issue?
  2. What version of engine are you using?
  3. Could you provide us with your dxdiag?
  4. When you try and open engine does it appear as though nothing has happened?
  5. Does project show up in your Task manager window?
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Hello Rudy,
thank you for your reply first of all, I really appreciate it.

  1. No restarting my computer has no effect on solving this issue. It’s getting even worse, because it looks to me that when I have to restart engine it starts a little bit faster than when I start engine for first time day. But it’s not a huge difference.
  2. Currently I’m using version 4.6.1
  3. I’m not sure if you’re able to read it, because it’s in german. So I don’t know if it’s a big help. But here is it anyway: http://i.imgur.com/0U6lkuX.png and http://i.imgur.com/dzdGehF.png weird thing on second image is, it shows only my intel card not my nvidia graphiccard. Here is also text version(log in english) of dxdiag if you wish: ------------------System Information------------------Time of this report: - Pastebin.com
  4. So launcher itselfs start quickly, but when I start engine it looks to me like nothing is happening. First when I take a look at it in task manager (process tab), it shows process “ue4 editor” but value (memory usage) stays at same value unchanged and it takes a long time till it actually starts to increase and engine startup windows appear, but loading/initializing process also takes pretty long.
    5.Yes my project itself shows up in “application” tab in task manager.

It looks to me also that CPU isn’t loading process of UE4. In task manager under tab “Processes” it shows under “CPU” values “00” or sometimes “01”, so it’s not loading really something.

best regards

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Hello ,

How complex are projects that you are trying to load up? I was speaking with a co-worker and they brought up an interesting point. We have a couple projects (such as Infiltrator) that can take up to 20 minutes to load up. Could this be issue that you are experiencing?

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Hey Rudy,
so I have 2 projects in my project list inside UE4. I would say one project is a little bit more complex, because of amount of assets,shaders,maps etc. but it actually shouldn’t be that huge that it takes this long. Also I usually start UE4 first and later I select and load project from project list when window asks me if I want to create a new project or load an existing project. So it’s not a certain project what needs to load this long, it’s engine itself.

best regards

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problem is still existing in 4.7.2. Isn’t there any solution for this problem? It is really annoying editor needs almost 10 minutes to start up properly( especially initializing, but also loading)

best regards

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Hello ,

I have been looking into this issue and I have a couple of more questions for that may help narrow things down.

Quick questions:

  1. Does this occur if you try and open a same project form another computer?
  2. Does delay still occur if you launch from project file?

default path:
C:\Users\YourUserName\Documents\Unreal Projects\YourProjectName

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Hey Rudy,

  1. No this actually only occur on my notebook, when I run it on my computer it work’s great. funny thing is actually that notebook is faster than my computer except graphiccard. But like I said it’s not certainly project which takes so long to load, it’s also engine itself.

2.Yeah it always takes very long, even when I start project by file or from launcher. It’s very strange.

One thing I forgot to mention, I’ve added some time ago to my "DefaultEngine.ini"following lines:

[InstalledDerivedDataBackendGraph]
Boot=(Type=Boot, Filename=”/DerivedDataCache/Boot.ddc”, MaxCacheSize=512)
Local=(Type=FileSystem, ReadOnly=false, Clean=false, Flush=false, PurgeTransient=true, DeleteUnused=true, UnusedFileAge=34, FoldersToClean=-1, Path=”/DerivedDataCache”)

I did this because UE4 always saved a lot of files on my SSD, folder I mean is: C:\Users\Username\AppData\Locall\UnrealEngine . So I changed my DefaultEngine so it saves files on my HDD not on my SSD. But like I said, it’s not even project which takes that long to loadup, it’s also happen when I only start normal UE4 without selecting a project.

best regards

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Hello ,

I was looking over your old post and I have a suggestion that you could try. I would like to know if setting engine to run on Nvidia card only will help speed things up.

You can do this by:

  1. Go to your Nvidia control panel (Right click desktop > Nvidia control panel )
  2. Click on Manage 3D Settings
  3. Click on Program settings
  4. Click Add button and add Unreal Engine
  5. Then go through all of settings that say “Use global settings” and switch them to “Application-controlled” or “On”

This should tell your Nvidia card to kick in whenever Unreal Engine is being used. Let me know if this makes any difference.

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Hey Rudy,

Well this also doesn’t work, I did it exactly like you describe but nothing is changing. The “initializing” progress is still very slow. I really don’t know anymore what reason for that problem could be, I’m out of ideas. :frowning:

best regards

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Sorry, I didn’t read much about your discussion. But did you try (If you have a dedicated graphics card) to re-assign UE4 to use your graphics card?

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Hello ,

Would it be possible for you to send me a copy of your DefaultEngine.ini file that was changed?

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This is because engine compile its own materials and shaders in its folder. After a while it will be ok. I think this is a bug with new version. Every time you start engine it will compile again and again same thing.

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You need to change this inside your BaseEngine.ini: [InstalledDerivedDataBackendGraph]

Boot=(Type=Boot, Filename=”%GAMEDIR%DerivedDataCache/Boot.ddc”,MaxCacheSize=512)

Local=(Type=FileSystem, ReadOnly=false, Clean=false, Flush=false, PurgeTransient=true,
DeleteUnused=true, UnusedFileAge=34, FoldersToClean=-1, Path=”%GAMEDIR%DerivedDataCache”)

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GAMEDIR will compile everything where you have located your project

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Hello everybody,

first of all thanks for several answers. So I knew that it would save every shader,material etc. inside project folder, when I changed this, I did this because I didn’t want to have all files on my SSD (C:) . So like I said, project needs some time to load up and it really could be a bug like you said, but I’m not sure. Anyway problem is not only project itself, it’s also whole engine which takes that long to load up. So let’s say I start UE4 (4.7.1) out of Epic Games launcher and than this loading process takes a very long time (where it says initializing and loading). When window appear with different projects than I select my project and try to load it also this takes some time(but I think it’s not taking that long to load like engine itself). So it’s not only loading of proejct itself, which takes that long to load, it’s also startup of engine.

PS: I will upload DefaultEngine.ini file later today, currently I’m not at home.

best regards

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I had this problem with 4.5 but finally my hard drive was broken. Maybe this is your problem.

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Hey,

well it could be, but I think it isn’t. My SSD and HDD are actually working pretty good so far, they still transfer files very fast and also some tools shown me that everything is allright with my HDD/SSD, I already looked that up some days ago. :frowning:

best regards

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Or BAD RAM

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I will poste you a screenshot with my BaseEngine.ini…maybe will help

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