Loading maps slower after packaging game

In 4.15, I never had issues like this. I upgraded to 4.17 and am now having issues with the packaged builds. When I play the VR game in the editor, I get around 1-2 second(s) of loading time the first load between maps. Then it’s a fraction of a second to jump between maps. However when I package the game in development or shipping, the game take like 13 seconds to load and then 6-8 seconds to load between maps. Which seems like forever with a VR headset on staring into darkness.

I think I have it narrowed down to the MotionControllerPawn and also the BP_MotionControllers (VR Hands). I created a blank vr project and initially migrated a map from my project over, and was able to jump between maps with no issues. When I migrated the hands and pawn though, everything crawled between changing maps. I used my BP_MotionControllers with the UE VR project MC Pawn and still had the lag between maps. I then used the UE VR project hands with my MC Pawn and saw the same lag between maps. This only happens for the packaged project. I have also tried adding the 2 test maps and their “BuiltData” in the “List of maps to include in a packaged build” under packaging settings. The hands and pawn didn’t seem to be an issue when packaging with 4.15, but now the project is unusable when packaged. However playing in the editor, it runs great so there is a lot of progress that I made in 4.17 before realizing this packaging issue.

I’m not getting any errors in the log, here is a sample of one map change log:

[2017.10.03-18.12.47:232][507]LogGameMode: Display: Match State Changed from InProgress to LeavingMap
[2017.10.03-18.12.47:232][507]LogGameState: Match State Changed from InProgress to LeavingMap
[2017.10.03-18.12.47:232][507]LogNet: Browse: /Game/VirtualRealityBP/Maps/MotionControllerMap
[2017.10.03-18.12.47:232][507]LogLoadingSplash: Loading begins
[2017.10.03-18.12.47:277][507]LogHMD: FSplash::OnShow
[2017.10.03-18.12.47:277][507]LogLoad: LoadMap: /Game/VirtualRealityBP/Maps/MotionControllerMap
[2017.10.03-18.12.47:300][507]LogMemory: Platform Memory Stats for WindowsNoEditor
[2017.10.03-18.12.47:300][507]LogMemory: Process Physical Memory: 429.28 MB used, 708.05 MB peak
[2017.10.03-18.12.47:300][507]LogMemory: Process Virtual Memory: 1877.79 MB used, 2533.90 MB peak
[2017.10.03-18.12.47:300][507]LogMemory: Physical Memory: 11223.09 MB used, 119751.94 MB free, 130975.03 MB total
[2017.10.03-18.12.47:300][507]LogMemory: Virtual Memory: 2828.86 MB used, 119751.94 MB free, 134217728.00 MB total
[2017.10.03-18.12.47:300][507]LogMemory:
[2017.10.03-18.12.47:300][507]FMallocBinned2 Mem report
[2017.10.03-18.12.47:300][507]Small Pool
[2017.10.03-18.12.47:300][507]Requested Allocations: 41.451447mb (including block size padding)
[2017.10.03-18.12.47:300][507]OS Allocated: 46.937500mb
[2017.10.03-18.12.47:300][507]Large Pool
[2017.10.03-18.12.47:300][507]Requested Allocations: 82.170639mb
[2017.10.03-18.12.47:300][507]OS Allocated: 82.750000mb
[2017.10.03-18.12.47:300][507]OS Page Allocator
[2017.10.03-18.12.47:300][507]Cached free pages: 0.437500mb
[2017.10.03-18.12.47:399][507]LogAIModule: Creating AISystem for world MotionControllerMap
[2017.10.03-18.12.53:514][507]LogLoad: Game class is ‘RenderToTexture_Game_C’
[2017.10.03-18.12.53:517][507]LogWorld: Bringing World /Game/VirtualRealityBP/Maps/MotionControllerMap.MotionControllerMap up for play (max tick rate 0) at 2017.10.03-13.12.53
[2017.10.03-18.12.53:517][507]LogWorld: Bringing up level for play took: 0.002410
[2017.10.03-18.12.53:518][507]LogGameMode: Display: Match State Changed from EnteringMap to WaitingToStart
[2017.10.03-18.12.53:518][507]LogGameState: Match State Changed from EnteringMap to WaitingToStart
[2017.10.03-18.12.53:518][507]LogGameMode: Display: Match State Changed from WaitingToStart to InProgress
[2017.10.03-18.12.53:521][507]LogGameState: Match State Changed from WaitingToStart to InProgress
[2017.10.03-18.12.53:521][507]LogLoadingSplash: Loading ends
[2017.10.03-18.12.53:521][507]LogHMD: FSplash::OnHide
[2017.10.03-18.12.53:540][507]LogLoad: Took 6.263331 seconds to LoadMap(/Game/VirtualRealityBP/Maps/MotionControllerMap)

Maybe I’m missing something in the log that is killing the load time. Any help is greatly appreciated. Hoping someone knows of a “This’ll make it work” checkbox that I have missed.

Once I have a problem like you, and I solved changing the export setting, changing ANT to GRADLE.