Our VR project is build around the idea of storing each map in a separate downloadable content pack. It’s all done in blueprints. Packs are downloaded and mounted with the use of these functions:
The problem is, that with the transition from 5.2 to 5.5 the map is getting opened before the engine finishes loading the assets. So the user sees empty map with meshes starting to appear within first few seconds, while he can already walk around.
That issue wasn’t there in 5.2 and also if the pack was downloaded during the previous session, the map would load correctly with all assets immediately in place. Is there any way to preload all of the assets?
I’ve only done testing on Meta Quest 3 so far, and still need to check if the problem persists on Windows builds.
Attempted to load the map asynchronously before opening it, but the problem with invisible meshes is still there. I did add the path to plugin’s Maps folder to Asset Manager section in Project Settings.
Just tested the PC build and the same problem randomly occurs there as well. It only takes a few frames for all meshes to appear after the map is loaded, which is somewhat ok. For android build though, I need at least to keep the image faded out for few seconds while the assets are being loaded. But how do I know exactly when everything have finished loading?
I tried replacing the map assets and I think the problem is caused by high resolution textures. Most of them have 2k or 4k resolution, but that’s the level of detail our clients have requested. Replacing every texture with something like 32x32px ‘WhiteSquareTexture’, makes the map load instantly without having any invisible meshes at start.
As I said earlier, this problem wasn’t present in older versions, like 5.2. The textures took time to load as well, but at least the meshes with the lowest mip level were instantly visible. It seems that now the mesh stays invisible until the textures are fully loaded into memory. This loading behavior is the same in 5.6
