So I've noticed quite a number of posts referencing the 'infinite load screen' issues that some players are experiencing. I wanted to add my own topic about this.

Firstly I must note that I have not personally experienced that specific issue, however I think the problem I'm having is related or may actually be the same, just not 'infinite'. My PC has a 500GB Crucial MX100 on which FO4 is installed. For me this has allowed mitigation of the game's oft mentioned long loading times. Indeed, although loading screens are still a common sight for me they don't stick around for too long. Or at least, they hadn't used to.

What I've noticed recently - since the 1.4 patch more so - is that when loading from an instance into the open world my loading times can be in excess of 1 minute or even more. Sometimes when this has happened it's been so long that I think the game has crashed, but it hasn't and eventually loads the Commonwealth. Now what I find interesting and similar is that this may well be the dreaded 'infinite' loading screen that in actual fact is just a very very very protracted loading screen in disguise.

This is a bug. This is why it is a bug:

1) It has not always happened. I've played for well over 100 hours and this was not happening for the first hundred.

2) It only seems to happen when loading from an instance (an enclosed game box) into the overworld, it never happens vice versa.

3) On occurence my PC's storage access activity light doesn't seem to do much. This suggests that there is something happening, or rather not happening as it should within the program / game engine. The game is not making best efforts to read or load data from the target location. As it finishes the load (sometimes minutes after the load screen has appeared) the access light flashes as though a burst of activity has occurred.

4) Sometimes - more often than not - Alt-tabbing out of the game and back in to the game causes the load to occur which strongly suggests that the engine is sitting idle when it is supposed to be loading content.

This needs to be fixed. Actually what you need to do is log it as an issue / known bug and then fix it. My PC is more than capable of loading this game quickly but something in the code is preventing this from happening as it should and resulting in me and I'm sure many many other players, sitting and staring at loading screens that are doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING (other than wasting time of course).

My system specs are below - I am not running any mods, it is a completely vanilla install of FO4

Windows 10 64-Bit

Asus Sabertooth MK1 Z97

Intel i7 4790K 4Ghz (not overclocked)

16GB DDR3

4GB Nvidia GeForce GTX980 (not overclocked)

512GB Crucial MX100 SSD (system drive and game installs)

1TB WD Black 64MB 7200prm HDD (storage drive)

Most recent drivers for all main components

As you're a sufferer of these long load times, do they happen on new saves or saves with little game time? I will test mine this evening, but I only have about 25+ hours in total after a break to smash some Pokémon... I used to have load times of approx 1.5 mins sometimes but since moving to an SSD the game is super quick.


It also might be helpful if you upload your save for people to test on their rigs.

Yes it is a bug, introduced with patch 1.3. It doesn't happen to everyone. Bethesda is aware, both during beta 1.3 and during beta 1.4.

My game was perfect when the game was released, smooth and no FPS drop (what I could notice) and then with Patch 1.3 (and still now with Patch 1.4), the loading screen (the black one) takes 1-2 minutes which compared to my loading time before 1.3 is about 5-6 times longer. Some (black screen) loading takes more than that. Some takes much more than that. The game is still smooth with no noticeable FPS drop when I play (i still have a decent computer).

Now, of course I don't know if your problem is the same that has been discussed before on various forums, but if it is, a person one a thread here gave a tip that if you save before going into a loading screen, load that save (very quick) and then go into a loading screen (by open the door etc), you will get the loading screen with a moving object and that is much faster (at least most of the time). There is also a mod (sort if, it is some files that you put in the Fallout 4 folder) over at the Nexus portal called Load Accelerator that also works.

Then of course we shouldn't have to mod the game to fix bugs, at least not a bug like this, especially since this is a bug that was caused by Bethesda. But I have no hope that Bethesda will fix this. They have done something with the game, that causes this for some people (regardless how good computer you have) but because "some" people apparently is not enough people for them to bother with the problem.