04-27-2006, 02:10 PM
Raelynn,Apr 27 2006, 08:23 AM Wrote:Concerning this, there's a bunch of reasons that this could happen. The most likely in my mind is that Blizzard has the UI code separated from the actual game code. This means that the status bar could only be updated at certain points outside of the actual loading functions. If there is one big function that runs followed by a lot of smaller ones, there would be a delay while that big one runs (since the UI can't update that status while that is running) and then the little ones would have quicker status updates.[right][snapback]108365[/snapback][/right]
Progress bars have always been difficult to program. Simply put, unless the series of tasks being executed is almost completely homogenous, the estimates of how much relative time each phase will take is going to be difficult. The estimates also depend on a variety of factors that vary from run to run, such as computer speed, available memory, what's already loaded/cached, if any tasks will complete early, etc. And usually programmers are more interested in getting the tasks done correctly than in estimating their arrival time accurately!
I think psychological studies have been done about which type of bar users prefer - a steady progress bar, one that goes from 0 to 90 fast and then stalls, or one that goes from 0 to 10 slowly and then fills in quickly. Maybe the people who design fuel guages for cars should look into this. :)