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Rockstar thanks GTA Online player who fixed load times, official update coming (pcgamer.com)

1032 points by mmhsieh · 2021 days ago · 321 comments on HN

Article summary

Rockstar Games has confirmed that a fan-made solution to GTA Online's poor loading times will become official in a forthcoming update. The solution, which reduces loading times by up to 70%, was discovered by a player who analyzed the game's code and identified a single thread CPU bottleneck. Rockstar has awarded the player $10,000 through their Bug Bounty program. An official patch is now live, with some players reporting significant improvements.

Main themes

  • GTA Online loading times
  • community involvement
  • bug bounty programs
  • game development priorities
  • technical optimization
  • player experience
  • game maintenance

What commenters say

  • The loading time issue was a long-standing problem that Rockstar should have fixed earlier, given its impact on the player experience.
  • The fact that a player was able to identify and fix the issue suggests that Rockstar's developers may not have been prioritizing the problem or may not have had the necessary expertise.
  • The discovery of the issue and the subsequent fix highlights the importance of community involvement and bug bounty programs in identifying and resolving technical problems.
  • Rockstar's decision to award the player a bounty and implement the fix is a positive step, but some commenters question why it took so long for the company to address the issue.
  • The loading time issue may have been overlooked due to its gradual worsening over time, rather than being a sudden problem.
  • Some commenters believe that Rockstar's priorities were elsewhere, such as on monetization, and that the company did not consider the loading time issue a significant enough problem to warrant attention.
  • Others argue that the issue was likely not a priority due to the game's continued commercial success despite the loading time problems.
  • The incident highlights the challenges of maintaining and optimizing complex game codebases, particularly for long-running games with large player bases.