Why Bethesda Games Like Skyrim and Fallout Have Loading Screens
If you've played games such as Skyrim, Fallout, or even the widely debated TES IV: Oblivion Remastered, you'll be familiar with the drill: open a door, loading screen. Fast travel, loading screen. It's like you sometimes see them end to end. It's a common gripe, but according to one of the veteran developers, these pauses aren't laziness – they're actually a requirement to how Bethesda builds its worlds.
It's All About the Little Things (Staying Put)
Bruce Nesmith, who did a lot of years at Bethesda, discussed the reason that loading screens are needed because of the way that super detailed their worlds are. More importantly, it enables the game to recall everything. If you roll a cheese wheel off a table, the game has to remember that it's on the floor when you enter the room after. Loading separated areas allows the game engine to handle this constant physics and object placement without collapsing under the weight.
Trying to load the massive great outdoors and complex interior structures all at once, tracking the position and physical state of every single thing. Nesmith maintains that would most certainly kill performance.
The "Necessary Evil" of Open-World Detail
"Each time some grump about loading screens, they're imagining that we are lazy or indifferent to be doing something modern," Nesmith was quoted as stating. "The thing is that Bethesda's games are so graphically rich and detailed. You can't load exteriors and interiors at the same time, it's impossible."
He believes that any attempt to implement seamless streaming techniques ultimately leads to performance issues. It's better in Bethesda's view to momentarily freeze up the game using a loading screen than to have a stuttering or less graphically detailed world forever. To achieve that specific feeling of a crowded, interactive open world where your actions permanently have physical repercussions, these pauses of loading become unavoidable.
"If you make the game simpler, shrink it, it won't be open world anymore. This is evil - not because you desire it this way, but just because if you don't, then you won't be able to have the right atmosphere," he clarified.
But What About Other Games?
Of course, there is more to the debate than that. It's usually other open-world games that fans mention, like upcoming Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, that seem to manage their own complex systems with less loading screen reliance. That only goes further to continue the long debate over Bethesda's own game engine and whether or not its architecture is what causes those incessant loads.
Therefore, while Nesmith presents a valid technical case on the basis of Bethesda's design principles, the argument over whether or not it's the only way to do it, or just how Bethesda's tools work best, is an extremely contentious one amongst gamers.
