Faster Game Loading - Continued

Makes RimWorld reach the main menu faster on large mod lists. This mod reduces startup costs from XML loading, reflection, textures, and atlas work without changing gameplay or save data.

Startup Flow

graph TD
    A[Game startup] --> B[Assemblies and type reflection]
    B --> C[Mod content loading]
    C --> D[XML / Defs loading]
    D --> E[XPath queries]
    E --> F[Background XML metadata check]
    D --> G[Main menu]
    G --> H[Texture loading]
    H --> I[Downscaled texture cache]
    H --> J[Static atlas baking]
    J --> K[Adaptive atlas baking]
    G --> L[Delay graphic and icon loading]

Loading

Features

Enabled by default:

• Load mod content early: Processes pending mod content and type reflection during idle loading gaps before RimWorld's normal ReloadContentInt pass reaches those mods.
• Multi-threaded preloading: Loads XML assets in parallel while preserving RimWorld's original load-folder override order.
• XPath caching: Caches only XML queries that never matched in the observed startup session. Metadata validation scans Mod Defs and Patches in the background; its result is committed on the Unity main thread before persisted misses are used. Persisted misses are trusted only after a scan actually commits a baseline; a scan that fails or never starts clears the persisted misses and falls back to RimWorld's original lookup. The cache is disabled after startup so runtime XML queries always use RimWorld's original lookup.

Disabled by default:

• Delay graphic and icon loading: Moves some non-essential visual and icon work to batched processing after entering the game.
• Adaptive atlas baking: Batches static atlas work based on hardware behavior and avoids known risky race/multi-mask textures.
• Verbose logging: Prints debugging messages.

Manual tool:

• Downscale textures: Downscales high-resolution textures into a separate cache. Original mod files are never modified. If you already use Graphics Settings+ or RimSort Optimize Texture, you usually do not need this.
• Clear texture cache: Removes cached downscaled textures so original textures are used on the next startup.

Notes

• XPath caching may rebuild after the first launch, mod updates, or XML edits.
• XPath caching applies only while RimWorld is starting; it does not intercept XML queries at the main menu or during gameplay.
• Mod Defs and Patches XML edits are detected when file path, size, or modified time changes; Mod settings XML is ignored.
• Brief startup unresponsiveness can be normal, especially with large mod lists.
• Startup sound playback is temporarily held until deferred sound definitions finish resolving, then released automatically.
• Delay graphic and icon loading is an advanced option. If you see texture or icon timing issues, disable it first.
• Downscaled texture cache can be cleared from the mod settings.

Compatibility

Compatibility handling exists for:

• Loading Progress
• Missile Girl - Performance Mod
• DefLoadCache
• Graphics Settings+
• HugsLib
• XmlExtensions
• AyaTweaks / Ayameduki mods
• Humanoid Alien Races
• Ancot Library
• ChezhouLib

Important behavior:

• When Missile Girl is active, XPath caching and background XML change scanning are disabled to avoid conflicting with its cache system.
• Image Opt compatibility is no longer maintained. When Faster Game Loading and Image Opt are enabled together, mods that depend on Ancot Library may encounter graphical loading errors, missing textures, or black textures under some loading conditions. Using both mods together is not recommended.
• Existing Image Opt safeguards, such as downscaled-texture bypass and invalid .dds / .dds.zstd cache cleanup, do not guarantee compatibility.
• HAR and Ancot-related race mods skip some early-loading and atlas-baking paths to reduce bodyAddon, hair, ear, and multi-mask texture issues.

Recommended Settings

Most players should start with the defaults.

If loading is still slow:

1. Keep Load mod content early, Multi-threaded preloading, and XPath caching enabled.
2. For large texture-heavy mod lists, prefer Graphics Settings+ or RimSort Optimize Texture. Image Opt compatibility is no longer maintained.
3. If you do not use an external texture tool, consider FGL's Downscale textures tool.
4. Enable Delay graphic and icon loading or Adaptive atlas baking only if you are willing to troubleshoot compatibility issues.

Project Structure

FasterGameLoading/
├── About/                         # Mod metadata
├── Assemblies/                    # Compiled DLL
├── LanguageData/                  # Translation XML files
├── Source/
│   ├── Core/                      # Mod entry point and startup cleanup
│   ├── Settings/                  # Settings and cross-session cache data
│   ├── XMLLoadingCache/           # XML loading and XPath caching
│   ├── EarlyModContentLoading/    # Load mod content early and reflection cache
│   ├── TextureDownscaler/         # Downscale textures and cache loading
│   ├── AdaptiveAtlasBaking/       # Adaptive atlas baking
│   ├── DelayGraphicAndIconLoading/# Delay graphic and icon loading
│   ├── DelaySoundLoading/         # Deferred sound resolution
│   ├── Compatibility/             # Third-party mod compatibility handling
│   ├── Utilities/                 # Shared helpers
│   └── FasterGameLoading.Tests/   # NUnit tests
└── README.md

Credits

Original mod by Taranchuk. This is a maintained fork with compatibility fixes and performance improvements.