Why is game EXE slow to launch?

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If I hit “play” from the Unity editor (4.6.2f1), the game starts almost immediately. If I build an EXE, and double-click to launch it from Windows, it takes 6.5 seconds before I see the configuration menu (i.e. the dialog that asks about resolution and windowedness, before the game even starts). For my testing I was using the EXE built while following the Roll-A-Ball tutorial.

I have a dual-monitor setup (Dell monitors daisy-chained through DisplayPort). If I unplug the second monitor, the launch time drops to 3 seconds. I gather from this that the delay is due to the game engine probing my system.

I found something similar on an Nvidia forum, suggesting that Nvidia’s drivers are part of the equation. Basic machine info: GeForce GTX 760, 4GHz i7-4790K, 8GB RAM, Win7Pro-64.

Is this a known issue? Is there a workaround?

Update: I also discovered that un-checking “Use Direct3D 11” in the player preferences cuts the startup time to nearly nothing.

Is a 6 second wait time for launching a game really a big problem?

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Six seconds isn't a big deal. The guy on the Nvidia forum claimed a full minute, which would be more of a problem, so it worries me if what I'm seeing is going to morph into that. It's a bit weird having your system just sort of sit there for several seconds with no feedback while you wonder what's going on. I can deal with it during development, but I'd rather my future customers didn't have to.

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2 Answers

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I highly doubt that there is a work around because it is most likely something with your computer(I know it’s high specs but there could be internal errors like Windows or Mac errors etc) so yea but its 6 seconds :confused:

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Dude, it has to load stuff up. When you are in the editor things are already loaded up.
You can hide loading times with your custom logo screen. Start loading stuff up in the background while showing your logo/intro screen so things won’t seem as a long to load.

It’s not a bug, there is nothing to work around. It’s how you’ll make it load up stuff.

I don't believe this is the case. If it were simply loading stuff, the delay would not be dependent upon the number of connected monitors. And six seconds to prepare the pre-game configuration menu for the Roll-A-Ball game, which has almost no assets, is kind of absurd. (How long does it take the configuration menu to appear on your computer for a trivial game?)

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I'm also doing a roll a ball game and it takes more than that.

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