I'm pretty sure that iCeMaN[USA] is correct and the verify of the client data is largely based on the internet connection [this said I have used a 512 DSL connection and not peaked it while loading or playing BF2].
But the entire load time between maps is not.
If you run task manager in the back ground and use the networking tab you will see the network activity [note that when BF2 is not the active window it gets very little CPU and runs very slow, use ALT+Tab to flick between windows to get and idea of what is going on].
In between maps the network activity is basically 0 [except for the verify]. On my PC the CPU is very quite during the loads as well.
I believe that most of the work is done by the hard disks and ram, taking the compressed games files for the next map and loading them into ram.
If you have at least 2Gb of RAM then the entire BF2 game can use ram rather than hard disk space used as pagefile. If you have less than 2Gb of ram I would recommend getting more to play BF2.
Ie if you have fast hard disks [I use a pair of Western Digital Raptors in RAID0] and fast RAM [Corsair 3500LL] then you are likely to be one of the first people into the new game [it is very rare for me to not be in the first 5 players of a map].
I hope this helps.
DrM
Last edited by DrM (2006-05-31 07:11:38)