#Introduction

Timing without loads is an important part of keeping speedruns fair for modern games where people are playing with different hardware that loads individual levels faster or slower than others.

So it's therefore important to determine when exactly Squadrons is or isn't loading, so we can determine which sections of a speedrun can be influenced by the specs of the user's system, such as with a HDD vs. SSD, and cut those sections out of our times.

#Autosplitting with Memory Addresses

Because of the game's anti-cheat, using conventional methods of determining when the game is loading—such as using Cheat Engine to scan the game's memory addresses—are out of the question unless there exists a suitable alternative.

But, even if we were able to create such an autosplitter, that doesn't mean it will always work.

Battlefront II (2017) ran into the problem of their memory-based autosplitter becoming obsolete with every minor update the game received. Every new update broke the autosplitter and eventually, they gave up on it due to the time and effort required to keep it updated.

#Splitting/Autosplitting with Gameplay and Imagery

Another common means of determining when to split/autosplit is based on the pixels on the screen, and using key frames to determine when certain things are happening. For example, this icon in the bottom-right corner denotes that Squadrons is currently loading:

The problem is that even this loading icon seems unreliable, if not confusing. All of the examples below are screenshots from my benchmark speedrun, which can be found here.

So, for example: this is clearly a loading screen, but the icon is not there. It has disappeared for a short time and will reappear shortly.

Sometimes the game will outright tell you that it's loading, because you tried to skip a cutscene before it was ready, and the loading icon won't be visible then, either.

Sometimes the loading icon appears, or remains on screen after the gameplay has already started, which inexplicably suggests that the game is loading something—though it's not clear what exactly.

And sometimes the loading icon will appear during cutscenes as well, some of which transition out of gameplay seamlessly, blurring the very line between gameplay, cutscenes, and loading screens.

And, most egregious of all, the loading icon can also appear in the middle of levels, when there is no cutscene or loading screen or scene transition at all. This may be tied to the tutorial popups.

#Conclusion

This is just a long-winded way of saying that I think this is a very complicated game with a lot of moving parts we don't understand, and I have no idea how to time it without loads.

Even if we just ignored everything between missions and only timed the actual gameplay itself, it still looks like there may be some loading mid-level (and therefore, potential for faster PCs/consoles to beat out slower ones).

If anyone has any ideas or suggestions, I am very much interested in hearing them.

How about not timing during cutscenes that take place out of the cockpit and definitive loading screens. The cutscenes seem to take a varied about of time to load in and out so they need to be counted as loading.

Basically every time you're not in a first person view. In or out of your cockpit.