Since the last patch, I've been experiencing some very long 'load times' for textures. Which is to say, things are appearing initially in low-res texture modes, then finally loading up the high-res textures after several moments. When a dialog pop-up appears, frequently the rendered portrait is simply a white square, until it finally loads in and displays properly. When I warp into a new location, my ship in the warp-in animation looks blocky and very low-res, then it finally resolves as the high-res textures are loaded.

Now, before everyone jumps in with 'lower your settings,' I feel the need to point out that I've been playing this since closed beta and this absolutely DID NOT happen before the last patch. I have not changed my graphics settings (unless something in the patch auto-changed them for me), I have not changed my hardware. As of this last patch, I just suddenly acquired this huge lag in texture drawing.

So I have to ask, what's changed? And can we please fix it, because it really seems a change for the worse.

System stats:

Win XP Pro (32-bit, SP3)
Intel Core2Duo E8400 dual core CPU @ 3.0 Ghz
2GB RAM
nVidia 8800GT, 512Mb (eVGA, 'Superclocked')
nVidia drivers 196.21

-m experiencing this too. It really doesn't effect playability but it is QUITE distracting, especially slow dialogue loads and the boxy "warped in" look. I thought I was my old video card at first. Made a huge upgrade from an old eVGA 8800 GT 512 to an ATI 5770 1gb. Still slow texture load rates. Graphic options don't seem to change it.
Anyone found a fix or the problem?

I'm seeing this too. And, I still experience the missing "drop from warp" effects we used to get when we entered a system.

So, basically, when I enter a system, a see a flash of my ship, then it disappears. Then, instead of seeing it flying it quickly and slowing (the "drop from warp" from a distance effect), it just shows up. But, it shows up in a low poly count model, then as the camera pans as the ship passes (the only part of the "drop from warp" effect that does work) the poly count goes up and everything is fine.

This used to play perfectly on my system since beta but I think sometime in March we received a patch that borked this. My system is a high-end i7/nVidia 280 rig with 6Gb of RAM, so it's likely game code and not underpowered hardware, unless it's somehow a video driver issue.

this is a known issue. many people have gotten the "not dropping out of warp" bug as well, all they see is the end result and the panning. Not so much with the low-poly mdoel though, perhaps it's dropping your graphics cache each time and reloading models from scratch, which would kinda defeat the purpose of having the cache.

the other problem with the warp effect is sometimes the SIZE of the ship.. my main char had a nova class, no problem, now has a tempest class, and the ship is too long to fit in, so i see the nose and then it pans, and my res is 1680x1050 on a 22" monitor.

The cache is a good point. I wonder if there is a cache size slider in the options menu somewhere.

there is not to my knowlesdge, no.

I believe one was going to be available , but there currently isn't one, and there is no mention of there being one coming anytime.

especially since computers these days have such vast storage and processing spaces, there's no real need to limit the cache. beside, if the cache is HUGE, then stuff should load faster.

Just started getting the texture issue on message windows after 1.1.
I get like a manequin head for 2-5 seconds then the textures appear and it's fine. It's annoying because until the texture loads the whole game grinds to a halt.

I didn't have this before and with the previous poster mentioning their issues started after a patch I'm wondering if there could be a messed up cache or something?

For reference, no other noticable GFX issues - FPS seems same as before and textures everywhere else are loading fine. I've not had any graphical problems until now with STO, played since OB.