Heres some data from tests carried out
Progressive texture loading on CPU 30% (After all models loaded) this is the default setting after the 8.2 update
The scene has two clothed characters loaded, with no other assets
Material plus file load for characters skin texture after 7 seconds Iclone then becomes unresponsive for 9 seconds total texture load time 16seconds
Material plus file load for characters Hair texture after 6 seconds clone tehn becomes unresponsive for 8 seconds total texture load time 14 seconds
In both instances the interface indicates that all the textures associated with the character update/refresh. not just the target mesh
Progressive texture loading disabled
Material plus file load for characters skin texture total texture load time 7 seconds
Material plus file load for characters Hair texture total texture load time 3 seconds
in both instances only the texture for the object related to the Material plus file is updated in the viewport
Because the interface freezes during the process of progressive texture loading, and the interface indicates that all associated textures to a character appear to update/refresh
Progressive texture loading adds 9 seconds to a character skin texture load and 11 seconds to a character hair texture load over the original process.
So the claim that you can carry on working while textures load is not true, because the background load indicated by the high CPU load freezes the application until the texture load is complete.