Photics - Cool Tip #1 - Smoother scene loading
The Unofficial GameSalad Textbook was updated today. While going through my emails for promo codes, I was asked an interesting question. The question was basically something like... is it possible to create a custom loading scene for GameSalad?
Unless you're one of the original Pro subscribers, with the $1999 per year subscription still active, you can't add custom splash screens. As for customizing the scene loading, that's not possible... or is it?
While you can't add a progress bar or customize that spinning icon, you can make scene transitions smoother. Here's how...
Create an actor that covers the entire screen. Make it alpha zero, so that it is hidden. Then, just before the change scene behavior is used, change the actor's alpha color to 1. That will be the frozen image on the screen while the next scene loads.
I often use a similar technique for my scene transitions. I simply fade the screen to black, while fading out the music. This can be accomplished with the interpolate behavior. By changing the color of the fade actor, along with fading out the music, the scene changes aren't so harsh.
Useful information like this can be found in The Unofficial GameSalad Textbook.
Unless you're one of the original Pro subscribers, with the $1999 per year subscription still active, you can't add custom splash screens. As for customizing the scene loading, that's not possible... or is it?
While you can't add a progress bar or customize that spinning icon, you can make scene transitions smoother. Here's how...
Create an actor that covers the entire screen. Make it alpha zero, so that it is hidden. Then, just before the change scene behavior is used, change the actor's alpha color to 1. That will be the frozen image on the screen while the next scene loads.
I often use a similar technique for my scene transitions. I simply fade the screen to black, while fading out the music. This can be accomplished with the interpolate behavior. By changing the color of the fade actor, along with fading out the music, the scene changes aren't so harsh.
Useful information like this can be found in The Unofficial GameSalad Textbook.
Comments
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If you have the memory and power to spare, overlaying a scene with the pause behavior seems to speed up the loading times — especially when switching back to the original scene. I used this for the equipment shop and it was really smooth — Fade & quick loading!
In fact if I wanted I could have had a custom loading screen (kinda poinltess though when there is no loading going on).
Speaking of which, I have a few codes for Nesen Probe still if anyone would like one. :-)
I sometimes have a "Loading" image, hidden offscreen that I interpolate onto the screen just before loading.
That looks pretty slick sometimes too.
I've been toying with the idea of also... making a note of where the spinner is onscreen, and design a loading screen that incorporates it. Stick a little box around where it is, and some colours or something.
So it makes it look incorporated into your game design.