Any reason not to use preload art off?

imGua

Is there any disadvantages in using preload art off on every actor? I mean maybe I will get a better FPS with preload art on, or I will get smaller lag when I spawn new actor?

SlickZero

Personally, I have it unchecked for every actor in my project, with the exception of any actor that has an animation or particle behavior in it. I've had good luck so far with it like that.

I noticed that not pre-loading an actor with animation or particles has a slight delay. The original image shows up fine, but it takes a second or two for the animation to start, and the particles to start spewing.

PixelMetal

Is there any disadvantages in using preload art off on every actor? I mean maybe I will get a better FPS with preload art on, or I will get smaller lag when I spawn new actor?

Because of the unreliability of the timing of animations using the animation behavior I've had to come up with my own that uses tables to keep track of frame count, frame time (a global animation timer is not useful - even animated .gifs allow timing to be set on a per-frame basis) and images names to load. I have to preload all artwork in the project, and leaving preload art checked seems to speed this up slightly, though I'm still pretty shocked at how long it take GS to load anything.

creativeapps

@imGua Watch this @FryingBaconStudios preload video tutorial to clear your point. Its really awesome http://forums.gamesalad.com/discussion/51252/video-series-the-gamesalad-minute-updated-regularly#latest

The_Gamesalad_Guru

Yes as has been shown by a user named Tynan the frame rate in the animate behavior is unreliable over ten FPS. This is why I use ten FPS as my go to frame rate for GS. One shouldn't need more than that for a smooth 2d animation.

PixelMetal

Yes as has been shown by a user named Tynan the frame rate in the animate behavior is unreliable over ten FPS. This is why I use ten FPS as my go to frame rate for GS. One shouldn't need more than that for a smooth 2d animation.

Unless of course you actually want a real smoothly animated look, in which case you need more than 10fps. Even Prince of Persia, over 20 years ago on a machine with less computing power than a modern scientific calculator, used more than 10fps for animations. Or Flashback. Or Aladdin on the Genesis. Need more modern examples with the same/similar high framerate animation style? Canabalt. Sword & Sworcery. Or Bit.Trip Runner. Or...you get the idea.

Yeah...10fps is pretty lame. Or I have a significantly different idea of what "smooth" looks like, while also wondering why the animation speed slider goes to 30fps if it's not reliable for 2/3 of that.

lycettebros

I preload all images that will be used for intros, menus and graphics in the initial scene of a game. I do not preload things like dialog boxes etc. that will not be initially used by a game.