Loading Wheel Flexibility -[ 5-minute implementation feature? ]-

pHghost

Another idea for a five-minute project.

The loading wheel has been a thorn in the side of GS users a long time. As can be demonstrated here, here, and here, and also here. Oh, and don't forget here.

I'm not about to ask for any fancy-schmancy features regarding this, as some of the feature requests ask or suggest. That might come in time, the appropriate time, when it's a real priority. BUT: the current implementation does look very unprofessional, as has been complained about already.

What I'd like to test for a five-minuter, is simply the possibility of getting rid of the annoying semitransparent rounded-corner square. Custom PNGs, whatnots, while great, mean implementing a new system. I don't mind (for the moment) having a spinning image there, and no custom PNG sequence. As long as the square is gone. Is that too much to ask?

@GeorgeGS @BlackCloakGS

As_Of_Latte

simply the possibility of getting rid of the annoying semitransparent rounded-corner square.

And

As long as the square is gone.

@pHghost Couldn't agree more!! I really don't mind a PNG loading image in the corner! As long as the semi-transparent square around it was gone.
Heck, I've seen very successful games have a PNG loading image in the bottom corner, but with NO SEMI-TRANSPARENT SQUARE around them...

@BlackCloakGS Could this possibly be in update 0.13.33? Please

Prime and very recent example:

Lovejoy

@pHghost @As_Of_Latte

loading_bg.png is the culprit.

pHghost

@Lovejoy said:
loading_bg.png is the culprit.

I expected as much, that's why it should hopefully be a 5-minute fix.

As_Of_Latte

@Lovejoy Nice! Could definitely see this being fixed quickly!

iamcartez

Super please fix this!!!!

Franto

Is the non-transparency an iOS bug? On android, the loading wheel has transparency.

Are you saving as PNG-24 and not PNG-8? There is no transparency if you save in PNG-8 and load into GS. Even if the image has transparency outside of GS.

I've noticed a lot of graphical bugs occur from images saved as PNG-8 or saved through the Web and Devices format of PS. If you save a .png directly through the "Save as" part of PS, you get a perfect PNG-24 with no graphical errors. I don't know why that is, but that is what I found works.

owen_dennis

That'd be a pretty nice fix. I think it would be helpful if we could see control where and how big it is, but that's probably not a small thing to adjust.

Like personally, I'd like to make mine a little bit bigger. When people have tested my game, I have a loading image pop up, but then there is a point where they start wondering if the game has hung up because they don't see the tiny spinning image in the bottom right corner. It's probably more noticeable on an iphone, but I've been testing on my ipad this whole time, so it only takes up like 3% of the screen space in the bottom right corner.

It'd be nice if it could be made bigger and have the ability to adjust where on the screen it appears. Right justified, centered, left justified, whatever.

pHghost

@owen_dennis said:
It'd be nice if it could be made bigger and have the ability to adjust where on the screen it appears. Right justified, centered, left justified, whatever.

I agree it would be nice to have it more flexible, but that might take a couple weeks to implement, and there are more important features at the moment. If we could simply get rid of that annoying rounded rectangle in the next build, it would be a great interim solution.

As far as I know, transparency in the PNG works, it's just the rounded rectangle being put behind it that annoys the jeebz out of me.

Any chance for a quick-fix, @GeorgeGS ?

GeorgeGS

@pHghost said:
Any chance for a quick-fix, GeorgeGS ?

It's unlikely to be quick. According to @BlackCloakGS there is much voodoo contained within it.

As_Of_Latte

@GeorgeGS Ahh man

But he is @BlackCloakGS !! He gave his father "the talk". His passport requires no photograph... When he drives a car off the lot, its price increases in value. He was even bitten by a rattlesnake once and after 5 days of excruciating pain, the snake finally died!

Surely, he could fix the semi-transparent square with ease and some voodoo magic

Lovejoy

The semi transparent background and loading wheel are the standard apple loading indicators, as far as editing it on a regular Xcode project its simple. But when it comes to GS code base, it seems like it goes through a black hole.

Socks

@GeorgeGS said:
It's unlikely to be quick. According to BlackCloakGS there is much voodoo contained within it.

Is there any way to edit the PNG at your end ? Keep the file size (dimensions) and all the code references to the PNG (and all the structure you don't want to start digging into) but reduce the transperancy to 1% - or make the alpha 0, or delete everything in the image but a single corner pixel . . . (etc) ?

pHghost

@GeorgeGS said:
It's unlikely to be quick. According to BlackCloakGS there is much voodoo contained within it.

As @Socks says, exactly what I was imagining. If you replace the image you bundle in with an empty transparent one, there is no need to change any code and it's a perfect fix for the interim. That's pretty much perfectly expressed what I was asking for.

Franto

Ok, I see that gray transparency your talking about, all my screens preceding long load times are black, which makes the grey thing invisible, and thus, I've never noticed until now, I checked against a light background. : I

As_Of_Latte

Is there any way to edit the PNG at your end ? Keep the file size (dimensions) and all the code references to the PNG (and all the structure you don't want to start digging into) but reduce the transperancy to 1% - or make the alpha 0, or delete everything in the image but a single corner pixel . . . (etc) ?

Great idea @Socks ! I like your thinking. This sounds reasonable enough for the GS team to somewhat disguise the semi-transparent box, without having to really go in and change up the code drastically.