Product Chat / Separate Loading Screens - How do I do them

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Bugsy
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Posted: 10th Dec 2016 02:19
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Hi, I'm almost ready to release Kshatriya Wetwork. The problem is the loading screens. I've figured out how to get custom menu and a SINGLE custom loading screen, but I don't know where to start trying to have a loading screen for each individual level.

Has anyone got experience with that? It was so simple in FPSC
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DVader
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Posted: 10th Dec 2016 12:32
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There may be a way to alter screens using Lua now, but as far as I know it isn't possible. GG takes it's loading screens from the directories you have already altered and there's no simple way to load different screens. Just the same one, over and over. I've asked for a way to change this several times to no avail as yet.

A random screen load would be useful as well. Interaction during loading would be a big improvement Skyrim at least lets you rotate the models a bit. Ridge Racer let you play Galaxian Now I know TGC products pretty well and would be VERY surprised to see anything like this, but it's obviously possible to do.

Still the ability to change the loading screen for each level at the least would be better.


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smallg
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Posted: 10th Dec 2016 14:30 Edited at: 10th Dec 2016 14:51
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had a go and no i don't think so as there's no way to get the name of the level you're loading, you could do a random image though.
edit;
for random open loading.lua and change line 29
Quote: "g_imgBackdrop = LoadImage("titlesbank\\" .. g_strStyleFolder .. "\\" .. g_strBestResolution .. "\\loading.png")"

to

note: change the 6 above to the number of loading screens you want to random between
this will let you place files called loading1.png, loading2.png, loading3.png etc in the standard folder (titlesbank\default\1920x1200 etc) and pick one at random. (works for loading a saved game and new games)
IMPORTANT that you have as many images as you set the number to and they must be named exactly like this or you will get an error
lua guide for GG
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=398177770
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DVader
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Posted: 10th Dec 2016 19:42
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Nice to know smallg Knew there would probably be a lua solution, nice to see it's fairly simple.



Perhaps a simple thing like this would sort out a level based screenshot. not tried, it, but the basic idea is sound.


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smallg
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Posted: 10th Dec 2016 20:02 Edited at: 10th Dec 2016 20:03
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yh i tried that first but it didnt work so i tried to store the image name based on a value given by the winzone but as apparently nothing is loaded in lua yet (even from level 1 to level 2 the value given in the winzone was reset to nil when loading.lua was called, pretty sure it wasn't my mistake but i ran out of time to continue with it) you would need to load your value from a file yourself and i feel this might be too confusing for a tutorial - but it is technically possible

would be much easier if you can simply return the level's name and then use that to name your loading screen
i.e. if your level is called map1 then you would call loading-map1.png

p.s. i see you've been using AGK
Quote: "tostring(str(g_levelcount))"
lua guide for GG
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DVader
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Posted: 10th Dec 2016 20:39
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Quote: "p.s. i see you've been using AGK"


More a DB slip But I use AGK occasionally as well. Too many variants of commands, lol.


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Bugsy
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Posted: 10th Dec 2016 23:08
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so at best there would be a 50% chance of getting the right loading screen?

cant say i'm surprised but I'm highly disappointed. gameguru is really not geared towards any level of professionalism or presentation for the finished game I notice.
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Teabone
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Posted: 10th Dec 2016 23:37 Edited at: 10th Dec 2016 23:55
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I think some of the most successful games that have long loading screenings have rather interesting things for the viewer to look at while they wait for next stages to load. For instance in both Fallout and Skyrim there was randomly generated loaded screens providing information on creatures, factions, story and hints and tips. I think this is VERY key when your game has a loading screen-time longer than 5 seconds. It keeps the players interested.

You'll find very few console games with the same loading screen each time. Even as far back as Playstation 2. Its a very critical element of the gaming process. Hopefully we can unravel a way to do this because I honestly was already planning my loading screen splash screens not knowing we'd be limited to just one.

A lot of story driven games, have loading screens reference hints and tips into whats to come in the following stage. While other games that are more open ended just have general rotating information that is more randomized.

Quote: "gameguru is really not geared towards any level of professionalism or presentation for the finished game I notice. "


The honest truth. Unfortunately for people like myself however I'm obsessed with details and the gaming experience when making games... so whenever there is any hindrance in that side of things... it can really put me off. The end user experience is the most important aspect of making a game for the public. Its probably why Im the one to rant the most around here. I actually care about the end user experience. I get the impression a lot of people here, are focused more of the sand-boxing experience with GG, rather than legitimately creating something professional and marketable with it.

I've now reached the point where I'm actually working on a game and I'm facing many unfortunate road-blocks that would force my game to no achieve a perfect gaming experience. Again, the focus in the community seems to be more about making an engine for people to sand-box. Not for the user-end of the games/products created with it.

Quote: "It was so simple in FPSC"


As with many things. Guess we'll see what happens after EBE. A new year awaits us.

FYI - Menu Editing is 2nd on the list of voted features... so its possible Loading screens might be wrapped in there too?
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Bugsy
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Posted: 11th Dec 2016 07:48
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Quote: "Again, the focus in the community seems to be more about making an engine for people to sand-box. Not for the user-end of the games/products created with it."


see, I feel like doing that is misreading the target audience/audiences. If they had something that worked better, they could make more money selling licenses to serious developers making commercial games, who often seek out something that will be much easier/require less people be hired/outsourced than something like unity or unreal. I would have happily paid 100$ for gameguru or a "Gameguru Pro" license if it was something that could easily produce a COMPETENT (albeit low budget or small scale) game. (hell, i dont remember how much i donated to the kickstarter but it was def. more than the current asking price)

not to mention the people "sandboxing" or just randomly building stock-media maps probably use more of GG's multiplayer component, which I've noticed doesn't work at all. seems like with the engine in this state, not many are too satisfied, since it seems to cater for a smaller, less direct group, rather than the two most obvious audiences. I understand the team is hard at work on updates, but it's really a lack of forethought that the simple ability to so much as customize each level's loading screen isn't a feature already. ESPECIALLY when this is the "reloaded" version of an engine that could originally do that in the first place.
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synchromesh
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Posted: 11th Dec 2016 08:26
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All this sort of thing will probably be included in the menu editor .... Its the same old ... Lee can only do so much at one time .

Quote: "

Menu Editing

Toggle Details

A new interface will make it easy for you to create your main menus for your games. Simply choose images for your backdrops and then choose locations and sizes for the menu controls, including the ability to play videos and sounds with your new menus."
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cybernescence
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Posted: 11th Dec 2016 15:30
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Here's how I do it - use the winzone2.lua below instead of the stock winzone.lua in the winzone 'Main' properties window attribute and add the next level to jump to in the 'Name' (not IfUsed) attribute.




Also change loading.lua as below:



This will always display the 'loading.png' screen as a back drop on a new game or on a load game, though will display "loadingLEVELNAME.png" when that level is triggered by the appropriate winzone. Note: I also include an image for the first game level name too as I can go back to that level from a later one (might not apply to all).

Make sure you do have images per level with the correct names to load ... e.g. loadingLEVELNAME1.png in the correct titlesbank resolution folders (or it won't display obviously)

I like the random idea - might incorporate that too - thanks!

Cheers.


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DVader
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Posted: 11th Dec 2016 16:28
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There we go a bit of creative coding and it's sorted. Really, not too hard to work out. Same as my idea above but sticking the level count or marker at a different point is all

Not really a biggie here, as a lot of niggling issues many can be fixed with a bit of work and thought. Hats off to smallg and Cybernescence to be bothered to actually look into it. I knew it would most likely be do-able, but as I am nowhere near getting to that point in a serious game, not really bothered or worried to look into it properly. Many, many things are possible in GG that many, many people think aren't


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Earthling45
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Posted: 11th Dec 2016 17:05
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Quote: "Hats off to smallg and Cybernescence "


I fully agree, they undoubtedly have already helped so many users with their skills.

One thing is apparent, to be able to extract the possibilities that GG has to offer, one has to really learn how to code.
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Bugsy
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Posted: 12th Dec 2016 02:03
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cybernescence- you're a G!!!!!
thank you so much, I will try and see if i can work something out that uses this system so I can release my game!!
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Bugsy
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Posted: 16th Dec 2016 21:07
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@cybernescence

I probably am doing something wrong, but I'm going to go over this as step-by-step as possible. It's really annoying when talented people offer solutions for things and some unknown variable decides it's not going to let it work.

I replaced loading.lua with this, keeping the old loading.lua as loading_old.lua. they both are present in the built game files



and I used your winzone script, HOWEVER, I added one command: removeplayerweapons(e). the script is saved as winzone2.lua



in TEST GAME when i walk into the winzone, it tells me it's going to load the second level.

I built the game, and nothing from level 2 is included. the winzone works, but it uses the same loading screen and loads level 1 again.

can you please help me out here? this is the one thing preventing me from releasing my game at this point.



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cybernescence
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Posted: 16th Dec 2016 23:32
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Are you sure you put the name of the next level in the Name field as well as the IfUsed field of the zone properties.

I'm fairly sure this works if that is done and the background image is named as stated and in the correct nearest resolution folder (or all of them).

If still having problems I'll have a deeper look tomorrow.

Cheers.
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Bugsy
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Posted: 16th Dec 2016 23:54
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the test build level name is aitest2.fpm

aitest2 is in the name field of the winzone, but not the ifused. I'll try again with it in both. there is no .fpm file extension



this is my loadingscreens folder
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Bugsy
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Posted: 17th Dec 2016 00:03
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tried it again with aitest2 in the if used and name attributes. this time, the second level comes through in the build, and the player weapons are removed, however, the loading screen remains unchanged on the second level
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Bugsy
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Posted: 17th Dec 2016 00:09
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okay, a guess I have (and i hope this isnt the case) is that the game is still using the loading_old.lua file, as when I removed that specific file from the built game files, the game would no longer work past the first menu screen, and simply froze when i clicked play.
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cybernescence
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Posted: 17th Dec 2016 00:44
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Is there an image in your standalone build - titlesbank\default\1440x900\loadingAITEST2.png or an image - titlesbank\default\1440x900\_e_loadingAITEST2.png

Assuming you're using the 'default' style in style.txt and your nearest resolution is 1440x900.

If not - copy one in from your GG editor folders.

Cheers.


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Bugsy
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Posted: 17th Dec 2016 00:52
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i accidentally used a .jpg
it copied over with a _e_ before it, but doesnt work, and the loadingscreen doesnt even happen when i remove loading_old.lua

Im gonna try it with a .png however i doubt this will provide different results, i think gg will use either.
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Bugsy
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Posted: 17th Dec 2016 01:13
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okay i tried with a png and it did not work
I tried adding your script onto the end of the original loading.lua but level 2 still had the same loading screen as level 1.
I tried deleting the original loading.lua and replacing it with your script but the game freezes when i click play

this has led me to believe that the game uses the same loading script regardless of what I do to the files...
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cybernescence
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Posted: 17th Dec 2016 01:35
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It needs to be a .png in this instance because the script is looking for a png.

Try the loading.lua attached.

Cheers.

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Bugsy
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Posted: 17th Dec 2016 03:04
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ok so I replaced loading.lua in my GG files with that one.
things have changed:

both png files carry over in the build, HOWEVER the game only uses the one for aitest2. level 1 and 2 both use level 2's loading screen now.
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cybernescence
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Posted: 17th Dec 2016 09:36
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Okay, think we're getting there

Go into your built standalone game into the savegames folder and delete 'next level.dat' file.

Then rerun standalone.

The winzone script is placing a file (next level.dat) containing the name of the next level to load temporarily into the savegames folder. The revised loading script is checking to see if that is there and if so using the name found to load the correct background screen. Then it deletes that temp file ready for game to set a new one via winzone. If one isn't set it will just use loading.png.

Cheers.
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Bugsy
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Posted: 17th Dec 2016 09:40
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there is already no nextlevel.dat in my standalones files\savegames folder.
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cybernescence
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Posted: 17th Dec 2016 09:59
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If you copy your loading.png and loadingAITEST2.png directly from GG editor resolution folder into standalone folder and rerun do you still get the AItest2 one displayed with no next level.dat file? Can you check these backgrounds are different once you've manually copied them over in case got mixed up somehow with all the rerun and build.
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Bugsy
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Posted: 17th Dec 2016 20:11 Edited at: 17th Dec 2016 20:16
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let me try that. I'll assume they need to be renamed with _e_ ?
edit: tried that. gives me a runtime error when I click play.
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Belidos
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Posted: 17th Dec 2016 20:25 Edited at: 17th Dec 2016 20:27
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Stop renaming things with _e_ that is a prompt to tell you the file is encrypted, it doesn't work with non-encrypted files, you just have to copy them over, gg will sort it out.

You're getting that error because it thinks your renamed files are encrypted and they're not, so its can't read them because it'd trying to read them wrong.


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Bugsy
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Posted: 18th Dec 2016 03:05
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ok will change the names and test it
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synchromesh
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Posted: 18th Dec 2016 03:07
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Quote: "Stop renaming things with _e_ that is a prompt to tell you the file is encrypted, it doesn't work with non-encrypted files, you just have to copy them over, gg will sort it out."


Belidos is right .... You don't need to add the _e_ in fact this will make it worse ...
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Bugsy
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Posted: 18th Dec 2016 03:08
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AND IT WORKS...?
EXPECT KSHATRIYA WETWORK TOMORROW!!!!!

thank you so much for all the help. sorry it took 30 posts lol
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synchromesh
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Posted: 18th Dec 2016 03:10
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Great News !!
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