Thoughts on loading screens or fades?

[MichaelRIR]

Greetings! My game is running smoothly, but upon entering a new area, there's about a 1 second stutter. Other than that, its max FPS, perfectly smooth sailing the entire time.

Is it best to use a screen fade and wait, followed by a screen fade-in for the player to not be inconvenienced by these hiccups? Is it worth it to the player to have to wait an extra second or two to gain control of the player to not experience the repeated hiccups? How do you get around this in your game?

 

[Andar]

what you see is most likely the load delay - every picture that has not yet been used (or which last use is so long ago that the browser disposed of the data) needs to be loaded before it can be displayed, and that includes tileset pictures etc.

loading an extra picture as a loading screen might look better, but it will also cause further delays in loading because that is an additional picture.

so it's basically a question of whether or not the loading screen is interesting enough that the player won't mind spending a few seconds there, otherwise fade out/in would be better.

 

[thecatinaction]

what you see is most likely the load delay - every picture that has not yet been used (or which last use is so long ago that the browser disposed of the data) needs to be loaded before it can be displayed, and that includes tileset pictures etc.

loading an extra picture as a loading screen might look better, but it will also cause further delays in loading because that is an additional picture.

so it's basically a question of whether or not the loading screen is interesting enough that the player won't mind spending a few seconds there, otherwise fade out/in would be better.

Something that might help distract from the time delay, could be interesting facts about the world, characters, etc. A glimpse into some lore about the game, or maybe specifically the location they are loading into. As a player, I am always interested in reading these little transition texts. I'll even wish for more time if I couldn't finish reading it all, haha. I'm a big lore buff, though, so just a suggestion to ponder.

 

[MichaelRIR]

Brilliant idea Cat, love it! Thank you. Good chance I'll add something like this

 

[thecatinaction]

Brilliant idea Cat, love it! Thank you. Good chance I'll add something like this

Glad I could help!