i need your opinion; loading time

[marmotte]

hello everyone,

as my project is still under devlopment, and the file size bigger and bigger, i need your advice;

here are two ways of building my game:

1) all the game is loaded at the begining, except the soundtrack, which you can either enable or disable (it will not be loaded if disabled)
> advantages: once the game is loaded, no need to wait between areas, sounds or cut scenes
> disadvantages: the long wait of the begining (maybe agremented with some light animations/mini-games like pong)

2) each area is loaded when you wander all around
> advantages: quick start for low connections like me
> disadvantages: you need to load external files each time you wander around, which is slowing down the tempo of the game

that's why i need your suggestions; what way is or seems better for you, regarding your preferences or your internet connection?

here are some additional infos
> each area is around 60/100k (backgrounds, shadows and front graphics)
> too bad it's not possible to attach MCs in loaded MCs ><


thanks for your ideas/comments

[kay_siegert]

mmmhh...
i would prefer little loading times between different areas except a long loading period at the beginning.

my opinion
k.

[artyom_ch]

Why not preload starting scene at the very beginning, and then keep loading the rest scenes in order of distance they are from the current one.

[Squize]

For what it's worth, I'd prefer it all loaded up front, but with a pre-loader game rather than just eye candy ( I'm a DSL snob now, but I remember the pain of just watching a loading bar creep along, or a 5 frame animation looping. My old flashkit sig had pong in it, so you can get that to the user in a matter of seconds, or just pre-loader the preloader ( Make sense ? ) and put 40-50k worth of game in there ).

Squize.

[Lukstr]

Originally posted by marmotte

> too bad it's not possible to attach MCs in loaded MCs ><

It's not? Can you give me an example?

[marmotte]

thanks for your suggestions!

the bad thing about using areas as external .swf is, you have to re-load it each time you get off the screen, which is surely annoying, because there will not be a mini-game or quest in each area, so you'll have to wander for a while before finding something/some clues > a pain to see each time a loading. there was a little loading like that in one of my preview, maybe you missed it; it's not online anymore...

artyom_ch
you mean to keep the entire game loading while you are playing in the first areas? wouldn't it slow down the game while loading? but the ideas is interesting, i was also thinking about it...

lukstr
well, because my game has several levels (depths), like back graphics, swapable graphics, shadow graphics and front graphics, my idea was to put a complete area in an external .swf, then load it in the main movie.
BUT, all swapable graphics have to have the same _parent in order to swap, so all characters/npcs/some graphics elements have to be attached there. the problem: it's not possible to attach a MC in another MC that has been loaded... mhhhhh, do you understand?
and the worst thing to do in that case is to put the playable characters in each external swf, which is a total waste of kilo/octets.

[Lukstr]

ahh I thought you meant attached mcs, not entire swfs I understand now.

[artyom_ch]

to marmotte: Well, it depends on style of your game. As I have understood from your words,your are not prone using dynamic platform scrolling. Since that I suppose that process of constant game-loading won't slow down your runtime process.

[marmotte]

about the style of my game:

please check my little web site (my signature), and play the first game in the list (kikikaikai; cyclop madness) > here, you'll have to fight in a delimited area.
my new game has exactely the same graphics, but you can now wander through a lot of different areas (no scrolling, just transition)

if you want a better idea, look the last game in the list (old good time, one of my first real game), the area transitions are the same; it's called "rocky the raccoon"

[artyom_ch]

Oh, that attractive tiny games...
What slowment do you suppose? When transiting scenes, control is blocked(i hope). I believe that background loading thread won't have visible negative effect.

[marmotte]

ahhhh! i think i missunderstood you ^^

yes, when you wander through areas, the controls are blocked until they are completely loaded > so of course it doesn't affect at all the speed of the game

i thought you was saying; "while you are playing in the firsts areas, the whole game (later levels) is being loaded progressively, even if you don't go that far" > that's why i was speaking about slowdowns ^^

[tonypa]

Dunno, if this helps, but maybe you can preload areas near the current area.

If player can go to areas B and C from A, then you can preload B and C as soon as player enters area A. So, by time player actually gets to enter area B, its all (or most of it) already loaded.

[zkitty]

Marmotte, this doesnt have much to do with your question, but I have a question for you.
I think long ago you had a thread about preloaders and how it wouldt show the preloader until the movie was just about done loading anyways.
If i remember correctly, it had something to do with the export on first frame or something. That is what is happening with my game, it stays white until its loaded and then shows the preloader.

Do you remember if there was a solution?
Thanks

[kay_siegert]

Originally posted by zkitty
Marmotte, this doesnt have much to do with your question, but I have a question for you.
I think long ago you had a thread about preloaders and how it wouldt show the preloader until the movie was just about done loading anyways.
If i remember correctly, it had something to do with the export on first frame or something. That is what is happening with my game, it stays white until its loaded and then shows the preloader.

Do you remember if there was a solution?
Thanks

interesting. i have a similar problem. (the reason of this reply )
k.

[marmotte]

good memory, zkitty!

zkitty and kay_siegert

yes, i have the solution, and i'm using it for some time now ^^

you are speaking about attached MCs that are loaded in the first frame ("export in the first frame" under "linkage"), right? it causes sometimes the preloader to show when for example 50% of the movie were already loaded...
> the problem is in fact easy to solve, just disable the "export in the first frame" option under "linkage", then:
frame 1: normal preloader, the one you generaly use without any modification. when it's complete, tell him to go to frame 3
frame 2: put all your "linked" MCs here, just put them manually in the timeline; no need to give them a name... put also that code:

for (i in this) {
    this[i].swapDepths(this[i]._y*360, this[i]._x);
}

^ 360 is here the height of your game window.
that way, all the MCs are put in a "virtual" depth, and their linkage is now active
frame 3: put that code:

for (i in this) {
    removeMovieClip(this[i]);
}

thay way, all the swaped MCs are removed.

that's it ^^
now you can attach MCs without exporting them to first frame! ^^

[zkitty]

Thanks marmotte, I'm going to try it right now.

BTW, how would i do something like this with music?

[zkitty]

It worked, thanks again.
Hope you know a way to fix this for the music too, becuase i just realized that 80% of my game size is the music, ack!

[zkitty]

Figured it out. What i did was made a movie clip called musicadder. I put a stop action on the first frame of the movie clip and then i put the music on the 2nd frame.
I put the musicadder movieclip on the third frame of my game and put the code on it that removes it.
Thanks sooooooo much marmotte. Its good to actually see my movie's preloader and not a blank screen for a few minutes

[marmotte]

i'm glad to hear it worked ^^