Loading Screen

Alright. Thanks ENTIRELY to roadkillguy (no sarcasm, he did all of it), we are at the stage where a loading screen of some kind is needed. Be it and image (good) or video (bad), we need something. In addition, that shouldn't take too long to implement, so we will also need some kind of layout for the menus. What should be on them etc. Keep in mind, I believe we are just going for a cell prototype at the most right now, so it will be basic, but again, will need a background, icons, text, a layout, and anything else I missed. Keep it simple, keep in mind we're not even coding the cell stage yet, but we're getting there. Thanks!

EDIT: Now that I think about it, the background image could work. It's nice and minimalist, but very cool. What say ye?

guitar999111 wrote:

Alright. Thanks ENTIRELY to roadkillguy (no sarcasm, he did all of it), we are at the stage where a loading screen of some kind is needed. Be it and image (good) or video (bad), we need something. In addition, that shouldn't take too long to implement, so we will also need some kind of layout for the menus. What should be on them etc. Keep in mind, I believe we are just going for a cell prototype at the most right now, so it will be basic, but again, will need a background, icons, text, a layout, and anything else I missed. Keep it simple, keep in mind we're not even coding the cell stage yet, but we're getting there. Thanks!

EDIT: Now that I think about it, the background image could work. It's nice and minimalist, but very cool. What say ye?

The original can be downloaded here.
I can work on GUI design. Can you guys work with a design that doesn't use regular, square buttons?

Hm. Nonstandard buttons shouldn't be too hard.

~sciocont wrote:

I can work on GUI design. Can you guys work with a design that doesn't use regular, square buttons?

Going for shards? Good. It's a nice aesthetic and very unique and recognizable.

Tenebrarum wrote:

~sciocont wrote:

I can work on GUI design. Can you guys work with a design that doesn't use regular, square buttons?

Going for shards? Good. It's a nice aesthetic and very unique and recognizable.

Why yes, thank you.

I was thinking white text on semi-transparent grey boxes. When you roll over them, the box could stretch to the right, stick out of the list.. or turn lighter. The background of the forum actually looks pretty good in what I have so far.

Also, I wrote some openGL code that turns an sdl surface into a gl texture. It's really not that complicated. Either way, we no longer have to pass a surface through all the function calls, but the image is easily stretched to the size of the window. Some menu buttons would look good, as soon as I take all of this code out of the intro and into the menu..

roadkillguy wrote:

I was thinking white text on semi-transparent grey boxes. When you roll over them, the box could stretch to the right, stick out of the list.. or turn lighter. The background of the forum actually looks pretty good in what I have so far.

Also, I wrote some openGL code that turns an sdl surface into a gl texture. It's really not that complicated. Either way, we no longer have to pass a surface through all the function calls, but the image is easily stretched to the size of the window. Some menu buttons would look good, as soon as I take all of this code out of the intro and into the menu..

Here's a mock-up of the front menu.



These are the attributes you will need to create the menu.
download

All right. I approve. ^-^

guitar999111 wrote:

Alright. Thanks ENTIRELY to roadkillguy (no sarcasm, he did all of it)

Has something happened? I get the feeling I've missed something over the past few days... Something that must have happened earlier this week. I think, to solve this mystery, I'm going to have to call on one of you:

What did I miss? What's happened? I think I've read everything everything wednesday onwards, but thursday to tuesday... Mystery. Could someone quickly fill me in?

Tenebraum freaked and put us all into overdrive. We're putting together a cell stage.

In other news, +2 developers and a repository to coordinate all the code. I wrote a state machine that handles, intros, menus, gameplay, and credits. (Like a slideshow, but with code. It's like putting a bunch of individual programs together.)

Also, I've written a capability to handle those complex buttons you guys have. We just need data on where all the corners are so I can turn it into a polygon.

roadkillguy wrote:

Tenebraum freaked and put us all into overdrive. We're putting together a cell stage.

You're welcome.

Seriously though, so far we've made more progress than ever before. Keep it up and we should have something to show our fans by Xmas.

Hey guys, I think that, for the prototype at least, the main backround of the menu should be able to be decided by the player, with the default being the face-fish lurking behind this post here, and the player opting to take screenshots, or short videos and have them playing in the backround of the menu. It isn't that important, but it adds to the aesthetic. Also, great work everyone.
Have a nice day .

Pyrotin, while that's certainly possible, right now the way it is set up the whole menu, buttons and background, are one image. This allows everything to be drawn at once, since in OpenGL it is more efficient to draw like that. However, it's not really set up to draw quickly in the first place, so I'm sure roadkillguy (or I) can figure out a way to implement the changing backgrounds, but right now we're focusing on getting the basics in, and then later we'll focus on the moddable content.

Tenebrarum wrote:

roadkillguy wrote:

Tenebraum freaked and put us all into overdrive. We're putting together a cell stage.

You're welcome.

Seriously though, so far we've made more progress than ever before. Keep it up and we should have something to show our fans by Xmas.

I wasn't trying to be rude, just trying sum things up

Guitar999111 wrote:

Pyrotin, while that's certainly possible, right now the way it is set up the whole menu, buttons and background, are one image. This allows everything to be drawn at once, since in OpenGL it is more efficient to draw like that. However, it's not really set up to draw quickly in the first place, so I'm sure roadkillguy (or I) can figure out a way to implement the changing backgrounds, but right now we're focusing on getting the basics in, and then later we'll focus on the moddable content.

True, moddable content comes later. This is a prototype after all. We're still working on the menu.

With the buttons, however, I wanted to use the images individually so we could make them larger when the mouse moved on top of them.

I think this splunge* of development is something to show our fans already.
*It's a technical term. From Flanimals.

A workable game... That'd be good, but would it interest our fans... Is that what they really want from us? Wouldn't they be happier with chocolates or something? Do you really mean the whole time all they wanted was a game? And Thrive is a game? When did this happen?


I heard Open GL mentioned. Is this being written in Open GL, not C++? Or is that just the menu? Or am I off completely? I thought we had decided on C++ and had some code in that already... Speaking of which, any conclusion to the 'where's Bashinerox' saga? He was the one doing the C++ stuff, I believe.

It is being written in C++ (By the way ive been looking at the code and my nooby opion says its looking good)

Open GL is for the graphics and visuals.

Quote :

I heard Open GL mentioned. Is this being written in Open GL, not C++? Or is that just the menu? Or am I off completely? I thought we had decided on C++ and had some code in that already... Speaking of which, any conclusion to the 'where's Bashinerox' saga? He was the one doing the C++ stuff, I believe.

C++ is a programming language. OpenGL is a collection of functions to be used by said programming language to draw triangles. Bashi's long gone. He wasn't writing what we're writing. He was writing some sort of spline editor. We're writing the game itself.

So uh.. a loading screen would be good. We've pretty much finished the menus.

roadkillguy wrote:

So uh.. a loading screen would be good. We've pretty much finished the menus.

This thread is about loading screens? From the first post it's been off-topic.

What ideas do we have for loading screens? It's definitely to early to be thinking about having dreams. I think we had a thread for loading screens, but a search for 'loading' only comes up with this thread. I do hate this forum's search. It's evil.

I had one idea for a very basic loading screen. We could go with that...

Quote :

...a black screen with [Loading... Please wait.] in animated letters, mocking you with 'Hey, your computer's ancient! Spend money! You've spent five days of your life staring at loading screens! Sue someone! Eat fish fingers and custard! We put mind control parasites in your brain while you were coughing...'

...Maybe not.

I think we could have a simple but good loading screen for now. Like a blank screen and an animated GIF of something organic to show it's loading (and to make it Thrive related). Something fancier can be added later. At the moment we're aiming for a working game. Or an editor. Preferably both. But also to avoid the maddening abilities of 'Loading... Please wait', if barely.

I personally think that a great loading screen would just be some of the concept art we have. Maybe in a slideshow, like our concept art video. I mean, we already have the art, and it will not require much. Not alot of work, but still pleasant and impressive.

A show of the concept art from cell to space stage on a brown paperisch backround in drawing realtime in pencil would be cool. But i doubt anyone here has enough expierience to do a something like that. But posible would be:

a) But a slideshow of pencil concept art which are all in the same paperische brown backround would be great which can be skipped
(assuming we are talking about the cell stage loading screen and not the inrto loading screen or the overall loading screen)

b) For the cell stage loading screen we would just need a good pic that fits to the topic, so keep your eyes open ppl.

Ofc it would be best if made one ourselves.

Well we are at the topic, inbetween all stages we will probably need a loading screen, a fluid transfer between the game stages is impossble how i see it. At least from cell stage to being a something like a swimming unevolved cow thingy. SO a few concept art for ALL STAGES is a must. I can make a few pencil drawings myself but the would take a while.

BastianKraft wrote:

Well we are at the topic, inbetween all stages we will probably need a loading screen, a fluid transfer between the game stages is impossble how i see it.

Actually, we have a early multicellular with colonies of cells that make the transfer less like a rock, and more of a melting ice-cream in fluidity level. Loading screens interrupting the gameplay would be the main cause of lack of fluidity. When loading things like editors, and save games, I won't complain, they're fine.

BastianKraft & Pyrotin wrote:

Concept art loading screen FTW! Etc.

Good idea, easy to do, won't take long. But we shouldn't have loading screens interrupting gameplay. The advances in the gameplay type should be small enough they can be loaded in the background. The only one I could say might take a bit longer is changing a colony of small organisms into one big one, but even that could just pause gameplay for a few moments. And this isn't an excuse to do it at other points in the game if it can be avoided.

Loading screens are fine when moving from one part of the game to another, menu - editor - gameplay, but loading screens in otherwise fluid gameplay don't look good.

At the risk of overthinking this:
I've always found loading screens to be the most obnoxious part of any game, especially big games like our where you have to download a Bablunt's worth of content.

For now, just do a peice of concept art and maybe a a little progress bar or a spinny animation. Ignore what I say here until whatever point of time you have nothing to do and feel like playing with this.

Anyway, I've always loved it when a game lets you do something in the meantime. This could be simply going through your inventory, maps, collected information, etc. It could also let you run around a white void, or even a training ground of sorts. One of the simplest and most entertaining versions I've found had a basic loading screen and and a little rag-dolled string, with the words "Game is loading, shut up and play with your string," emblazened on top of the screen.

Ultimately I'd love to have that type of thing included, but this is pretty much at the very, very bottom of my list.

Everything animated would require a thread.. and that would require some reorganization.. maybe not.

Either way, I'm a fan of concept art.. given that it actually looks like what we have in the game.

So, just Thrive concept art or cell stage concept art?

I suggest we should make a contest "Best concept art for beta loading screen 2011". Ill try to scrath a few pic together now.