Loading screens

[75th Trombone]

I've always thought that making players stare at a blank screen during sometimes-lengthy Age loads has been a bit discourteous. Of course, it's very Cyan-ish; you wouldn't actually see a big Uru screenshot during a link. But maybe there's a way we can implement something a little less boring that's still Mysty.

My idea assumes that we implement moving linking panels via Bink (or other) video files. When you click the linking panel, instead of cutting away to see your avatar disappear, the linking panel grows larger until it consumes the entire field of view — which is sort of how the novels have described linking. (Anyone looking at you, of course, sees the current animation along with the new particle effect on linking avatars.) Once the video is full screen, the Age gets unloaded in the background, but the video keeps playing while the new Age loads.

Perhaps later on we could even have the video fade seamlessly out into the exact same live shot of the Age once everything's finished loading. That would be a lot harder, though.

[realXCV]

A book with dots spinning around it is not what I call "a blank screen"

[75th Trombone]

Ugh. I keep forgetting about these little MO:UL innovations.

Still, that's really boring, and almost just as bad as a blank screen.

[The stranger]

I thought of doing the loading screen like that: it will still have "the spinning book" and the loading bar. But, the background won't be black. It will be an old paper background, with a concept art of the age you are going to. It would interest me, anyway.

However, I like your idea too. I have an idea for both ideas. Once a player link through a book, he will see the surrounding is starting to get all glowing, and he will see the linking panel getting larger. Than the loading screen comes up. When the loading screen ends, the player will return to the glowing screen, and with the linking sound it will disappear. Now you are at the age you linked to.

[Tweek]

I'm a fan of a blank loading screen, however the thought I had was this.

It starts out black, in the center of the screen there is a little eruption that spreads out to the edges of the loading screen (like the Riven linking panels) it displays a black and white image on a paper texture of the area you're linking into, it would then fade into the colour actual game version of that location.

Problem with this is whether people are in 1st or 3rd person the view on the loading screen would have to reflect that.

[Whilyam]

I like this video idea for linking. Really anything is better than the bar or spinning circles. Ideally, I'd like to see some details on what's happening so I can easily tell if the process has frozen or is just working hard.

[75th Trombone]

Yes, we need good progress bars as well.

Tweek, Stranger, both of your ideas are interesting, but the farther we get from the "actual" linking experience, the less likely I believe Cyan would be to accept such patches.

(Of course, in another thread I'm suggesting adding significant UI to a linking book, so perhaps I'm a hypocrite. )

But once the infrastructure for more-interesting loading screens is in place, I wouldn't mind seeing all of these ideas, each on a different shard (if such differences aren't contrary to the spirit of Open Uru once it launches).

[Tweek]

Well I see it more as a transition from the linking panel to actually being there, but yes I do agree with you.

[realXCV]

(Of course, in another thread I'm suggesting adding significant UI to a linking book, so perhaps I'm a hypocrite. )

In fact, you are suggesting a way to do the equivalent of sending invitations to Relto but without using the KI and the Nexus.

[75th Trombone]

In fact, you are suggesting a way to do the equivalent of sending invitations to Relto but without using the KI and the Nexus.

Why yes. Yes I am.

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