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Preloading game data before playing.

by Rogelio Nodal · in Torque Game Engine · 05/18/2007 (9:58 am) · 6 replies

Hello all:

My question is very simple and I just need pointers no the whole answer. How do I go about loading, sounds, textures, backgrounds etc, before my game reaches the first splash screen? I'm looking for something like Tribal Trouble( I believe this is the name of the game). I just want most of the stuff loaded before the game reaches the main menu to provide a more smooth experience. Thanks a lot for your time and help.



-r
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Torque Owner Caleb
Default Studio Name
#1
05/21/2007 (5:46 am)
For sounds, there is a "preload" setting that you can set like "preload = true". I'm not sure if that does it or not.

Torque Owner Rogelio Nodal
Default Studio Name
#2
05/21/2007 (7:23 am)
Thanks for the answer. I'm aware of that option but still is not what I'm looking for. I'm looking for a loading screen like the one is used when loading a mission but instead use it before the game starts. So it will be like this:


Loading Screen -> Splash Screens -> Main Menu -> Loading Screen -> Mission.

Hopefully some one that has done will share how he/she did it.



-r

Torque Owner Caleb
Default Studio Name
#3
05/21/2007 (1:34 pm)
You could do in this order. loadMyMission() -> setContent(MainMenu). Now your game will load but you will go to the main menu.

Torque Owner Rogelio Nodal
Default Studio Name
#4
05/21/2007 (1:55 pm)
That's a very good idea. Thanks for it but I do have a concern. What do I do if I have 10 missions? I don't know which mission the player is going to want to play. Here is the link to the game that does what I want to do.

www.garagegames.com/products/77/



Thanks for the help I really appreciate your time.



-r

Torque 3D Owner Stephen Zepp
#5
05/21/2007 (2:48 pm)
You've got yourself in a catch-22 here:

1) You want to preload the data for the mission before the "game starts" (which, if you define that as when the player starts moving around, is exactly what Torque does now)
2) You don't want to choose the mission until after you've pre-loaded the data.

Either you have them choose a mission before loading data, or you load all possible data, and then let them choose the mission.

Torque Owner Rogelio Nodal
Default Studio Name
#6
05/21/2007 (8:26 pm)
Ok I think I got it. If I make the engine load a mission which in fact is just a mission with some simple 3D stuff on the background and some GUI that represents the main menu but instead of using regular menu stuff I will use let's say TSGameControl will torque load all the sounds, images, etc for that mission? If torque does it then all I have to do is start the game with a mission and playGui represents the main menu and then go from there. Could you rectify me on this? Thanks for the help.






-r