A mod for neater mod loading! [request FILLED by sby] (1 Viewer)

[Slingerbult]

This request concerns a mod for use in so called "bundles" with advanced dialogue projects. The purpose of the mod is to hide the mod loading and start-up process from the end user, and replace it with a blank, instructional or concept art screen while mods load "in the background". The mod should have no function after all mods are loaded.

As the mod is a loaded, a splash screen is displayed. The mod comes with a blank black screen, but anyone making the bundle can of course replace it with another png of equal pixel size (which could contain instructions on how to play or use the game/project being loaded). Ideally, the mod would also mute the flash player sound so we don't hear rapid "thumping" from MoreClothing as it loads, or heavy breathing in the background. The mod should also deactivate the penis or offer some other solution on how to avoid accidental throating in the "background" from mouse movements while the mods load. Finally, the mod should "kill itself" and restore everything to normal right before the first start line in the dialogue plays (in case the dialogue is directly in the INIT folder to load automatically and not via options menu).

It is envisioned that this mod is placed at the top of the INIT mods.txt list so as to hide the loading of all mods coming after it. DrZombi or sby is this something you think would be interesting to work on?

 

[DrZombi]

Hi Slingerbult ,

I've answered to your post here: SDT Loader
to say why I won't do this myself.

 

[sby]

possibly a good solution would be a mod that simply places a static picture above everything else. then you have another version of it at the end of the $init list that removes the static image.

it would probably need to look at moreclothing to determine if it is done loading all of its mods

there is the concern of figuring out issues if the build is not working, but i can see this as being viable for something that is a specific build such as your sexy sisters saga or weewillie's slave bazaar. something where it is not intended to be turned into a user's personal loader version and is instead a standalone build, and the author will deal with any initial loading bugs of the pack before release.

if you are interested in this i can probably throw it together very quickly.
fancier things such as a loading bar tied to moreclothing's loading list (since usually it seems like that is 90% of pack's loading time xD ) could also be done. i was thinking of settings like
textx
texty
textsize
texttoshow
showmoreclothingloadingbar
loadingbarx1
loadingbary1
loadingbarx2
loadingbarx2

and the image would just be some generic name in its folder like 'loadingscreen.png'

 

[Slingerbult]

Thanks sby! I'm a bit overwhelmed by all the options I've discovered to solve this little problem. Right now, my best solution is this:
1) Include a black BG.png and Code.txt for all black characters in $INIT$. So when loader loads, it's a black screen by "vanilla means", until mods can load and come into the equation.
2) Load MoreClothing via LOAD_MOD. It takes longer than all the other mods combined so it makes sense to treat it seperately. It also bypasses the SDT screen without the need to press Play to continue, which is bad - I want the delay for when the other mods are loading in the background.
3) Before the LOAD_MOD trigger, I can use DrZombis MoreTriggers to throw up a splash screen which hides the clothes loading and use DA to activate some music to lessen the THUDTHUDTHUDTHUDDDDTHUD from MoreClothing in the background. I can kill the splash screen on a timer so as to match it with margin to more clothing.

So my biggest "problem" right now is the sound from loading MoreClothing. Any chance you can mute the loading process somehow? The sound effect seems to be the same as when he grabs her head, for some reason. Except many of them in rapid succession. Any fix?

Also, I'm having trouble using animtoolscharposition.txt in $INIT$, $OVER$ or $RESET$. It works fine in a regular character folder as it is loaded through the Options menu. Is there any chance that it could work with either of those? It would be especially neat in $INIT$ where you typically put AT anyway, if it could look for animtoolscharposition.txt as a sort of extra settings file and use it as its starting position when the mod has finished loading (or else use defaultSDT if nothing is specified).

 

[sby]

i did make the mod to have nice startups, however i didn't make the variable public in moreclothing to tell how many of its mods it has to load xD
so i had to do some tweaks to moreclothing. the tweaks are included in the zip file.

also, there is an animtools setting
startupposition=ATV_defaultsdt

and i tweaked the defaultsdt position to have
hisarmfree=1

if i set this up correctly, you can probably merge this with your sexy sisters bundle and have it work. (although my init mod list might be different if you changed it since i downloaded it.)
essentially to use this mod, you book-end load this around the other init mods, and hopefully it will not break moreclothing since it doesn't add any clothing.

edit - removed old version

 

[Slingerbult]

Oh SBY!!

It's completely silent! No more thumping as moreClothing loads and the load screen is FANTASTIC, even with the load text and progress bar. So NICE! You took it to the next level man, consider the request filled - I think use of this mod will be standard for bundled projects now :)

 

[sby]

Oh SBY!!

It's completely silent! No more thumping as moreClothing loads and the load screen is FANTASTIC, even with the load text and progress bar. So NICE! You took it to the next level man, consider the request filled - I think use of this mod will be standard for bundled projects now :)

here is round 2, added ability to choose a loader folder to load before bringing down the loading screen. there is also a static delay setting to allow little things like positions and dialog to get a chance to startup so hopefully you see what you want by the time it drops. delay is in frames.

(the static delay is after the loader says it is no longer loading, so people with slower hardware hopefully have a similar loading screen timing.)

i haven't really added in comments to be allowed in the settings file. i might tweak that before an official release

 

[Slingerbult]

The new release works as advertised! I hope the modding community understands what this mod provides for: immediate loading of a character folder as you start up the loader, with the start-up sequence being free from noise and you can choose your background image and text message to be displayed meanwhile. All in one mod! No need to mess with $INIT$ folder at all. So nice!

 

[sby]

well, meant to be used for bundles where the author has done all the $INIT setup for whatever they need included to run their their stuff, not like this mod magically loads the resources needed xD

also note that any loading issues should be handled before authors decide to add this eyecandy, as if you have the features enabled in this mod to make it look so clean, they not going to be able to see the error messages.

but yeah, once i get around to releasing another round of stuff, this should be fulfilled

 

[Rudgar]

Great synergy effect, you two. Great little mod, sby!

HELL YEAH, I LOVE IT!! :D

Regards, Me

 

[sby]

this mod has been released, can be found in my loader imports as 'loadingscreenV1'