MM_Preloader (layout preloader) (Plugins)

Thanks for replying, everything is much clearer now!

My next game will sure be thinked differently, but for Healer's Quest it's not possible to have all the object at start of layout. I have only one "game" layout and all backgrounds and enemies in the game are created on it. I'll see if it's still possible to do otherwise but it seems like a lot of work considering the "lag" time for what needs to be created is less than one second.

I just have a last point on which I'd like to have more detailed explanations: what do you mean by "Otherwise you will probably have to preload both before and after the layout starts."?

It's possible to preload something before the start of the layout? On the previous layout actually? I thought from your post that this was useless because it would get erased from memory, so I'm probably missing something here.

Thanks for your help !

Thanks for replying, everything is much clearer now!

My next game will sure be thinked differently, but for Healer's Quest it's not possible to have all the object at start of layout. I have only one "game" layout and all backgrounds and enemies in the game are created on it. I'll see if it's still possible to do otherwise but it seems like a lot of work considering the "lag" time for what needs to be created is less than one second.

I just have a last point on which I'd like to have more detailed explanations: what do you mean by "Otherwise you will probably have to preload both before and after the layout starts."?

It's possible to preload something before the start of the layout? On the previous layout actually? I thought from your post that this was useless because it would get erased from memory, so I'm probably missing something here.

Thanks for your help !

What I meant is that you can combine a Layout transition and layout initialization preloaders.

So it works as folows:

1. On the previous layout you start a Layout transition preloader (this willl load anything that is on the target layout at start).

2. Once it completes, then you move to the target layout.

3. On this layout you start the layout initialization preloader immediately (the preloader layer is visible by default). This one preloads elements that you want to spawn at the beginning.

So one preloader starts at the end of previous layout and second on the start of current. From user perspective it looks like one preloader and it covers preloading of both initial layout objects and objects that you plan to spawn at start.

And just to make the % of loading smooth and combined, the first preloading you display as 0-50% and second as 50-100%.

Just in case if it is still confusing I made a simple capx to show how to use combined preloading (this is the solution that will work for you): MM_Preloader example (layout transition + init layout preloading)

Hope that helps! Again if you have further question, do not hesitate to ask

Thanks once again for the reply — .

After thinking about the various solutions, I started implementing 250 new layouts into my game - one per level, with the different elements that were preloaded on each of them. It's quite some work but it's easier to do than I would have though. Good thing you have implemented a preload layout (by name) into the plug-in!

Using this method and your preloader plug-in, I don't need any preloader screen and Healer's Quest has close to no load time at all, which is huge!

Thanks a lot for making this wonderful mm_preloader plug-in!

A great plugin that I've started using to solve stutter problems. it really helps a lot when the image memory usage at the start of the layout is 270 and with the Preload it gets to 400, how much it's required for smooth gameplay.

Obviously, this can be circumvented by creating dummy sprites around the layout to keep the images in the memory but seriously, headache pills for the workaround cost more than this plugin.

(UPDATE) MM_Preloader update v1.5 is now available.

* Fixed a bug where in some cases the preloader was not preloading objects after toggling between the same layouts or unload/preload sequence.

Thanks for the plugin, hopefully I can get it working correctly

I'm using Construct 3. I have an event on my first layout to load all objects from the following layout. My first layout is a video that plays for 2 minutes. I have set a lazy load with an interval of 6 seconds. That is more than enough time to load all assets for the second layout.

My issue is that at least once during the 2 minute video, the video pauses (where the loading of assets starts, I guess), and it lasts for around 2 seconds. It's pretty disjointed at the moment.

Am I using your plugin incorrectly? Is there a better way to do it?

Thanks.

Thanks for the plugin, hopefully I can get it working correctly

I'm using Construct 3. I have an event on my first layout to load all objects from the following layout. My first layout is a video that plays for 2 minutes. I have set a lazy load with an interval of 6 seconds. That is more than enough time to load all assets for the second layout.

My issue is that at least once during the 2 minute video, the video pauses (where the loading of assets starts, I guess), and it lasts for around 2 seconds. It's pretty disjointed at the moment.

Am I using your plugin incorrectly? Is there a better way to do it?

Thanks.

I already mentioned/explained in several places that lazy loading is to set the interval between loading objects. It does not slow the object's load process itself. So if you have some big assets, you can encounter this lag as the engine focuses 100% on the asset load in that time.

Lazy loading in the background works best with many relatively small objects. But for loading big assets you should use the regular preloading process, which means to preload items at the end of the layout... Or preload the big assets separately at the beginning of the video layout and then keep on with lazy loading during the video for the rest of the assets.

Hi —

I am looking for a plugin which would help me control the amount of currently used RAM. Seems like this one is a Godsend! I just sent you an email with my query in detail, here is the TLDR;

Is there any way this plugin would work from the initial boot? As in, does your plugin allow to decide which assets are initially preloaded? The initial scene in my game takes 220mb RAM (the largest scene 500), but with Construct2's initial RAM loadup, where all assets load into the RAM(and there is a lot of them) and take a whopping 1,5GB RAM once the splash screen loads up.

Thanks!

Hi —

I am looking for a plugin which would help me control the amount of currently used RAM. Seems like this one is a Godsend! I just sent you an email with my query in detail, here is the TLDR;

Is there any way this plugin would work from the initial boot? As in, does your plugin allow to decide which assets are initially preloaded? The initial scene in my game takes 220mb RAM (the largest scene 500), but with Construct2's initial RAM loadup, where all assets load into the RAM(and there is a lot of them) and take a whopping 1,5GB RAM once the splash screen loads up.

Thanks!

Hi —,

Unfortunately, the initial load is deep in the engine so there's no way to change this behavior from the addon. Note that the initial load, loads the compressed images. This means that the size (dimension) of the images is not important, but the way they are compressed is. Here's more info about it Game Loading Time Optimization.

If you just mean the assets of the loader layout, then you could do some tricks with MM_Preloader, like spawning the assets on the fly (instead of placing them on the layout by default) but I rather suggest to make the loader layout very lightweight as this is the proper way.

Thanks — !

Your answer helped a lot: I was referring to the initial load, so I'll try your method. Hopefully it will help.

The preloader/unloader will definitely help-especially with NG+. The endgame scenes use a lot of highres images, which for some reason still seem to be clogging up the RAM when going back to the title screen layout, killing performance. So the possibility to unload all assets from the RAM and choose only those for the first few initial layouts will help greatly. Not to mention RAM is not unloading between certain layout so the possibility to control this manually sounds great. I'll be making the purchase shortly. Thanks!

Just purchased this plugin and it's great! Is there any chance this plugin could be updated to be compatible with the new C3 runtime?

I have the same questions as jrronzani ... is there (planned) a construct 3 runtime version from the plugin?

Hi,

Do you guy know how to preload Files folder's item (picture) :D

Thanks!

(These images will be called in C2 by event)

Does it work with audio files?

useless c3 addon. can't run in construct 3 runtime.