Just to clarify, the preloader image is indeed loading-logo.png. I wasn't sure if that was a special name so I made up a generic preloader.png filename specifically for the example in the post above.

Thanks for the info...but the plot thickens. So it seems the reason the pre-loader wasn't loading at all was because it was looking for the correct image in the wrong directory. This seems odd as I set the image directory in export to be identical to the relative-positioning of the directories on the server. To be both as specific and non-specific as possible if my sample website is located at server/directory1/directory2/page and the pre-loader image is located at server/images/constructImages/preloader.png, I am exporting the images directory as ../../images/constructImages. I am also uploading the preloader.png file to the server in that location. Yet, if I open the minified Javascript and do a search for preloader.png, I find that the Javascript thinks the image is in the root directory of the project. Naturally, Chrome's error catcher caught a 404 on the fact that server/directory1/directory2/preloader.png can't be found. But why would the minified Javascript completely ignore where I tell it the images for my "Main" sheet are to be found?

In case it matters, the specific error mentioned by Chrome when the new sheet does not load and has to be refreshed in order to appear is: Uncaught InvalidStateError: Failed to execute 'drawImage' on 'CanvasRenderingContext2D': The HTMLImageElement provided is in the 'broken' state. I suspect this is caused by the 404 from looking for the image in the wrong directory.

There used to be a background image on the Main sheet that was removed because, on the server, the Main sheet wouldn't load at all without refreshing the browser window the first time you entered (i.e. the only time the pre-loader should run at all). I managed to "fix" the problem by removing the background image. (No, I don't know why that "solved" the problem of needing to refresh the browser window the first time you enter the Main screen in order to view it properly.) How "massive" is massive for the purposes of "forcing" the pre-loader to appear?

Interesting. I tried your recommendation, Kyatric, but alas no joy. It may work in Preview mode but it does not work on the main server. If I add the 3-second wait the bar remains empty for 3 seconds before moving to the Main view. Of course, you have no way of looking at it online since the server is used by the company I work for and they would be most put out if I started giving out login credentials to anyone.

Also, is there any way (even if only in Preview mode) to make the default Construct 2 pre-loader appear? I'm still not having any luck with this either. The "Preloader" sheet was an add in an attempt to accomplish what the pre-packaged pre-loader should be doing for me.

I thought of that so I temporarily disabled the Event on the Preloader sheet that would transfer to the Main sheet so I could see my manually-added progress bar and that never loads beyond 0%. If it really loads so fast, the bar should be at 100% pretty much right away shouldn't it?

Before you ask, yes I am aware there are at least two tutorials about how to do this. What I'm trying to do should be very simple and yet following the instructions in those two tutorials has gotten me precisely nowhere. I must be doing something wrong and/or very stupid so I post to the forum for clarification.

All I want is to have the default Construct 2 pre-loader display when I run my "game" the very first time. This sounds simple enough. I have tried every combination I could think of from the tutorials to makes this work. I've set "Use loader layout" to "Yes" and "Loader style" to "Progress bar & logo." No pre-loader displayed and it went straight to my "game." This was the result no matter my setting for "First layout." I could set it to "(default)" or the name of my "game" layout called "Main" or I could create a brand new layout specifically for this purpose called "Preloader" and set it to that. I've set "Use loader layout" to "No" and "Loader style" to "Progress bar & logo." Same result. I've tried all the possible different values for "Loader style" and nothing appears. It always goes straight to my "game."

Any suggestions will be appreciated. I'm also going to attempt to upload a copy of the .capx file just in case any responder can find an obvious (or not-so-obvious) error in the .capx code itself.