Loading stuff...when should it be done?

[Mads]

Really? omg... I just googled it and it seems to be true :O

I just found this forum question on google: http://newsgroup.xnview.com/viewtopic.php?t=4101
Just another guy confirming, that compression level 6 would be the best.
Oh, and I always thought such compression levels only apply on gimp...
And finally, if your artists are using Photoshop it looks like photoshop automatically saves png's with compression level 6 by default, so my suggestion wouldn't help you...

How cheeky! I might consider changing, then. Is there any reason I shouldn't just use 9 compression?

[StumpyStrust]

If you use photoshop you know that when you create a new file or image you get a lot of options. Your choice will greatly effect the size of files and what not.

Resolution and color mode are the big ones. There are more options with advanced but I don't really use that much.

[DrewLols]

Can't say that this is in my place to give advice seeing as I'm sort of a newb myself, but I for one believe that unless you're not concerned with the memory consumption at all, I would suggest option 2.  I actually asked a similar question in the past.

You could make a class meant for loading resources upon request.  For instance, in my project, I wrote something along the lines of...
(Keep in mind that I'm programming with Slick2D)




public class Resources
{

    HashMap images;    // Cached images
    String imageLoc;     // Folder for images


    public Resources()
    {
        images = new HashMap<String, Image>();
        imageLoc = "res/images/";
    }


    public void getImage(String fileName
    {
                 // Checks for image in cache...
                 Image image = images.get(fileName);

                // If the image was not found in cache...
      if(image == null)
      {

                         // Tries to load the image using the file name given, and caches it
         try
         {
                                image = new Image(imageLoc + fileName);
            images.put(fileName, image);
         }

                        // Fails to load the image...  what a sad day...
         catch (SlickException e)
         {
            e.printStackTrace();
         }
      }

                // Gimmeh mah image!
                return image;
   }


        public void release()
        {
            // All resources are released to save memory
        }
}




This code is untested, but it demonstrates the helpfulness of hash maps in some instances.  Dunno if this will be useful to you, but I just felt like posting it.  I always prefer to make many hash maps for different types of resources, and make a few methods for retrieving the resources like the one above.  I also make load methods which load a requested resource while returning nothing serving only as a lightweight version of the get methods.

P.S. Sorry for the sloppyness

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[davedes]

Really? omg... I just googled it and it seems to be true :O

I just found this forum question on google: http://newsgroup.xnview.com/viewtopic.php?t=4101
Just another guy confirming, that compression level 6 would be the best.
Oh, and I always thought such compression levels only apply on gimp...
And finally, if your artists are using Photoshop it looks like photoshop automatically saves png's with compression level 6 by default, so my suggestion wouldn't help you...

How cheeky! I might consider changing, then. Is there any reason I shouldn't just use 9 compression?

Greater compression may lead to smaller file size, but also much greater load times.

Before changing the compression strength, you should be thinking about other more significant parameters: indexed colours, bit depth, transparency, etc.
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/07/15/clever-png-optimization-techniques/

Here's a couple handy tools for optimizing PNG/JPG/etc:
http://imageoptim.com/
http://trimage.org/

Unfortunately, these tools may "over-compress" images -- meaning the file size is small, but the loading (decompression) time is longer than usual. Because of this, you might be better off saving the images yourself, choosing the right parameters and compression settings with Gimp/Photoshop.

[Ultroman]

Thanks for all these great replies, guys! I'll be doing my own testing around with my PNGs to see how it works for me. I have a debugger set up so I can see how many nano-seconds I'm allowed to sleep each update, and a load-time calculation for the images, so I should be able to muster up some results. Probably a good idea to test both on my laptop (Geforce 525M) and my desktop (Geforce 9600GT; yep, still holds it's own in newer games ^^).

[ra4king]

This post should help you with Java2D in general.

This post should explain the whole roadmap with Java gaming and your eventual migration to OpenGL.

Good luck!

[ReBirth]

I prefer OP's 2nd option. Don't split the load time. Let the user starts a game and they could go make a coffee, ice skating, chopping some wood, p**ping, or slapping a bear before they experience the smooth gameplay.

EDIT: option 1 I meant.

[matheus23]

I prefer OP's 2nd option. Don't split the load time. Let the user starts a game and they could go make a coffee, ice skating, chopping some wood, p**ping, or slapping a bear before they experience the smooth gameplay.

option 2 was splitting the load-time, so it loads levels at the start of each level ?!?

[ReBirth]

@matheus23
Option 1 I meant, a once time hard bloody load.