2 New Tutorials (3D c++) Skyboxes and Animated Loading screens

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November 24th, 2007, 15:13
Ghoti

2 New Tutorials (3D c++) Skyboxes and Animated Loading screens

Hi folks,

I have added two more tutorials to my tutorials website.

Animated Loading screens
With this tutorial you can create animated loading screens which show graphics while loading up all your data. Since it uses a different thread it will not slow down or halt when some large file is loaded. With this you can create commercial looking loading screens!

http://www.ghoti.nl/Tutorials/tut11_ss.jpg

Skyboxes
This tutorial shows you the basic elements of skyboxes. It shows you how to create a very simple and basic skybox and specifies information on how to improve this. Future tutorials on this will include 3D skyboxes.

http://www.ghoti.nl/Tutorials/tut17_ss.jpg

Other changes
I have also made some small changes to other tutorials as well.
- spelling revisions (there are still a lot left so if you see some let me know, it will only benefit the readers!
- optimisations, some code has been rewritten to create better code.
- Errors removed, removed some errors in the source of some tutorials.

last but not least, I have made these tutorials on 1.5 firmware so I do not know how they act on 3.xx firmwares and if they even work on those firmwares.

http://www.ghoti.nl/PSPtutorials.php

Greets

Ghoti
November 24th, 2007, 15:24
The King

nice man nice
November 24th, 2007, 19:31
Necro Star

Cool, maybe we'll see some really cool load screens now. Maybe not the most interesting thing but still better than looking at a blank screen.
November 24th, 2007, 19:47
Ghoti

Quote:

Originally Posted by The King

nice man nice

Thanks!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Necro Star

Cool, maybe we'll see some really cool load screens now. Maybe not the most interesting thing but still better than looking at a blank screen.

Yes, in theory everything is possible! even showing movies! or animations or whatever :) The problem most of the time however is that when showing animation you need to load stuff for that also, which will result in a black screen again or something :D anyway I have used it with a game I am making and it really benefits the experience of the game in comparison with just a static image or a blackscreen!
November 25th, 2007, 01:38
kjetil1991

wow now animation in the games too? the homebrew never stops impresing me
November 25th, 2007, 08:25
splodger15

:thumbup:Ghoti:thumbup:

Good work man :D
November 25th, 2007, 09:43
Seker

keep em coming !:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:
November 25th, 2007, 10:01
Ghoti

Quote:

Originally Posted by kjetil1991

wow now animation in the games too? the homebrew never stops impresing me

I was referring to 2D animation not 3D model animation. But future tutorials will cover 3D model animation :thumbup:
November 25th, 2007, 20:37
Ghoti

Quote:

Originally Posted by splodger15

:thumbup:Ghoti:thumbup:

Good work man :D

Thank you !!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Seker

keep em coming !:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

Yeah I will!:thumbup:
November 25th, 2007, 20:39
Buddy4point0

lol try and make some assassins creed loading screens.

you can still run around, look around, attack, everything while its loading
November 25th, 2007, 20:53
Ghoti

Quote:

Originally Posted by Buddy4point0

lol try and make some assassins creed loading screens.

you can still run around, look around, attack, everything while its loading

Well do not laugh to loud, you can easily let your game run (if the game has a high framerate) and load every new object/images/etc. in a seperate thread. (You should have enough memory space left offcourse to have both states in memory)
If you create them on the heap and return the pointers to the main thread, just set the pointers to the new objects, then let the second thread delete all the old stuff. The time you need to replace stuff and reset the level or whatever takes almost no time so it will probebly not be noticed.

although it is almost impossible as soon as your game takes to much mem space or is just to advanced that the framerate is low, it is very well possible. I have tried this with my game in progress Raze and Elementals and in both cases it worked. With Elementals the game now takes up to much mem space and has a 60 fps so it does not work anymore but for a lot of not so heavy games released in the homebrew it can benefit the loading times! You can also show a movie while loading stuff.

so do not laugh to quick and let your imagination be your help !
November 25th, 2007, 21:46
Seker

wish i could code :(
November 26th, 2007, 00:06
Mr Corky

Quote:

Originally Posted by Buddy4point0

lol try and make some assassins creed loading screens.

you can still run around, look around, attack, everything while its loading

I agree, interactive fun while you wait!
November 26th, 2007, 01:24
dangee

instead of an animation, is it possible to load another file
with thread #2 to speed up the overall load time ?
November 26th, 2007, 14:16
Ghoti

Quote:

Originally Posted by Seker

wish i could code :(

It is never too late to learn :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr Corky

I agree, interactive fun while you wait!

Yes it is possibly the best option to do I think.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dangee

instead of an animation, is it possible to load another file
with thread #2 to speed up the overall load time ?

I am not sure but I do not think so. The loading will be on the same bandwith of the CPU so if you use 90% to load up objects and 10% to show graphics it will be fine but when you use 50% to load objects in thread 1 and 50% to load objects in thread 2 the time they are loaded is the same as only one thread. (maybe even slower cuase of the thread switching but I am not sure if that will effect it.)
November 26th, 2007, 20:00
dangee

That explains it well.
It looks as though the resource you've unlocked is the time the CPU
usually spends doing not much more than waiting for Flash to RAM
to complete. A data transfer request from thread #2 would have the
exact same wait.
My idea for an opening animation is a 3d text sequence like
the Star Wars "in a galaxy,far,far away..." classic. It would only need a
font and a couple of low-res images (&, erm yeah,a bit of programming).
November 27th, 2007, 09:04
Ghoti

Quote:

Originally Posted by dangee

That explains it well.
It looks as though the resource you've unlocked is the time the CPU
usually spends doing not much more than waiting for Flash to RAM
to complete. A data transfer request from thread #2 would have the
exact same wait.
My idea for an opening animation is a 3d text sequence like
the Star Wars "in a galaxy,far,far away..." classic. It would only need a
font and a couple of low-res images (&, erm yeah,a bit of programming).

ahhh but that should not be any problem, it is not heavy on the cpu, I suggest you should first try only a few triangles bit the text as texture on it (first create it in a graphics programm) it should probebly do the trick but I am not sure how nice it will look.