Animations do not play if called after a pre-load

Hi.

The idea is to preload them before showing a scene. I however don't recommend using preloading unless you really need to.

By default the engine since 4.x loads animations frame by frame which is faster than the old method of loading an entire animation before playing it. Preloading is essentially same as the old loading method except preloaded animations once loaded into memory will stay in a cache until you manually unload them (not necessarily a good thing; especially if you forget to unload them after you no longer need them as they will eventually cause your game to start slowing down over time). Regular animations end up in a temp cache & get removed over time as new animations are added to the temp cache.

Personally seeing as you are working on a low res -ish pixelart game, I wouldn't bother with preloading animations. Instead use some of the other optimization methods such as using webp format instead of using your original png files & try not to use 5 million frames or duplicated frames. Also seeing as it's pixelart, there's no reason animations have to be super sharp or in focus, so you could - let's say for your environmental animations - create them at say 50% of the intended size you want to display them in your game at & then inside of the first frame, include an execute a script with something along the lines of this...

Anyway, webp & scaling & lack of frame duplication & not to mention the low-ish resolution should ensure your game will run smoothly on even the most basic of potato rigs.

I have a similar problem where I preload a couple of characters as soon as the game starts and when those characters appear , the game "lags" until it loads them ... so basically it acts like the pre-loading doesn't work.

I have a similar problem where I preload a couple of characters as soon as the game starts and when those characters appear , the game "lags" until it loads them ... so basically it acts like the pre-loading doesn't work.

Any way to make sure a character preloads?

Maybe load them at game launch?

@AFRLme

For the TechDemo I remember using the preload trick for some of the heavier animations, and it did the job quite well. But curiously here, preloading the animations just prevent them from happening alltogether... I was wondering if it was a bug or if I justed goofed.

Preloading doesn't mean they will start as soon as they are done preloading. They just stored permanently into the cache until you manually unload them. To have them play you still need to manually play them or assign a default animation to a scene object via its properties tab. I guess preloading at the beginning of a scene won't work with animations that are supposed to start automatically because you are causing a conflict query between preloading & start animation... a theory at least - I've not had cause to bother using the preload feature.

Just remember that game development, design & optimization is all about compromise. By this I mean what you have in mind might be unrealistic in terms of the pc spec target you are aiming for, thus you may need to remove or edit certain things to get your game to play smoothly. As I mentioned in the optimization wiki article I wrote a while back: "Game development is more akin to directing a movie, than writing a novel, in that unlike writing a novel, we are limited to time, money, resources, space & what your target spec machine can handle. It's all good & well having $10k plus custom built super computer & basing how the game works on that, but If you stumble across any issues on your machine, then it's unlikely it will work nearly as well on entry to mid level gaming laptops or computers. Food for thought."

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@Brut69. From what I understood, "at the start of the scene" does not exectute before everything else. But does once everything is "set". That is why you can't use a "preload animation" action for animations that are used as default animation for an object. The game will play the animation before reading the "at the start of the scene". So as Lee stated, preloading your characters at gamelaunch with the " At begin start following action" in the game properties tab should do the trick.

„

Actually some actions will run instantly inside of an at begin of scene action when you load a scene, it's just some of them require the scene to load first, such as autosave, which is why it's often recommended you add a pause for say 500ms to 1000ms or so - anything over 1000ms is probably the safer bet.

For the TechDemo I remember using the preload trick for some of the heavier animations, and it did the job quite well. But curiously here, preloading the animations just prevent them from happening alltogether... I was wondering if it was a bug or if I justed goofed.

Preloading doesn't mean they will start as soon as they are done preloading. They just stored permanently into the cache until you manually unload them. To have them play you still need to manually play them or assign a default animation to a scene object via its properties tab. I guess preloading at the beginning of a scene won't work with animations that are supposed to start automatically because you are causing a conflict query between preloading & start animation... a theory at least - I've not had cause to bother using the preload feature.

Just remember that game development, design & optimization is all about compromise. By this I mean what you have in mind might be unrealistic in terms of the pc spec target you are aiming for, thus you may need to remove or edit certain things to get your game to play smoothly. As I mentioned in the optimization wiki article I wrote a while back: "Game development is more akin to directing a movie, than writing a novel, in that unlike writing a novel, we are limited to time, money, resources, space & what your target spec machine can handle. It's all good & well having $10k plus custom built super computer & basing how the game works on that, but If you stumble across any issues on your machine, then it's unlikely it will work nearly as well on entry to mid level gaming laptops or computers. Food for thought."

“

@Brut69. From what I understood, "at the start of the scene" does not exectute before everything else. But does once everything is "set". That is why you can't use a "preload animation" action for animations that are used as default animation for an object. The game will play the animation before reading the "at the start of the scene". So as Lee stated, preloading your characters at gamelaunch with the " At begin start following action" in the game properties tab should do the trick.

„

Actually some actions will run instantly inside of an at begin of scene action when you load a scene, it's just some of them require the scene to load first, such as autosave, which is why it's often recommended you add a pause for say 500ms to 1000ms or so - anything over 1000ms is probably the safer bet.

Hmm, strange. Sounds like a bug to me. Anything mentioned in the messages log file after trying to play the animation?

Nothing related to that no.

I have a similar problem where I preload a couple of characters as soon as the game starts and when those characters appear , the game "lags" until it loads them ... so basically it acts like the pre-loading doesn't work.

Any way to make sure a character preloads?

Maybe load them at game launch?

But that's what I am doing... "I preload a couple of characters as soon as the game starts" and when those characters appear a few scenes afterwards (like 10 minutes into the game) the game lags until they are loaded