I’ve been taking a closer look at the loading process over the last few days. I’ve managed to eliminate the Chug Chug. For those unaware, the chug chug is when you’re joining a server (or starting a game) and just as you spawn it goes CHUG CHUG CHUG, repeating the sound of the physgun for under a second (or over depending on how crappy your computer is). The culprit, I found, was this:
Redownloading all lightmaps
R_RedownloadAllLightmaps took 518.624 msec!
On the first frame it redownloads the lightmaps. For some reason. I had a look around the engine internals, and it shouldn’t be redownloading them unless some specific graphics card settings are changed. But that doesn’t change the fact that it is happening. I fixed it though, ghetto style. I just call StartScene, EndScene during load. Doesn’t seem to have any negative effect, and gives us a nice smooth spawn.
So like I said in an earlier blog I’ve re-done the loading screen. I got the file download stuff to show up, and it’s pretty cute. It makes having to download 150 stupid sweps from some loser’s server a total pleasure.
Here’s the normal loading screen. Ignore the grey box at the bottom right. I’m gonna get rid of that.
But oh wait! Files to be downloaded! The each little file walking across the screen represents an actual file that you have downloaded. The bigger the file, the slower it walks. Maps are right fat bastards.
In a theme-park style, some files carry umbrellas. You can’t see here, but maps, models, sounds etc, all have different icons when running along the bottom of the screen.
Until it’s all over, and the game starts!
There’s a massive bug in the beta at the moment. Certain models seem to be causing epic crashes. But these crashes happen in EP2 too, so I’m guessing it’s a Valve problem instead of a Garry problem. (To re-create, do npc_spawn npc_monk in ep2. It doesn’t crash until you get within 6 feet of him. It took down Steam for me too (all the games showed as preloading).)
Wow this looks great.
Nice! I love the new system.. A great improvement over the old Valve thingy!
Looks hella sweet… What more can I say about it.
Also good to see that you are really going at it to fix everything that have been annoying people.
Incredible work!
The load screen is awesome.
The files should have something more Gmod/HL2 related than an umbrella. What about the physgun? or a headcrab on them?
Hmm, I’ve had that ‘all games shown as preloading’ before. Normally after a GMod crash.
Sweet loading screen by the way :D
Loading screen is awesome! Can’t wait for the update
Fucking sweet!
Nice! Looks awesome Garry.
Most epic update eva!
Thanks for fixing the chug-chug-chug thing, good job Sir. Are you aware that it also happened when switching to/from Advanced Duplicator?
PS please fix the pulley :)
wow that loading screen looks great
woot toot eyecandy!
Way to smash the bugs
Monk Problem must be recent because I was playing with his NPC just a few days ago and i never crashed.
Looks good but FamFamFam icons…
:(
garry that looks fabulous! Can’t wait for you to release the update! DOIT SOON PLOX!
That is so Sawcy I’m about to vomit. Really.
looks like garrys mod is getting P.I.M.P.E.D propper insects my poo eats di…
well its gettinging pimped
You could try doing it like on Assassins Creed in the loading screen you can move your player around and stuff, its an example, maybe possible but probably definate lag…
That loading screen looks incredible. Will it be customizable via Lua?
Freakin’ awesome.
Holy shit best loading screen ever
Cool, I just downloaded it, but the EP2 car doesn’t appear under the vehicles tab :( (Yes I have EP2)
cool but
normally i cant see this because its really choppy when loading like 0.5 fps or something like that
unless its been changed in a new update
it could be cool to have a minigame whene Gmod is loading, like shooting the crap out of thes files that’s walking over my screen
That’s one of the best loading scenes ever!
@24 you have to download it and add it do Gmod (sorry for my english I’m from Iceland:D)
That looks FUCKING AWESOME!
Cool, like a little mini game, would be cool if you could play with them while you wait, like some sort of flash game, you could burn the files you don’t want and stuff with cool little animations.
THAT IS FUCKING WIN.
Christ I laughed.
Win.
You should probably make some random effects, like, there is a 10% chance of rain coming down.
A very creative and artistic touch, nice.
“theme-park style”?
has someone been playing roller coaster tycoon?
Fucking genius!
Bigger files should also be bigger, as well as moving slowly.
Glad to see the loading screen got spiced up. I think I’ve accumulated 4 hours looking at the old Valve one, just from waiting to join servers.
sweet, good work Garry! :D
jesus
Imo you changed so much to gmod that you should call it gmod 11
Looks awesome, best update for ages.
This looks awesome. Well done, Garry!
Loading screen is awesome.
Suggestion: Is there any way to force it to 30 fps during loading or something? It would look even cooler if the “G” thing didn’t abruptly stop every step.
I’m actually looking forward to seeing that in action.
I’m actually looking forward to watching something load? Ahh!
PS: Also, forcing a minimum framerate would actually let us cancel loading whenever we want.
New load screen reminds me of the Wii’s Virtual Console channel. On the VC when your downloading a game Mario runs by collecting coins, I am guessing each coin represents a block of memory. When the down load reaches a 1/3 or 2/3 he jumps and hits a block.
That loading screen is cute. :3
Can’t wait for that update.
Cool, keep up the good work.
Also can you tell me how to get a new account on Facepunch? Remember me? JordanBadman?
Oh my god that looks awesome.
You are awesome garry.
At first I saw the screenshot thumbnail and thought it was just a placeholder for the REAL screenshot (I thought “Connecting to server” meant it was downloading the image). I even reloaded the page because I thought the screenshot wasn’t downloding…
andy: Advanced Duplicator is not a standard GMod tool. I think the wiremod team made it (it comes with wiremod at any rate) so complain to them. :P
Oh my god this is so FUCKING EPIC.
Best designed loading screen I’ve ever seen.
wow the only thing that rivals te new loading screen is the Wii’s VC downloading screen, and this one will be less annoying (PING PING PING PINGPINGPING
wtfs dua?
driving under umbilical?
GODLIKE!!! but im not a fan of the all white backround so maybe if it’s not much trouble an option to switch between a black or white backround at the main menu somewhere would be cool
but other than that keep up the good work.
Nice.
Is there any way to get the actual filename, instead of “Downloading lua_cache/.lua”?
^^ That was meant to be “Downloading lua_cache/[NUMBERS].lua”
Woow, nice loading screen. Can’t wait to wait while it loads. :S
Another good idea would be to make bigger files have bigger icons. I don’t think that would be much work, but it would look really cool. And maybe if you move your cursor above them make a little info popup come up. Like name, size, % finished, type.
I hope you can use one of my ideas if you didn’t already plan something similar.
hey garry, heres a suggestion: in garrysmod options, add a little shader thing that will change the loading background colour
white burns our eyes
Those loading screens are super awesome. The umbrellas are a nice touch, too. And thanks for working on the CHUG CHUG CHUG.
Hey! Make a movie so we can see how it looks and works.
Halle-fucking-leujah!
That is GREAT. No more “Clickdeclickdeclick click click dshluck dshluck gluk gluk CLONK” when I join a server.
Also, I love the little loadie icon thingies.
Hey garry, Unless i’m mistaken, 6ish feet is the distance the engine swaps “LOD” for the actuall model, so it might just be a problem with the model that the engine misses?
Haha, the load screen is brilliant
Garry, i played around with the lod settings, and i got male_02 to stop crashing, but as soon as i set the lod to -1, the game crashed, so i’m thinking it’s a bug with the model/model loading
This is most probably the coolest and still very simple loading screen i’ve ever seen in any game, ever.
Looks fucking epic.
This looks so incredible i can`t wait hurry and release it :D
I love the improvements but… Would it be possible to say, change the BG color from white to a very dark grey 131313 or 171717 or str8 black? I hate staring into the sun while the nector of gods balls loads up.
Well that loading screen sure looks hot.
The chug chug has been quite an annoying problem for me, but it helped me get ready for the game xD
Shit, That is super neat.
CHUG CHUG CHUG!
I agree with that guy about 50 comments up. There should be some kind of little game you can play while you wait for the server to load. This is a great idea.
Hahaha, that’s awesome!
That is fantastic! :D
You are brilliant, Garry!
That is one sexy loading screen.
Also THANK YOU for getting rid of the chug chug on some servers it can take 1 minute to spawn.
Umbrellas are silly, balloons is where it’s at. If you put that in, let us pop them like in RCT.
It would be a good time passer.
one word: AWESOME!!
(but it seems that playing singleplayer takes a LOT longer to download than the previous version)
Why are the files being downloaded as .duas? And in the older versions it told you the real name of the files, not the cache name.
Single player seems to take a considerable ammount more time to load with this system.
Yeah, the crashes are definitely a Valve Problem. I’ve been getting one during Freeman Pointifex, and other people have been getting them all over the place, some even in the main menu. So unless you find a way to get past all the crashes (which seem to be in different places for some people than others) Ep2 on pc is pretty much unplayable at the moment. Sucks for me cuz I was trying for the gnome achievemt. Oh well.
Really great loading screen.
I had always thought they should be intelligent, eye-candy or useful. The idea of a mini-game is great, i think it’s been used in WipeOut. Your loadinf stuff also helps a lot with the game consistency, a bit like the song at the end of Portal.
That loading screen is god damned adorable.
I’ve been meaning to tell you if you could ac some interactivity like some minigame or something while there was a loading screen, but this is great too!
Holy shit Garry, that looks amazing. I actually laughed out loud when I saw the new loading screen.
I’m really happy that you’re fixing bugs, GMod will be so much more enjoyable now (Not that it isn’t already).
Thanks for the updates :D
Ive just been testing out these new features and i have to say im really amazed.
My loading times have been dramatically reduced, on some servers i would sit and wait for up to 30 seconds while it “Chug’d” but now it loads instantly, good job!
And that new loading screen is just awesome :D
Keep up the good work!
thats really great! I love the loading screen!
Lol, great! Now files are going to walk all over my screen. :v:
Wow, this may be the most original loading screen I’ve ever seen.
Will larger files actually appear larger or will they just be slower?
That’s really nice and original! Thumbs up…
I love the new loading screen, but what I’d love even more is to have the orbs flying around the G logo move smoothly, since the text already tells you the game is loading. Right now it’s all jerky for me and it’d be ten times more awesome if it was all smooth.
Hey, about that crash thingy…
We can make a new Gamemode! Crash Wars!
You have a gun that spawn Grigoris! Shoot near another player to crash them! When you’re the only one left, you win! F-k yeah!