[strawberryfield]

I have submitted a blueprint for a little enhacement of routes load screen:https://blueprints.l...spec/loadscreen

It suggest:
- Read the load screen file name from .trk file
- Read .dds file if present instead of .ace

[Hamza97]

AFAIK, the .ace fliename is taken from .trk file only..... :)

[James Ross]

strawberryfield, on 20 December 2015 - 12:01 PM, said:

I have submitted a blueprint for a little enhacement of routes load screen:https://blueprints.l...spec/loadscreen

It suggest:
- Read the load screen file name from .trk file
- Read .dds file if present instead of .ace

Do you mean using the "LoadingScreen" TRK parameter or adding a new one? I don't know that MSTS even looked at that one, as all six of the routes that it came with point to a file which doesn't exist in "LoadingScreen". Almost all third party routes point to "Load.ace".

Quite happy with DDS instead of ACE, if the option is enabled.

[strawberryfield]

James Ross, on 21 December 2015 - 07:16 AM, said:

Do you mean using the "LoadingScreen" TRK parameter or adding a new one? I don't know that MSTS even looked at that one, as all six of the routes that it came with point to a file which doesn't exist in "LoadingScreen". Almost all third party routes point to "Load.ace".

I mean using the "LoadingScreen" TRK parameter. I don't know if it is read from MSTS, but with a very little effort we can read it
It could be of interest to add a ORTSLoadScreen169 with another loader screen to show on 16:9 monitors?

James Ross, on 21 December 2015 - 07:16 AM, said:

Quite happy with DDS instead of ACE, if the option is enabled.

Now I use the DDS screen to show a 16:9 loader screen in OR and the standard 4:3 load.ace in MSTS ;)

[Eldorado.Railroad]

Why stop at just .dds?

I have always thought that .ace was a bit of artificial barrier. It would be nicer to do a screen grab of the route that you liked and use it as the opening screen, without having to convert it to .ace first.

I would rather we also looked at .png / .jpg /.bmp(maybe a bit, but if you are running Open Rails your machine needs to be capable).

Steve

[James Ross]

Eldorado.Railroad, on 25 December 2015 - 11:04 AM, said:

I would rather we also looked at .png / .jpg /.bmp(maybe a bit, but if you are running Open Rails your machine needs to be capable).

Why? DDS is the most suitable format for loading in to the game as it is "native" to DirectX and GPUs, allowing loading the compressed data without decompression anywhere in the pipeline.

[James Ross]

strawberryfield, on 22 December 2015 - 12:19 PM, said:

I mean using the "LoadingScreen" TRK parameter. I don't know if it is read from MSTS, but with a very little effort we can read it
It could be of interest to add a ORTSLoadScreen169 with another loader screen to show on 16:9 monitors?

Let's start with just using LoadingScreen(). But make sure you put a check there for whether the file exists, and fall back to "Load.ace/dds" if it doesn't. :)

[strawberryfield]

James Ross, on 27 December 2015 - 10:06 AM, said:

Let's start with just using LoadingScreen(). But make sure you put a check there for whether the file exists, and fall back to "Load.ace/dds" if it doesn't. :)

already done. ;)

[strawberryfield]

Implemented in X3494

Now you can have a load.dds loadscreen for the route in any size.
The parameter 'loadingscreen' in the .trk is handled properly and accepts both .ace and .dds files (of course .dds files aren't read by MSTS); if both files exist the .dds has precedence if the corresponding flag in options is set.

another new parameter 'ortsloadingscreenwide' is available for a loading screen to use on a widescreen monitor (both .ace and .dds available in any size)

[Genma Saotome]

Does .dds use more memory than .ace?