This week's post deals with a basic and necessary element in every video game: The Main Menu. The main menu is a fundamental part of any video game, as it allows the player to access different features and options in the game. These may include options such as starting a new game, loading a saved game, adjusting audio and video settings, and exiting the game.
These are some of the features that I wanted to provide to the main menu of Arma X although they are not all implemented yet. The only functionality that the main menu currently has is to start New Game, access the tutorial level (Training), which is still under development, and exit the game. Other features such as loading the game and adjusting some options won't be available until further development.
Another feature that has been added to the game is the classic loading screen. The loading screen is necessary because modern video games are often very complex and take a long time to load all the content. During this time, the loading screen gives the player something to watch or do while they wait for the loading to complete. In this case, the Weapon X level has a lot of content and it takes a while for the game to load all the content. For this same reason, the Unity asynchronous load method has been used to shorten the waiting time.
Asynchronous loading in Unity is a method used to load assets or scenes in the background while the game continues to run in the foreground. This means that the player does not have to wait for all the resources to load before they can start playing.
Asynchronous loading is useful because it allows game developers to load and download content more efficiently during game execution, improving performance and reducing wait times for the player. For example, if a game has a very large or complex scene, asynchronous loading allows the game to load the scene in smaller chunks while the player can start playing from an already loaded section.
In addition, asynchronous loading is also used to load resources in the background, such as 3D models, textures, sounds, and other in-game items that are not immediately needed. This helps reduce game load times and improve the player experience.
With this added to the project, the game can now play an intro, go to the main menu, show a loading screen when starting a new game, and... now we need the cutscene that will start our beloved special agent's adventure. Although this will have to wait until the next update, which I hope will be very soon. Until then, we will have to be patient.
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