Loading Screens

Overview
Loading screens show at the start of each scene. They are a simple combination of an image and text. You may use them to describe the setting, or the ongoing development of your plot.

You can use any image and text that you like, but following these guidelines can help the content look better.

Creating the Image
Images should be PNG format, 1024x1024 pixels large. Harebrained Schemes' official campaigns typically display an image of roughly 860x520 pixels, centered in a frame, with black space around the edge.

Different players will run the game at different resolutions. The actual image will always be exactly the same, and any extra space between the edge of the image and the edge of their monitor or window will be filled in with black pixels. Because of this, you will typically want your image to have black pixels around the edge, to make the transition smooth. Also, keep in mind that the "Continue" button will display on the bottom of the image, so avoid drawing crucial information there.

In the official content packs, a translucent overlay is drawn over the left side of the image. This ensures that the white pixels of the text do not bleed into any white pixels in the image. You can see this darkening effect in the source image below.



You can accomplish a similar effect using this loading screen template, created by Axis Mundi and based on earlier work by Gaijin Quinn, Brain Morph and CXZMan. Note that this template requires the use of Photoshop; it currently does not work properly in GIMP. Follow the instructions in the template to insert your own base image and have a suitable frame and overlay applied.

Shadowrun HK Loading Screen - Download

Save your image into the /art/loadingimages folder in your content pack. Note that you will need to re-open your content pack in order for it to recognize new images.

Defining the Text
Open your Scene Properties window. You can now select your loading image and enter your scene title and text.



A few notes:
 * You can use text expansion in any or all of your scene synopsis. This can be especially useful for hub scenes where you will return to the same scene many times but want to display different messages.
 * If users have enabled "HI RES SCALE MODE" in their game options, then the font on the loading screen will be scaled up. You should test with this option enabled to make sure that your text fits within the allotted space.
 * Also, if you use any text expansion variables in your synopsis, verify that even long expansions will not make your text too long.
 * HBS defines scene subtitles for a few of their scenes, but they are never displayed. It's possible they will be used in the future.