Skyrim talk:Loading Screens

Archives
Archive 1: Jul 2012 - Dec 2012

Loading screen 3D models

Can't see them at all, just displays ex:"Furniture\Cart\​​CartFurnStatic01.nif" for each. Firefox, adblock plus 173.51.248.19 06:53, 11 January 2013 (GMT)

The images are not currently displayed on the page. The 3D Model column only shows the ID from game data for the model which corresponds with each loading screen. — ABCface^◥ 07:20, 11 January 2013 (GMT)

I always wondered how useful the path information is. Inserting images for all would probably not be that good layout-wise, but linking to images of the models might work. Just thoughts about possible future improvements. --Alfwyn (talk) 14:15, 11 January 2013 (GMT)

It would be nice if we could get icons like the item images. The same techniques could be used, since it would be easy to mod in items that use those textures/meshes. —Legoless (talk) 14:57, 11 January 2013 (GMT)

One problem with this is that it's not just a still image - the loading screen will slowly pan across a model. I suppose you could get a sort of representative shot for each of these though - might take a while if you're playing normally and just counting on them showing up and grabbing screenshots. (Not sure how to get the exact angle needed from the CK.) I've also noticed some bugs in this area as well - notably, the loading screen from Hearthfire that shows a boy with a toy sword - Every time I get that screen, the kid has no hair. Is that just me? If so, somebody else should probably take this shot, or we'll end up with a picture that looks like a cancer patient. TheRealLurlock (talk) 16:12, 11 January 2013 (GMT)

I uploaded a sampling of images and added them. I'm NOT planning on doing all of them myself. Feel free to help out. The only editing I did to these images was to erase the level-meter which shows in the upper right corner. In a couple cases, this was not feasible, because the image was so large it was behind that meter, which will make it harder to edit out. (Mostly pictures of dragons.) Also, many of the load screens use the same image with different text, not sure if we want to get them all separately? But I figured I'd put up a few just to see how it looked. It's going to take a while to get all of them, especially those with more complicated preconditions. (I've finished every quest-line now, so any that require earlier points in the quest I'd need to start a new character for. Hopefully other people can pick up the slack on the rest.) TheRealLurlock (talk) 17:30, 11 January 2013 (GMT)

The Hearthfire kid is bald for me too. —Legoless (talk) 17:56, 11 January 2013 (GMT)

(←) The image names were supposed to be a temporary substitute for the images themselves. If we have images, I'd say we can remove the name and just replace it with an image as we go. I was hoping it might be possible to grab images programmatically, although a bit skeptical, since there's so much to take into account like lighting, background, etc. One way or the other, I never found the time. I think a better solution is just to do screen grabs of whatever we can easily, then design a mod that'll tweak the conditions so specific ones come up. I don't remember the Hearthfire kid being bald for me, but I don't always pay close attention, so may have somehow missed it. I'll force it to come up and if he looks okay, I'll do a screen grab. – Robin Hood  ^(talk) 21:06, 11 January 2013 (GMT)

Okay, he looks bald for me too, though as it starts to darken before the game loads, it looks like he has hair there. I'm wondering if it's just slightly over-brightened. – Robin Hood  ^(talk) 21:17, 11 January 2013 (GMT)

I just looked in the CK, and he apparently has really bad genes because at about age 10, he has a significantly receding hairline. The brightening on the load screen makes it almost impossible to tell there's hair there at all. – Robin Hood  ^(talk) 21:54, 11 January 2013 (GMT)

The project is already a ways along, but I wanted to officially voice my full support for this. This page was originally made with the idea in mind that's we'd have screenshots of each loading screen. When this page is more filled out, I suggest that we remove the "3D Model" column and instead make the images larger (maybe 40% of the page width). • JA^T 01:36, 12 January 2013 (GMT)

Of course if we make them that big, we don't even need the text column, because you can just read the text in the image. Unless for whatever reason we want the text to be selectable/searchable or something. (Could just leave it in as alt-text in that case) Don't know - the layout may have to be tweaked so that it looks good at all resolutions, including the mobile site, so I'm not sure what'd be involved in that. TheRealLurlock (talk) 05:07, 12 January 2013 (GMT)

I was messing around with formatting ideas, and came up with this one:

Formatting Idea #1

Special

Message	Image	Conditions
And the Scrolls have foretold, of black wings in the cold, That when brothers wage war come unfurled! Alduin, Bane of Kings, ancient shadow unbound, With a hunger to swallow the world! -- Song of the Dragonborn		Started new game.
The artifact Volendrung, also known as the Hammer of Might, was forged by the ancient Dwemer in an age long since forgotten.		The Cursed Tribe completed or failed, 6% chance.
The great statue of Irkngthand is the only known visual representation of a Snow Elf, before centuries of subterranean slavery twisted the race into the vile Falmer.		Blindsighted incomplete, 6% chance.
The Labyrinth for which Labyrinthian is known was built by Archmage Shalidor in the First Era, though the ruins themselves are much older.		Revealing the Unseen at Stage 60 or higher, The Staff of Magnus at Stage 200 or lower, 6% chance.
Trading caravans sometimes pass through the ruins of Labyrinthian, but usually prefer safer, longer routes.
Space Spheres, also known as the Spheriphem, are natives of space, and will cajole adventurers to help them return to that comforting void.		Fall of the Space Core, Vol 1 is installed.
Space is the thing you see above Tamriel when you're walking around outside with your head tilted back.	Mods\​ModSpaceSphereINV.nif
(HF) If you would like to adopt an orphan from the Orphanage, speak to Constance Michel.		Constance Michel is not dead, completed Innocence Lost, adopted less than 2 children, 2% chance.
(HF) You can adopt up to two children, if you own a home with room for them to stay in.		Adopted less than 2 children, 2% chance.
(HF) You can find, make, or buy a variety of gifts for your children, including toys, clothing, and sweets.	_BYOH\LoadsScreens\​LoadScreenAdoptionGirl01.nif	Adopted a child, 2% chance.
(HF) Friends of the Jarls in Falkreath, Hjaalmarch and the Pale may buy land in those holds and build their own home on it.	_BYOH\Furniture\​DraftingTable01.nif	In Falkreath, Hjaalmarch or the Pale, have not bought land in any of those, 6% chance.

The thumbs are ~20kb apiece, so unless you're on a mobile device or a really old computer, you won't have any issues viewing the page. The image could go first and the description second, if we wanted. We could also do something where the description was below the image, but that would be hard to read. Also, I don't know how this looks on a large screen - I just chose what looks good on my tiny 1024x768 screen. • JA^T 20:32, 12 January 2013 (GMT)

The problem with that layout is it's far too bulky - even more so when you consider how many of them there are in total - We currently have 223 images up there, and we're not done yet. That many thumbnails that big will cause slow loading (especially on mobile devices), and require lots of scrolling to get to the end. It also creates a lot of whitespace in the text column. I could see putting the text underneath the image, if we did maybe a two column arrangement. (Not sure what would happen to the Conditions column in that case.) Alternatively, some sort of alternating format could work, so each pair of image+text forms a sort of interlocking L-shape pattern - though you'd have to carefully delineate it so it's obvious which text goes with which image. Also, the text does duplicate what's seen in the image. The only advantage to having it as text is that it's searchable/linkable/copy-pastable. Searching and copying could be done with alt-text on the images themselves, but not linking. I'll see if I try and think of something tomorrow... TheRealLurlock (talk) 05:35, 13 January 2013 (GMT)

As a regular user of the mobile version I gotta say that scrolling all the way down already takes a good 30-40 seconds, so putting the text below the picture and bigger thumbnails would make it 1 minute, at best. As for the thumbnails themselves, even a 400px like Jak just made is too small to be readable (though the image is much clearer), so either we make it bigger and some phones and old computers can't bear it or we keep the text because, honestly, even on my computer I don't see myself opening 200 pictures to see what's written on it. Elakyn (talk) 08:46, 13 January 2013 (GMT)

(←) Actually, having the text description does help considerably, because you can't read the description on the picture itself, and if you're on a mobile device, you can't read alt-text, on account of the fact that there's no such thing as hovering over something - you can only click. For me, the images' primary purpose is to showcase the 3D models, and at 400px they are quite clear. Also, a note: Those 400px thumbnails are roughly 20kb apiece, so even with 223 images, that only comes to 4.4mb, which is entirely doable. As for how it affects the layout, that is a little tricky. The images would be 4 times larger than they are now, so the page would become 4 times longer. • JA^T 19:51, 13 January 2013 (GMT)

I could see maybe twice as big as they are now working. (Incidentally it's now 332 images, more like 6.5mb.) Big enough to make the graphics visible without requiring too much scrolling. (I can't test these on mobile to see how bad it would be, but that should definitely be a consideration. 6-5mb is still probably a bit much for a single page on a mobile device. Half the dimension = quarter the file size, so that's more likely to be feasible. If we could get two columns going or maybe some sort of alternating arrangement to save space, even better. They're all uploaded now, so we can try experimenting with different layouts. TheRealLurlock (talk) 21:52, 13 January 2013 (GMT)

If scrolling is the main concern, do we maybe want to change formats entirely? Something like below, maybe? In some respects, it's not as nice, but it would make the page much shorter, while leaving it adaptable to different screen widths. – Robin Hood  ^(talk) 22:48, 13 January 2013 (GMT)

Gallery

• 

  And the Scrolls have foretold, of black wings in the cold, That when brothers wage war come unfurled! Alduin, Bane of Kings, ancient shadow unbound, With a hunger to swallow the world! -- Song of the Dragonborn

  Conditions: Displayed when starting new game.

• 

  The artifact Volendrung, also known as the Hammer of Might, was forged by the ancient Dwemer in an age long since forgotten.

  Conditions: 6% change to display once The Cursed Tribe has been completed or failed.

(I put your example in a Showhide for ease of viewing the discussion.) Or indeed just using regular thumbnails:

Thumbnails

And the Scrolls have foretold, of black wings in the cold, That when brothers wage war come unfurled! Alduin, Bane of Kings, ancient shadow unbound, With a hunger to swallow the world! -- Song of the Dragonborn

Conditions: Displayed when starting new game.

The artifact Volendrung, also known as the Hammer of Might, was forged by the ancient Dwemer in an age long since forgotten.

Conditions: 6% change to display once The Cursed Tribe has been completed or failed.

Though we'd have to fix that problem we've been having since the upgrade where the |clear=none parameter no longer works (you can't display thumbnails side-by-side anymore). That really should be fixed anyhow at some point, as there are other pages whose layout was broken by that. TheRealLurlock (talk) 23:53, 13 January 2013 (GMT)

Next question

It's probably a bit late to be asking this, but before we go too much further, it occurs to me to ask: do we want to do captures including text—meaning we have to capture each and every one individually—or do we want to just capture the images—meaning we can reuse them across multiple loading screens? – Robin Hood  ^(talk) 01:33, 12 January 2013 (GMT)

Just images would be handier, IMO. —Legoless (talk) 01:53, 12 January 2013 (GMT)

I thought that initially, but the problem with that is that on many of the images, the text overlaps the image, so editing it out cleanly is quite problematic, which is why I decided not to do it. I did edit out the level meters, but that area is most of the time just pure black, so very little effort is needed. (And that being character-specific, it's not going to match for most players, unlike the text.) The bottom right corner where the text appears, however, overlaps the image far more often, and even if it doesn't, there's that smoke effect that appears there. All in all, it's less work to just take the images as close to what you see on the screen as possible, which means including the text rather than trying to edit it out.

Incidentally, RH, I already had a chemo-kid picture uploaded (I didn't put them on the page because I was having dinner). So of the two - mine is higher res, but yours captures more of the subject, so I'm torn as to which is better... I'd say we should try and coordinate this process but I can't think of any way to do that, since it's random chance which loading screens you get. I think we should just try to check the category and make sure that what we're uploading isn't already there. Not much else you can do, so I expect we'll be inadvertently stepping on each-others' toes a bit trying to get all these, but c'est la vie I suppose. TheRealLurlock (talk) 04:53, 12 January 2013 (GMT)

Sorry, I hadn't noticed your "chemo-kid" picture. On the issue of resolution vs. image, once we've gotten most of the pics randomly, I can force specific images to appear, though of course, there's the issue of mine not only being at a different resolution than yours, but also using a different ratio. If it comes down to it, I suppose I could always ship off a mod for each and every missing picture to whoever wants them, but that seems like a really roundabout way to do things and dumps a lot of work on both of us. You could always just buy me a 1920 × 1080 monitor and save us both the trouble. ;) – Robin Hood  ^(talk) 21:32, 12 January 2013 (GMT)

Now you know how I felt seeing Kimi's icons back when we were doing that - her monitor is evidently even bigger. Mine's attached to a laptop, so I couldn't upgrade it if I wanted to without buying a whole new computer. Anyhow, the other possibility is you could just tell me how to make said mod (or I might be able to figure it out on my own). I am I think approaching the limit of what I can get randomly. It was getting to the point where I'd just find one of the Great Lifts, point the camera down, and just hit 'E' over and over, which is the quickest way I know to get lots of load screens in a row (no need to pull up the fast-travel map or even move the mouse). But you won't get the ones that only appear in cities, or based on other criteria. I've already finished all the Dark Brotherhood quests (which is the biggest gap right now), and I've been cured of both vampirism and lycanthropy, so those I'm not going to get again with this character. TheRealLurlock (talk) 03:06, 13 January 2013 (GMT)

Why did you have to come up with something easier and more obvious than buying me a new monitor? :) To make the mod, all you have to do is go into each load screen one at a time and set a condition that's guaranteed to be true. Many of them already have GetRandomPercent checks, so for those, you can just change it to check that it's <= 100, remove any other conditions, and you're done. If there isn't a random percent check, just add one (or anything else convenient that you can get to evaluate to true easily). – Robin Hood  ^(talk) 06:10, 13 January 2013 (GMT)

Actually what I think I'll do is the opposite - set the chance to 0 for all the ones I've already got. That way I can get a whole bunch of them in one run-through, rather than having to make a mod for just one load screen, come back to the game, get one screenshot, go back to the mod and change it to the next, etc. That would be particularly tedious. I was asking more along the lines of "where do they hide these in the CK?" But I found them. Thanks. TheRealLurlock (talk) 14:30, 13 January 2013 (GMT)

Well, that partially worked - by removing all the conditions off the ones I wanted, I didn't have to go to the cities to get their load screens, which helped. But setting the RandomChance < 0 didn't make those ones not appear, nor did deleting them from the list. I need some condition that will always evaluate false. Maybe if I pick some quest I've already finished? Will try that next. TheRealLurlock (talk) 17:04, 13 January 2013 (GMT)

New loading screens

I have been seeing loading screens that are not listed here. I could add them if someone could explain how to extract the info. --Xyzzy ^Talk 15:37, 13 April 2013 (GMT)

That's odd. At one point, they were all listed. Either they've added new ones or maybe we've lost some? The only new one I'm aware of is the Legendary loading screen with 1.9. You should be able to find a listing of all of them here. – Robin Hood  ^(talk) 18:43, 13 April 2013 (GMT)

Also, don't forget to double-check that the new ones you're seeing aren't Dragonborn ones, which aren't listed here. – Robin Hood  ^(talk) 19:13, 13 April 2013 (GMT)

Well, this is odd. I went through both the Skyrim and DB loading screens articles, as well as the LSCR records. I couldn't find one that I have been seeing recently that I mentioned on the Undead talk page. It states, "Silver weapons are especially effective against ghosts, the undead, and werewolves", and has a picture of a silver longsword. Am I just missing it? Based on its wording, I wouldn't think it's new. --Xyzzy ^Talk 00:24, 14 April 2013 (GMT)

Well isn't that nifty! Apparently, that's added by the USKP. – Robin Hood  ^(talk) 02:04, 14 April 2013 (GMT)

Well, lookit that! I guess that means that my deduction that Bethesda didn't consider ghosts to be undead, which was based on this loading screen, is incorrect, since it was created by the USKP team. Oh well. Thanks for finding this, RH. --Xyzzy ^Talk 06:37, 14 April 2013 (GMT)

What room are these displayed in?

If you look at the reflection when spinning, say, the dwarven head, you can clearly see there is a wall behind the camera - a door, perhaps some columns, so it's obvious there is a room somewhere that is lit a certain way to render these loading screens. Curious if anyone had tried to find it in the data files. — Unsigned comment by 72.182.72.59 (talk) at 02:01 on 5 September 2013‎

That may be this cell. Vely^►t►e 02:32, 5 September 2013 (GMT)

Screen listed twice

The "Song of the Dragonborn" loading screen is listed twice on the page. Is there some reason that, or has it just gone unnoticed? --95.222.29.115 01:38, 28 September 2018 (UTC)

It appears to be because one is a general loading screen and the other, while identical, always occurs when you start a new game. —Dillonn241 (talk) 01:40, 28 September 2018 (UTC)