splash screen

So I just jumped on the Unity band wagon. I'm really enjoying it.

But does anyone else find the splash screen to be a little too much? How about like 3 seconds and have it just say Unity with a fade in and fade out. I think the 'Made with Unity' makes the app look way amateur.

I'm all about upgrading, and trust me, I'd upgrade for the network support alone... but I see the first app as more of a proof of concept. Yet I feel embarrassed about releasing it with that splash screen. The cost of upgrading is pretty steep, for an indy developer. I don't want to get flamed, but there are cheaper competitive products. I have faith in Unity, that will prove to be a better product, however it does come at a price. For an indy, trying to squeak by selling apps, every little bit counts.

I've got two apps on the appstore already, so I'm not disillusioned about striking it rich.

 

A bit more flexibility on the stuff there would be great to make it fit the style / color of the game better.
like setting background and / or colors.

or at simplest just a collection of different screens that you can choose from in the Unity iPhone Editor.

 

The very first time I loaded an app, I thought it was frozen. And I started tapping the screen a bunch of times and it quit out on me.

Changing the color would be cool, but the text and the duration is my biggest gripe. I mean, 600$ is a lot of money for something that seems like a 'demo'. Its always demo software that has the splash screen.

I just know from my experience with the app store, people will give negative reviews/comments, saying that the splash screen is too long. You watch.

 

Yes please.

 

I was really hoping for this icon:


I agree, i dont mind a splash screen but i just dont like the current one

 

The splash screen isn't really a splash screen... The screen is removed when the app is started, hence the larger app - the longer splash screen. The only way to cut the delay is to make your app load faster.

I think this image is supposed to be used as a way of making the user think the application is started faster than it really is. The image should look similar to the first view of your app to make this "illusion" hold... or you can use it as an ordinary splash screen

If you don't like the screen, you can remove the image Default.png in the xcode project (or replace it with another image of same format and name) .

Tomas

 

I'm unhappy with this screen as well. I'm totally okay with a unity-logo being displayed (I might even have put it on the start-screen had I bought the advanced version - I'm a proud user) but the looks of this screen aren't all that sexy... it does look a little... cheap... The logo is too big to look classy and the white "Made with Unity"-text labels us as amateurs (as someone already mentioned above).

Now this might be exactly what UT wants, since a professional-looking screen might attract a smaller group of potential customers and might not invoke that much of an I-can-do-it-too-feeling, but I'm not at all happy with it. Why? I'm glad you asked...

One of the things that won me over and got me to buy unity in the first place was the design around it. The webpage, the logo, the quality of the examples. Well, the features might have helped too, but I think the visuals pushed me over the edge so to speak... The solid looks made me feel like Unity was a serious product that was well done, well looked-after and that was pretty enough to proudly support in public.

What am I trying to say? Presentation is everything and the most important thing is the first impression! A bad first screen makes everything that comes afterwards look bad too.

We could do a design competition - there's lots of talented people on this forum - or even better: give us the option to customize it somewhat so it can fit our games (user can define a background-image, transparent image with unity-logo+text in the lower center is always put on top of that)

 

oh, missed that point...

Right, it would theoretically be possible to change the "splash screen" in xcode.

Question to our dear Unity-staff: Are we allowed to do that as long as the unity-logo is still in it and clearly visible? Or does the license say we have to keep the exact image that came with unity?

 

Try altering or removing the splash screen with iPhone Standard...

 

Let me guess... It's checking if it's the right image?

But maybe we could really make that image a little nicer?

 

in the example video shown here http://forum.unity3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=15122 the load screen last the first 9 seconds after selecting the games icon. Is this a typical result people are having?

 

well, I have a super-simple test-app and it takes 7 or 8 seconds to launch. I guess if you have Advanced you can make it launch faster since you can strip away parts of the engine that you don't need...

It's kind of a long time to look at a not-nice-enough image...

Omg, so much complaining in such a short time, I should shut up in this thread now... it shows how much I care about the first impression... just saying...

 

Those load times seem long but maybe Unity's got a lot going on in the background as it lads the app? My last game Cloud Girls loads has the default.png on screen for no more than 2-3 seconds.

 

I tried that one, it still displays the other one.

 

I also would like to have a splash screen that will display in the horizontal mode. I feel that the app opening in portrait and then switching to landscape is confusing.

 

Couldn't agree more. It would be nice to have the option to select the orientation of the splash screen.

 

Agreed. It was a tough haul with Jedd trying to get that to work for the first two games because Xcode iPhone SDK itself didn't like it (there was an odd flick when you tried this).

But I think we do need a better designed vert and horiz Default.png screen and also have the words "Loading..." on it to indicate it's doing something since any form of graphic loading indicator isn't possible in Xcode during the default load time.

 

Now I just need to know if this is legal ;-)

 

I haven't bought Unity yet, but plan on it soon. Could someone post what the EULA says about the indie splash screen, and exactly how long it stays showing (mininum~ depending on one's game assets?)

Thanks a bunch!

 

I tried both removing and replacing the splash screen (default.png) and it causes the app to not load. The Unity engine must be checking for the existence of the correct splash screen. <bummer>
I wouldn't mind this at all, if the Default.png was a better looking. It seems strange that UT has gone ot so much effort creating such an awesome tool and sort of skimped on the splash screen.

 

Psst: look in your Xcode organizer console:

Code (csharp):

1.  <Notice>: You are using Unity iPhone Basic. You are not allowed to remove the Unity splash screen from your game

So they probably are doing some hash function on the Default.png to make sure it has not been altered.

I don't think it looks bad, but I think it would be better if the splash screen said "loading..." or please wait or something. And should come in 2 orientations to choose from beforehand. I don't think the orientation can be detected at runtime because the screen is displayed by the OS while the app is launching, if I understand it correctly.

They just published 1.0 of the most amazing game engine for iphone, and put on a conference the same week. I am sure there were more pressing matters than the splash screen for the indie version.

Also in case anyone is wondering on my build of StarTrooper the splash displays only 3-6 seconds, depending if I have run the app before or not.

 

The splash takes about 2 seconds + the time to load your application.

Make an empty application and you'll see that the splash doesn't take that much.

But your app also has to load

 

Hey guys,

You can load multiple scene - right?

So, what happens if you make your first scene a simple company logo sort of screen and then load your app in the next scene, so the Unity logo is only on whilst you first scene loads, quickly?

 

From what it seems: no, unless you have the Advanced one and use asset bundles I guess the answer is: your whole app will be loaded. At least I would ask myself why my game takes 6s+ for a menu with a single button "Start Game" (2-3 till the top bar disappears, 4-5 seconds from that point on) which will trigger Application.LoadLevel(1) (even tried to cut that time through preload when the main menu is created but from what it seems that does not make a difference, but perhaps I use it wrong)

 

ok or perhaps it's just -using Aras's Unite 2008 Mantra - because... " it's a phone! " .


Lol!

 

phones don't have 400 mhz (610 if not underclocked) cpus with 128mb ram and dedicated gpu
a few years ago that was called casual computer

 

Top bar disappears immediately if you ...

1. go into Xcode Info.plist
2. copy and paste the (bottom) item in the list (LSRequiresIPhoneOS) to create a duplicate
3. Rename the duplicate from "LSRequiresIPhoneOS - 2" to "UIStatusBarHidden"
4. Make sure the checkbox is on.

That immediately removes the UI bar the instant the app opens.

Yes, it appears they are as part of the export. It only needs to have the words "Loading..." or something added for me by the Unity guys and that'd be enough.

 

I actually also would vote for a ...LOADING... message somehow.

Not that I will have a lot of trouble with it, because once my game is made I'll go advanced and the problem is solved, but I want to think about the indies also.

 

Yarrr! Indie power!

 

Well I once started like that too, so its not a bad idea to keep supporting indies

 

I know that.
But to me the 3s is a proof of how long it takes till the engines own base core is loaded and it starts interacting with the UIKit

Actually I'm pretty unhappy about the massive sizes of the apps. 22MB??
Sorry, but thats pretty heavy given that 10MB is the max you can load from 3G.

Can someone with an iPhone Advanced license perhaps tell how large the apps are with the most agressive reduction settings (the selective compilation stuff etc)

 

Would also be interested to know how much can be stripped off by disabling certain parts

Actually, this should be information mentioned on the website, since its a "very" good reason to upgrade to advanced version, but you should at least know then how much gain you can have from this feature.

 

@dreamora, according to Joachim the 10MB limit is zip compressed:
http://forum.unity3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=14927
I just did a test with a barebones project and it zipped down to 5.8 MB. Which leaves a good 4MB for your own assets 8)

 

Was told that on the chat as well. Didn't know that they are sent out compressed thought it makes sense and explains why the installation on 2.0, especially for apples poker (128mb) took that long.

this might also explain why the loading times are longer as I don't assume that it uncompresses them before each usage, right?

 

So a friend of mine, lets call him aBrandt, said he could edit the default.png with whatever he wanted, save back to the same name, and it compiled with the new splash screen.

That's what he told me at least...

Of course I would prefer if the Unity Dev team gave us a better splash screen that gave an indication that it was loading.

iBrent

P.S. This friend of mine also said that ShiVa has a splash screen that's animated, so it gives the impression that something is loading...just a thought.

 

Shiva's loading screen is completely black (or at least it was when I tried their example app) After the wait, it then does an additional splash screen with the Shiva logo.

I hope everyone understands that there is a single screen that is shown as EVERY app loads on the iPhone. It's this screen that Unity replaces with a default of their own with the indie version.

I think the specifics of the image will change as there seems to be unanimous disappointment in the image itself.

I'd just like smaller type, and a loading message of some kind. I know somebody on the forum wanted the background black, but I actually think that image would look WAY better on white, given the black outlined unity logo. Just sayin'

 

Four versions are needed that all have some textual "Loading..." indication and a slightly smaller logo and Made with Unity ... choosable with one line of code or a pulldown in the player settings ... IMHO

verticalWhite
verticalBlack
horizontalWhite
horizontalBlack

 

Do you really think it's that bright to openly admit that you're circumventing the terms of the iPhone Basic license on the Unity Forums?

I find it funny that this is almost the longest thread regarding this new version of Unity... why aren't you guys trying to create some games first before worrying about this one topic so much?

Ethan

 

Agreed

Its much more fun to finally try out an idea that I originally started on the NDS and now finally can do officially on the iPhone

I think the if users see the single splash screen with no landscape version as a problem, you guys will likely find ways to offer more than one and as I will need a while to develop my game, test it and get it ready, you will likely even be faster than I on the creation end.

 

Ethan,

Could you point me to the Unity iPhone basic EULA? I can't find it in my download or on the website.

The only information I see on the website says:

• Content published with the Basic license will briefly display a Unity loading screen on launch.

It doesn't mention anything about not modifying the splash screen.

Thanks,

iBrent

BTW, my comment was more of a joke, and only pointing to the fact that we are unhappy with the current splash screen implementation.

 

iBrent, if you are unhappy with the splashscreen, then just buy advanced and you're free to change anything you want to the splashscreen.
If you don't want to invest in it, then also don't promote pirating it...

 

Thank you for that info.

Nearly 50% space saving naturally is great.

 

I've heard reports of the splash only taking about 3 secs in the StarTrooper demo, but it shows for 7-8 secs for me with the same demo. Is there perhaps a build setting I'm missing when building the project?

 

I'm not sure about the StarTropper demo, but an app I'm working on also displays the splash for 7-8 seconds. And this is for a very minimal scence; 1 camera and 1 GUItexture (nothing else).

I'm thinking that 7 seconds is as fast as it can get?

UPDATE: I'm working with the INDIE version.

 

@Ethan

Everyone is trying to create games, or we wouldn't be here. But a big part of the iPhone development business is anticipating how your product will be received in the market.

The first impression anyone has with any app is the splash screen. Taking longer than 6 seconds to load without displaying some kind of "Loading" text is like asking for bad reviews, which ultimately means less $$.

People are typically fine with waiting as long as they are informed as to WHY they are waiting. (This applies to everything in life - ask anyone who has ever waited tables). Otherwise they think it's "taking forever" or worse, that the app is frozen. We need that loading text.

@Anyone saying to just upgrade to Pro.

We ALL want to upgrade to Pro (we'd all like to meet the minimum required income ).

I plan to upgrade with my first check from Apple. Smaller game sizes, faster loading times and complete control of my app's first impression make Pro a worthy upgrade. But like many others here, I need to see some income before I can put any more money into this. And that means dealing with the Indie guidelines, and trying to make the best first impression I can.

 

Just another post asking for the slash screen to:

1) Have a Landscape / Portrait option.

2) Just say loading and be a little less "amatureish"/ loose the "made with" and just say loading, and powered by unity technology as in the examples posted prevoiusally .

I'm all for having a splash screen but having seen the current one it's a little dissapointing in terms of it's aesthetics and how people will view the games we develop.

Would be great to have this change included in the hotfix lol .

 

Agreed...just add loading or something like that and it would be fine with me.

Having a way to choose it to be portrait or landscape would even be slicker.

 

Yeah I just thought I'd mention it as it also looks crap with the unity splash screen being portrait, and then it suddenly switching to the studo splashscreen in landscape.