Where to create bitmaps etc

Question

As my app (game) is getting larger and larger, I've started to encounter a problem.

I have a menu activity with a 'start game' button - when the user presses this button, it starts the main game activity - now in this activity, I'm creating bitmaps etc in the constructor but there are so many that now when the activity starts, there is a slight delay - about 2 seconds - before the game actually starts.

I'm clearly doing something wrong - please could someone advise how to get around this so the delay (which clearly, has to happen) - isn't noticed by the user.

This seems the simplest way - I may use this method - thanks! — Zippy, Jan 24 '13 at 21:46

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 24 '13 at 21:26

3

Load the ones you need immediately right away. Load the rest on a background thread (probably an AsyncTask). If you need one before it may be loaded, either pause or put up a loading screen as needed.

answered Jan 24 '13 at 21:26

Gabe Sechan

90,003
9
87
127

Thank you all for your comments / answers - I am using surfaceView and am using a separate thread for that - are you suggesting I need to create yet another thread for loading of resources? Many thanks! – Zippy Jan 24 '13 at 21:47

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 24 '13 at 21:27

1

You could start loading the bitmaps in the background of your menu activity, or even when your app is created using a background thread or AsyncTask. You'll still need a loading screen of some sort in case the user navigates to the main game activity before you're done loading all of the bitmaps though.

answered Jan 24 '13 at 21:27

kabuko

36,028
10
80
93

Thank you - how would I do that? I mean how would I load stuff in one activity and still be able to use it in another activity - thanks! – Zippy Jan 24 '13 at 21:48
You can reference it from a singleton or a class exposed from a field in a custom application class. See this other question for arguments for each option: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3826905/singletons-vs-application-context-in-android – kabuko Jan 24 '13 at 21:51

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 27 '14 at 19:29

You can also kick off an IntentService to load the bitmap. When the bitmap is loaded the IntentService can send a broadcast using LocalBroadcastManager. Then each component that cares about a result can register a BroadcastReceiver with LocalBroadcastManager.

Where to create bitmaps etc

3 Answers3