love-loader

This is an utility lib for LÖVE that loads resources (images, sounds) from the hard disk on a separate thread.

This allows for "doing stuff" while resources are being loaded; for example, playing an animation. The fact that the blocking calls happen in a separate thread ensures that the animation is fluid, without blocking calls dropping the framerate.

Version 2.0.0 of this lib only works with LÖVE 0.9.x. If you need to work with LÖVE 0.8 or before, please use earlier versions of this lib.

This repository is maintained by Tanner Rogalsky (https://github.com/TannerRogalsky).

Example

local loader = require 'love-loader'

local images = {}
local sounds = {}

local finishedLoading = false

function love.load()
  loader.newImage(  images, 'rabbit', 'path/to/rabbit.png')
  loader.newSource( sounds, 'iiiik',  'path/to/iiik.ogg', 'static')
  loader.newSource( sounds, 'music',  'path/to/music.ogg', 'stream')

  loader.start(function()
    finishedLoading = true
  end)
end

function love.update(dt)
  if not finishedLoading then
    loader.update() -- You must do this on each iteration until all resources are loaded
  end
end

function love.draw()
  if finishedLoading then
    -- media contains the images and sounds. You can use them here safely now.
    love.graphics.draw(images.rabbit, 100, 200)
  else -- not finishedLoading
    local percent = 0
    if loader.resourceCount ~= 0 then percent = loader.loadedCount / loader.resourceCount end
    love.graphics.print(("Loading .. %d%%"):format(percent*100), 100, 100)
  end
end

You can also see a working demo in the demo branch of this repo.

Interface

loader.newImage(holder, key, path). Adds a new image to the list
of images to load.
loader.newSource(holder, key, path, sourceType). Adds a new source
to the list of sources to load.
loader.newFont(holder, key, path). Adds a new font to the list of
fonts to load.
loader.start(finishCallback, loadedCallback). Starts doing the
loading on a separate thread. When it finishes, it invokes
finishCallback with no parameters. Every time it loads a new
resource, it invokes loadedCallback. finishedCallback admits no
parameters, and loadedCallback's signature is
function(kind, holder, key). kind is a string ("image", "source"
or "stream"). Neither loadedCallback or finishedCallback are
mandatory.
loader.loadedCount integer returning the number of resources
loaded. When loader.start gets invoked, it's 0.
loader.resourceCount integer containing the total number of
resources to be loaded. It can be used in conjunction with
loader.loadedCount to show progressbars etc.