CrimsonLoadingScreen
CrimsonLoadingScreen shows and hides a loading screen for you. UCrimsonLoadingScreenManager, a UGameInstanceSubsystem, evaluates a set of conditions every frame - no world yet, GameState not replicated, pending or seamless travel, missing local PlayerController, plus any votes from your own game code - and puts your UMG widget on the viewport while any condition holds. You never call Show or Hide. On top of that it picks a weighted random tip and a random background material per load, blocks input in packaged builds, switches the engine into loading-friendly performance modes, and hosts a live 3D character showcase in a world of its own - the player plus anyone else you register, on a stage level you author, captured into a render target the widget displays.
New here? Read in this order
Do Quick Start first (a working loading screen with a tip and background), then How-To: Get the Building Blocks - it shows the exact Blueprint nodes and C++ for reaching the manager, the settings, and the data assets that every other page assumes you can reach. Use the Blueprint / C++ / Both switch at the top to see the path for your project type.
What's included
| System | Key Types | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Automatic show/hide | UCrimsonLoadingScreenManager | Game-instance subsystem; evaluates 18 conditions every frame and manages the widget - no manual calls |
| Project settings | UCrimsonLoadingScreenSettings | Widget class, hold delay, tips, backgrounds, live preview - Project Settings -> Crimson -> Crimson Loading Screen |
| Hold votes | ICrimsonLoadingProcessInterface, UCrimsonLoadingProcessTask | Game code keeps the screen up until it is really ready (data replication, async loads) |
| Tips | UCrimsonLoadingTipsCollection, FCrimsonLoadingTip | Weighted random tip per load, optionally filtered by a FGameplayTag category |
| Backgrounds | UCrimsonLoadingBackgroundCollection | Random UMaterialInterface background per load (soft references, loaded on demand) |
| Character showcase | ICrimsonLoadingCharacterProvider, FCrimsonLoadingCharacterInfo | Your game describes a character's meshes, materials and anim class; the plugin renders it |
| Showcase host | UCrimsonShowcaseSubsystem, ACrimsonShowcaseStage | The plugin's own pocket world renders the characters and captures them - survives non-seamless loads and client joins, with no transition map and no seamless travel |
| Stage level | ACrimsonShowcaseSlot, ACrimsonShowcaseCamera, ShowcaseStageLevel | Author your own set as an ordinary level: standing marks per character and camera shots per head count. Unset = a built-in studio stage in an empty world. |
| Custom director | ICrimsonLoadingCinematicInterface | Optional. Present the roster your own way - a Sequencer flyover, a bespoke rig - by claiming the render target before the built-in host activates. |
| Character registration | UpdateCachedCharacterInfo, AddShowcaseCompanion, GetCachedShowcaseRoster | Register the local player and any companions. The only source the showcase has, and it outlives travel - so loads with no reachable pawn still showcase. Nothing registered means the normal loading screen. |
| Live preview | bUseLivePreview + GetShowcaseRenderTarget() + OnShowcaseLiveChanged | The capture's render target becomes the widget background - world rendering stays on, and the widget is told when the capture actually starts and stops |
| Per-load presentation | FCrimsonLoadingPresentation, SetNextLoadPresentation | One-shot overrides for a specific load: suppress the showcase, force a background or widget class, filter tips |
| Events | Native delegates + Blueprint-assignable mirrors | React to visibility changes and content-ready from Blueprint or C++ |
| Input + performance | FLoadingScreenInputPreProcessor, performance hooks | Input eaten in packaged builds; shader cache to Fast batch mode, world rendering off, hitch detector suspended |
| Debug tooling | CVars, -NoLoadingScreen, GetDebugReasonForShowingOrHidingLoadingScreen | Force the screen on, log the show reason every frame or on a heartbeat, read the current reason from Blueprint or C++ |
| Shader precompile progress | ECrimsonShaderPrecompileState | Optional. Holds the screen while Unreal precompiles bundled PSOs after a game or driver update, with an "Optimizing shaders NN%" bar |
Plugin dependencies
| Type | Name |
|---|---|
| Crimson | None. This plugin is fully standalone. |
| Engine modules (public) | Core, CoreUObject, Engine, GameplayTags |
| Engine modules (private) | Slate, SlateCore, InputCore, PreLoadScreen, RenderCore, RHI, DeveloperSettings, UMG, AssetRegistry |
| Editor module (private) | Core, CoreUObject, Engine, Kismet (plus the runtime module) |
Multiplayer-ready by design
The manager never creates on dedicated servers (
ShouldCreateSubsystem returns false), and the built-in conditions already wait for GameState replication and local PlayerController spawn - the two things that most often finish after the map loads on a client. Everything here is client-side presentation; no gameplay state is involved.Using with other Crimson plugins
CrimsonLoadingScreen works alone. When you own other Crimson plugins, CrimsonCore contains the full-suite wiring for it:
UCrimsonCoreExperienceLoadingScreenBridge in Source/CrimsonCore/{Public,Private}/Integration/Experience/ forwards each experience's loading-screen styling to SetNextLoadPresentation, UCrimsonShowcaseProviderComponent (LoadingShowcase/) registers the player's look for the character showcase, and UCrimsonLoadingScreenWidget is its finished widget base. To wire it yourself, see CrimsonCommon -> Concept: Connecting Crimson Plugins; for what CrimsonCore installs, see CrimsonCore -> Concept: The Integration Layer.Where to go next
- Quick Start - a working loading screen with tip text and a background, end to end.
- How-To: Get the Building Blocks - the exact nodes/code to reach the manager, the settings, and the data assets (read this second).
- Task pages: show tips and backgrounds, hold the screen from game code, react to events, showcase the player's character, live render target preview, author a stage level, show multiple characters, control the screen per load, show shader precompile progress.
- Mental model: Concept: Lifecycle & Show Conditions and Concept: The Cinematic Preview Pipeline.
- Looking up a signature? Jump to API Reference.