Settings and Console Variables

The settings are in Edit → Project Settings → Plugins → Common Loading Screen, and are saved to Config/DefaultGame.ini under [/Script/CommonLoadingSettings.CommonLoadingScreenSettings].

Loading Screen

Setting	Default	Description
Loading Screen Widget	None	The UMG widget shown as the loading screen. Leave it empty to use the built-in loading screen. A throbber is shown if the widget can't be loaded.
Z Order	10000	The Z order of the widget in the viewport. Keep it higher than your other widgets.
Automatic Progress	Off	Reports loading progress automatically when a map is loaded. See Automatic progress.

Timing

Setting	Default	Description
Additional Hold Time	2.0	Seconds to keep the loading screen up after loading has finished, so texture streaming can catch up.
Minimum Display Time	0.0	The shortest time the loading screen stays up once it is shown, so short loads don't flicker. 0 turns it off.
Fade In Duration	0.0	Seconds the widget fades in when the loading screen is shown. 0 shows it at once. See Fading in.
Fade Out Duration	0.0	Seconds the widget fades out when the loading screen is hidden. 0 removes it at once. See Fading out.
Wait For Key Press	Off	Keeps the loading screen up after a map has loaded until the player presses a key. See Waiting for a key press.

Status Text

The text to show the player. See Status text. All texts except the default are empty, and an empty text uses Default Text.

Setting	Default	Description
Default Text	Loading...	The status text when no other text applies.
Connecting Text	Empty	Shown while connecting to a server.
Loading Map Text	Empty	Shown while a map is loading.
Streaming Levels Text	Empty	Shown while streaming levels are loading.
Compiling Shaders Text	Empty	Shown while shaders are precompiling.
Finishing Text	Empty	Shown during Additional Hold Time and Minimum Display Time.
Key Press Text	Press any key to continue	Shown while waiting for a key press.

Built-in Loading Screen

Used when Loading Screen Widget is empty, and can only be edited then. See Built-in Loading Screen.

Setting	Default	Description
Layout	Classic	Classic, Center, Letterbox, Sidebar or Minimal.
Title	Empty	A title, for example the name of the game.
Show Tips	On	Shows the tips from Tips.
Show Progress	On	Shows a progress bar and percentage while something reports progress.

Appearance

Setting	Default	Description
Spinner	Ring	None, Ring, Throbber, Blocks, Bars or Image.
Spinner Image	None	The Texture 2D for the Image spinner.
Logo	None	A logo to show. Not shown with Minimal.
Logo Size	128 x 128	The size of the logo.
Theme	Dark	Dark, Light, Cinematic, Midnight or Custom.
Background, Panel, Text and Accent Color	Black and white	The colors for the Custom theme.

Content

Tips

Setting	Default	Description
Tips	Empty	The tips to show. See Tips.
Tip Duration	6.0	Seconds each tip is shown. 0 keeps the same tip until the next loading screen.
Shuffle Tips	On	Picks the tips in random order instead of the order in the list.

Slideshow

Setting	Default	Description
Images	Empty	Images to show behind the widget. See Slideshow.
Image Duration	6.0	Seconds each image is shown. 0 keeps the first image.
Crossfade Duration	1.0	Seconds the crossfade between two images takes.
Shuffle Images	Off	Picks the images in random order instead of the order in the list.

Music

Setting	Default	Description
Music	None	The sound to play while the loading screen is shown. See Music.
Music Volume	1.0	The volume of the music.
Music Fade In Duration	1.0	Seconds the music fades in.
Music Fade Out Duration	1.0	Seconds the music fades out when the loading screen is hidden.

Movies

Setting	Default	Description
Movies	Empty	The movies to play while a map loads. See Adding movies.
Movie Playback Type	Looped Last Playback	Normal Playback plays the movies once, Looped Playback loops all of them and Looped Last Playback loops the last one.
Movies Are Skippable	Off	The player can skip the movies with a key or mouse click.
Wait For Movies To Complete	Off	Plays the movies to the end. When off, they stop as soon as the map has loaded.
Show Widget Over Movies	Off	Draws the Loading Screen Widget on top of the movies.
Use Movie Player During Load Map	Off	Shows the widget with the Movie Player while a map loads, so it keeps animating. See Keeping the widget animated.

Adding movies

• Put the movie files in /Content/Movies in your project, for example Content/Movies/MyMovie.mp4.
• Enter only the file name, without the path or extension. For Content/Movies/MyMovie.mp4 you enter MyMovie.
• A movie that can't be found is skipped and a warning is logged.
• Movies are not packaged as assets. Make sure they are copied to the packaged build: turn off Skip Movies and add the names to Movies that are not in UFS under Project Settings → Packaging. With Use Zen Store on, the movies end up in the pak file and the Movie Player can't open them.

Maps

Setting	Default	Description
Map Overrides	Empty	Different content for specific maps. See Map Overrides.
Blocked Map Names	Empty	Maps that never show a loading screen when loaded or travelled to, also with seamless travel, for example MainMenu. Use the map's asset name, not the full path.
Blocked Maps	Empty	Same as Blocked Map Names, but you pick the maps from a list instead of typing their names. Both lists are used.

Map Overrides

Use a different widget, movies, tips, images or music while a specific map loads. Add one entry per map.

Field	Description
Map	The map the override is for.
Widget	The widget to show while this map loads. Leave it empty to use the default Loading Screen Widget.
Movies	The movies to play while this map loads. Leave it empty to use the default Movies.
Tips	The tips to show while this map loads. Leave it empty to use the default Tips.
Images	The images to show while this map loads. Leave it empty to use the default Images.
Music	The music to play while this map loads. Leave it empty to use the default Music.

The override is picked when the loading screen is shown, from the map that is being loaded or travelled to. A loading screen that is already up when the load starts keeps its widget and images, but changes to the tips and music of the new map. The first loading screen when the game starts always uses the default widget.

Tips and images set from Blueprint or C++ take priority over Map Overrides. Durations, volume, fades and shuffling are shared by all maps. The splash screen always uses the default tips.

The images and music in all entries are loaded when the game starts and stay in memory, so showing the loading screen doesn't hitch.

Splash Screen

These settings are shown for the matching Splash Screen Type, where a type is listed.

Setting	Type	Default	Description
Disable Splash Screen		Off	Turns off the splash screen.
Splash Screen Type		BLACK	The splash screen on startup: BLACK, LOADING, IMAGE or VIDEO.
Splash Additional Hold Time		2.0	Seconds to keep the splash screen up after the engine has finished loading.
Image	IMAGE	Plugin default image	The Texture 2D to show.
Stretch	IMAGE	Scale To Fit X	How the image is scaled.
Stretch Direction	IMAGE	Both	Whether the image may be scaled up, down or both.
Loading Text	LOADING	LOADING...	The text to show.
Loading Font	LOADING	Regular, size 10	The font of the text.

Overlay

Shown with every type except VIDEO. See Logo, tip and version.

Setting	Default	Description
Logo	None	The logo at the top of the splash screen.
Logo Size	256 x 256	The size of the logo.
Show Tip	Off	Shows a random tip from Tips.
Show Version	Off	Shows the Project Version from the project settings.
Show Shader Progress	Off	Shows how many shaders are left to precompile.
Shader Progress Text	Compiling shaders: {0}	The text for the shader progress. {0} is the number of shaders left.

Splash movies

Shown for the VIDEO type.

Setting	Default	Description
Movies	Empty	The movies to play on startup. See Adding movies.
Movie Playback Type	Normal Playback	Normal Playback plays the movies once, Looped Playback loops all of them and Looped Last Playback loops the last one.
Movies Are Skippable	On	The player can skip the movies with a key or mouse click.
Wait For Movies To Complete	On	Plays the movies to the end. When off, they stop as soon as the engine has finished loading.

Debugging

Setting	Default	Description
Log Reason Every Frame	Off	Logs the reason for the loading screen every frame.
Force Visible	Off	Always shows the loading screen.
Hold Time Even in Editor	On	Applies Additional Hold Time in the editor too.
Force Tick Even in Editor	On	Ticks Slate once when the loading screen is shown in the editor, so it is drawn right away.
Heartbeat Hang Duration	0.0	Seconds the loading screen can be up before the game is considered hung. 0 turns it off.
Log Heartbeat Interval	5.0	Seconds between each log of what is keeping the loading screen up. 0 turns it off.

Console variables

Four settings have a console variable, so you can change them at runtime. The Project Setting is the starting value.

Console variable	Setting
CommonLoadingScreen.ShowLoadingScreenAdditionalSecs	Additional Hold Time
CommonLoadingScreen.ShowSplashScreenAdditionalSecs	Splash Additional Hold Time
CommonLoadingScreen.LogLoadingScreenReasonEveryFrame	Log Reason Every Frame
CommonLoadingScreen.AlwaysShow	Force Visible

Command line

Argument	Description
-NoLoadingScreen	Never shows the loading screen. Not available in Shipping builds.

Upgrading from older versions

Older versions saved the settings under [/Script/CommonLoadingScreen.CommonLoadingScreenSettings]. The plugin reads the old section on startup and copies values that are missing from the new section. It logs a warning when it copies anything. Move the values to the new section and remove the old one to get rid of the warning. When the new section already has every value, the old section is ignored and only a normal log line says that it can be removed.