Anonymous
RWCE's new splash
RWCE's new splash
Published by Vlasta on February 16th 2012.
You might have noticed the 2009.1 version of the cursor editor was the only one of RealWorld applications without a splash screen. That was actually a bug. The splash image existed, but I accidentally deleted it from the final executable. It did not look particularly good anyway and so I left the poor cursor editor splash-free.
Why a splash?
Computers are getting faster each year and I made some optimizations in the past that made the loading time shorter. On my moderately fast computer, RWPaint cold start takes about 1 second. Do RealWorld applications actually need a splash?
I think they still do, for two reasons. First, not everyone has a fast computer and the editors are able to run on a 10 year old machine running Windows 2000, splash gives the user the needed feedback that the application is actually starting.
Second, splash screen has the ability to set the mind of the user to the right state, if the splash screen style is right.
The new splash style
In the past, all of the splash images contained a rendered logo of the application with an overlaid application name. Lot of free space, shadows, and transparent parts. This style looked new in 2005, but I feel that does not cut it anymore. Everyone has those now, they became boring.
The latest RWPaint splash-screen is a good example of the style I want all future splash screens to use. Less serious, more playful. After all, RealWorld editors are not rocket science, they are supposed to let you unleash your creativity. If the splash takes your thoughts away from the serious matters of life, that's a good thing.
So, without further delays, here is the new splash for RealWorld Cursor Editor:
Afterthoughts
While working on the splash, the biggest challenge was to draw the frame. How to make it precise. In the end, I used script, but I am not happy with this solution. Designers are not supposed to write code when creating a picture. Or are they? Here is a snippet:
DrawTool.SetColor1(1,1,1,1);
DrawTool.RECTANGLE(Document, 0, 238.5, 185.5, 211, 147, -0.174533);
var c = Math.cos(-0.174533);
var s = Math.sin(-0.174533);
var x11 = 238.5-211*c+147*s;
var y11 = 185.5-211*s-147*c;
var x12 = 238.5+211*c+147*s;
var y12 = 185.5+211*s-147*c;
var x21 = 238.5-211*c-147*s;
var y21 = 185.5-211*s+147*c;
var x22 = 238.5+211*c-147*s;
var y22 = 185.5+211*s+147*c;
DrawTool.SetColor1(0,0,0,0);
var n1 = 9;
var g1 = 0.8;
for (var i = 0; i < n1; ++i)
{
DrawTool.ELLIPSE(Document, x11+(i+g1)*(x12-x11)/(n1-1+g1+g1), y11+(i+g1)*(y12-y11)/(n1-1+g1+g1), 13);
DrawTool.ELLIPSE(Document, x21+(i+g1)*(x22-x21)/(n1-1+g1+g1), y21+(i+g1)*(y22-y21)/(n1-1+g1+g1), 13);
}
var n2 = 6;
var g2 = 0.8;
for (var i = 0; i < n2; ++i)
{
DrawTool.ELLIPSE(Document, x11+(i+g2)*(x21-x11)/(n2-1+g2+g2), y11+(i+g2)*(y21-y11)/(n2-1+g2+g2), 13);
DrawTool.ELLIPSE(Document, x12+(i+g2)*(x22-x12)/(n2-1+g2+g2), y12+(i+g2)*(y22-y12)/(n2-1+g2+g2), 13);
}I actually put this into a layer style.
Uh, by the way, isn't there something odd about the current RealWorld Paint splash?
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