Loading screens with coroutines in Unity - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Loading screens with coroutines

📖 Scenario: You are making a simple game in Unity. When the player moves to a new level, you want to show a loading screen. This screen will show a message while the game loads the new level in the background.

🎯 Goal: You will create a loading screen using a coroutine. The coroutine will wait for 3 seconds to simulate loading, then hide the loading screen.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a GameObject variable called loadingScreen to hold the loading screen panel.

Create a float variable called loadingTime and set it to 3.

Write a coroutine method called LoadLevel that waits for loadingTime seconds.

Show the loading screen before waiting and hide it after waiting.

Start the coroutine LoadLevel in the Start method.

Print Loading complete! after loading finishes.

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Loading screens are common in games and apps to keep users informed while content loads.

💼 Career

Understanding coroutines and UI control is important for game developers and interactive app creators.

1

Create loading screen variable

Create a public GameObject variable called loadingScreen to hold the loading screen panel.

Unity

using UnityEngine;

public class LoadingManager : MonoBehaviour
{
    // Create a public GameObject variable called loadingScreen
    // Your code here
}

Need a hint?

Use public GameObject loadingScreen; inside the class.

2

Add loading time variable

Add a public float variable called loadingTime and set it to 3f.

Unity

using UnityEngine;

public class LoadingManager : MonoBehaviour
{
    public GameObject loadingScreen;
    // Add a public float variable called loadingTime and set it to 3f
    // Your code here
}

Need a hint?

Write public float loadingTime = 3f; inside the class.

3

Write the LoadLevel coroutine

Write a coroutine method called LoadLevel that does the following:
1. Sets loadingScreen.SetActive(true) to show the loading screen.
2. Waits for loadingTime seconds using yield return new WaitForSeconds(loadingTime);.
3. Sets loadingScreen.SetActive(false) to hide the loading screen.
4. Prints Loading complete! using Debug.Log.

Unity

using UnityEngine;
using System.Collections;

public class LoadingManager : MonoBehaviour
{
    public GameObject loadingScreen;
    public float loadingTime = 3f;

    // Write the LoadLevel coroutine method below
    // Your code here
}

Need a hint?

Remember to use IEnumerator and yield return new WaitForSeconds(loadingTime); inside the coroutine.

4

Start the coroutine in Start method

Add a Start method that starts the coroutine LoadLevel using StartCoroutine(LoadLevel());.

Unity

using UnityEngine;
using System.Collections;

public class LoadingManager : MonoBehaviour
{
    public GameObject loadingScreen;
    public float loadingTime = 3f;

    public IEnumerator LoadLevel()
    {
        loadingScreen.SetActive(true);
        yield return new WaitForSeconds(loadingTime);
        loadingScreen.SetActive(false);
        Debug.Log("Loading complete!");
    }

    // Add the Start method below to start the coroutine
    // Your code here
}

Need a hint?

Use void Start() and inside it call StartCoroutine(LoadLevel());.