How to set up a Loading Video

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Initial Loading Experience
On web, it is critical to have a really quick loading experience. On mobile, players have more patience. However, on web you begin churning players after just 5 seconds. We recommend average loading times below 30 seconds.
One way to improve upon this is to run a loading-screen video during the initial startup while the game build is being downloaded by the browser.

How to Upload and Enable a Loading Video?

Configure the loading video in Environment Settings for the relevant environment, such as Production.

Video Format: .MP4 works on all browsers and is highly critical. Other formats (.mov, .webm, .avi will work, but not for all browser. Using MP4 video is highly encouraged.

Using 1080p video (or higher resolution) is recommended. Pley automatically scales down the video to an appropriate resolution for screen-size and loading time.

Open your game in the Game Manager.
Select the relevant environment, such as Production.
Open Environment Settings and find the loading video settings.
Upload your video, enable the loading video, and select its behavior.

Mode	Behavior
'Always'	The loading video is always shown to players while the browser downloads the initial build.
'Play only once'	The loading video is only shown to players once during their first session while the browser downloads the initial build. In future sessions, the build is cached and no video is showed.
'Load game in background'	The loading video is always shown, until the game calls the `game_loaded` analytics method. This is used for games to run a video on top of more than the initial build download, but also the in-game loading screen.

Testing the Loading Video

Configure and enable the video in Environment Settings for the environment you want to test.
Open a distribution channel in that environment through its Smart Playable URL.
Check that the video follows the behavior selected in Environment Settings.

To test separately from your live game, use a distribution channel in Development. See Environments and Testing in Game Manager.

Loading video behavior is configured in Environment Settings. The old loading_video URL query parameter no longer applies with Smart Playable URLs.