How do I load chunks of data from an assest manager during a loading screen?

Question

I'm developing an Android game. Basically I want to pre-load all graphics/sounds when the app is first loaded. But I also would like to show a progress bar as this is happening. Here is a snippet of Java/Android code to display a progress bar while doing some work:

public class LoadingScreen extends Activity {

private static int progress = 0;
private ProgressBar progressBar;
private int progressStatus = 0;
private Handler handler = new Handler();

/** Called when the activity is first created. */
@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.loadingscreen);

    progressBar = (ProgressBar) findViewById(R.id.progress);

    //---do some work in background thread---
    new Thread(new Runnable() 
    {
        public void run() 
        {
            while (progressStatus < 100) 
            {
                progressStatus = doSomeWork();

                //---Update the progress bar---
                handler.post(new Runnable() 
                {
                    public void run() {
                        progressBar.setProgress(progressStatus);
                    }
                });

            }
            //---hides the progress bar---
            handler.post(new Runnable() 
            {
                public void run() {
                    progressBar.setVisibility(8);
                }
            });
        }    

        private int doSomeWork() 
        {
            try 
            {
                //---simulate doing some work---
                Thread.sleep(50);
            } catch (InterruptedException e) 
            {

            }
            return ++progress;
        }

    }).start(); 

}

My question is: how do I design my Asset Manager to load "chunks" of data (bitmaps and sounds/music) in the doSomeWork() function? Would it be some sort of stack that I keep popping off the next asset to load? How do I determine how much of the progress bar I should increment after loading a "chunk" of data?

Is there a better way to approach this or is this the correct way?

Answer 1

I would've gone for the asset manager having a stack of data it needs to load. If there's an easy way to go about it, there's the option of adding to a size counter as you add elements to the stack - this means you could increase varyingly. So instead of a large texture and a quick sound effect both increasing loading by 10% say, it could increase by 13% and 2%, for example.

Then pop off each piece of data as you load, handling errors and the like, and increase the amount of bar visible.

I think that there's nothing wrong with that way, but I'm pretty sure someone would be able to give something more complex around here. :P

Answer 2

Why don't just say 100% = resource count? Resource loaded => increment.

I suppose you want to use stack to manage dependencies between resources? Push resource. Push dependencies... etc. Than you have 2 passes:

1. collect resources in stack (count resources)
2. load resources (increment status bar)