Before You Begin#
Before installing Loading Screen Creator, check what your server needs. The short answer is nothing: a loading screen has to draw before every other resource, so it depends on none of them.
Requirement | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
oxmysql | Not needed | Themes are saved in a file inside the resource, not in a database. |
ox_lib | Not needed | Used for the creator's notifications only when it happens to be running. |
Framework | Optional | ESX, QBCore, Qbox or qs-core — auto-detected. Standalone works too. |
Server artifacts | Recent | The creator lists your music, videos and images with a server function that very old builds lack. On those, the media dropdowns stay empty. |
The framework is only ever asked two questions: whether a player is an admin, and how to show them a notification. Everything a player sees while loading works the same with or without one.
Downloading Loading Screen Creator#
Loading Screen Creator is delivered through your CFX Portal account.
Sign in to the CFX Portal using the same account used during checkout, open Granted Assets, and download Loading Screen Creator.
After extracting the download, you should have the following folder:
qs-loadingscreen/
├── shared/config.lua -- the few settings that live in a file
├── custom/ -- framework bridges: admin check and notifications
├── locales/ -- the creator in 41 languages
├── data/themes.json -- the themes you save from the creator
├── song/ -- soundtrack files
├── videos/ -- background clips
└── web/ -- the interface, ready to runThe folder must be named
qs-loadingscreen. Multicharacter and your own scripts close the screen throughexports['qs-loadingscreen']and theqs-loadingscreen:fadeOutevent, so a renamed copy is never closed by them and waits for its safety ceiling instead.
Installing the Resource#
Move the qs-loadingscreen folder into your server's resources directory. It can live anywhere inside it, including a category folder:
resources/
└── [qs]/
└── qs-loadingscreen/Then add it to your server.cfg. It is the first thing a player sees and has nothing to wait for, so start it early:
ensure qs-loadingscreen
# Framework and the rest of your server
ensure qb-core
# ensure qbx_core
# ensure es_extended
# ensure qs-core
ensure qs-multicharacterUnlike most resources, the start order does not affect detection: the framework is looked up the first time an admin opens the creator, long after everything has started.
Where Themes Are Stored#
There is no SQL file to import, and no database at all. The loading screen draws before a database is reachable, so everything it needs travels with the resource:
What | Where it lives |
|---|---|
The seven built-in themes | Inside the interface itself, so the screen draws a finished design before it has talked to the server. |
The themes you save |
|
Which theme is live | The same file. A fresh install ships with Cinematic live. |
The last theme each player saw | Cached in the player's game, so a custom design shows from the first frame of their next join instead of flashing the default. |
Back up
data/themes.jsonwith the rest of your server. It is the only file the creator writes and it holds every design you have made — copying it to another server moves all of them across.
Claiming Creator Access#
The creator decides what every player sees when they connect, so it is limited to admins. Either route below is enough on its own:
The usual route, and the only one on a standalone server. Add this line to server.cfg:
add_ace group.admin command.loadingcreator allow
# or for a single player
add_ace identifier.license:xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx command.loadingcreator allowThe ACE name is Config.Creator.permission if you want to change it.
Automatic for the groups in Config.Creator.adminGroups — admin, superadmin and god by default. ESX and qs-core read the player's group; QBCore and Qbox ask the framework's own permission check, so the staff you already have count here.
The answer is remembered for the session. A player who tried /loadingcreator before you granted access has to reconnect before it opens for them.
Configuring the Resource#
Almost nothing lives in a file, on purpose. Everything a player can see — texts, fonts, colours, music, the server name, Discord and website — is edited in game and saved with the theme. Only what a theme cannot decide for itself stays in a file:
File | Contents |
|---|---|
| The creator's language, its command and who may use it, framework detection, the safety ceilings and the theme limit. |
| One folder per framework — |
| The creator's texts in 41 languages. |
The values worth reviewing first:
Config.Locale = GetConvar('qs:locale', 'en') -- the creator's language
Config.Framework = false -- auto · or 'esx' · 'qb' · 'qs' · 'standalone'
Config.Creator = {
command = 'loadingcreator', -- the chat command
permission = 'command.loadingcreator', -- the ACE that opens it
adminGroups = { 'admin', 'superadmin', 'god' },
}
Config.MaxDuration = 45000 -- ms the screen may stay up after the player spawns
Config.MaxDurationHandoff = 180000 -- the same ceiling while a handoff resource runs
Config.HandoffResources = { 'qs-multicharacter' }
Config.MaxThemes = 50 -- themes saved in data/themes.json
Config.Debug = false
Config.MaxDurationis a safety net, not a timer. The screen closes as soon as Multicharacter — or your own spawn script — says it can; the ceiling only matters when nothing ever does. See How the Screen Closes.
Adding Your Media#
Music, video and pictures are picked from three folders inside the resource. Drop a file in, restart the resource, and it appears in the creator's dropdowns — nobody types a path or a link.
Folder | Formats | Used for |
|---|---|---|
| mp3 · ogg · wav · m4a | The soundtrack playlist. |
| webm (VP9) | Video backgrounds and the Video module. |
| png · jpg · jpeg · webp · gif | Image and slideshow backgrounds, the Image and Slideshow modules, staff avatars and track artwork. |
The images/ folder does not ship with the resource — create it next to song/ and videos/ the first time you add a picture. The folders are read when the resource starts, so after adding files run restart qs-loadingscreen and reopen the creator.
Video must be WebM (VP9). The FiveM browser ships without the H.264 licence, so an .mp4 plays as a black screen. The creator still lists .mp4 files, marked as will not play.
There is no YouTube or web-link support, on purpose: a YouTube embed refuses to start inside FiveM, and a link to another host breaks the day that host does. Only files on your own server are offered. For a heavy background clip, also add a lighter copy named <name>_low.webm next to it — players on slow PCs load that one instead.
Verifying the Installation#
Restart your server and connect. You should land on the Cinematic theme instead of the default FiveM screen — that alone means the resource is running. Then work through the first loop:
Open the creator
With an admin account, type
/loadingcreator. The editor opens on the live theme: the theme list on the left, the canvas in the middle, the modules and the inspector on the right.Change something
Open the Settings tab and type your server name, Discord and website, or click empty canvas and pick another background. Press Preview to see it full screen with the music playing;
Escreturns to the editor.Set it live
Press Save, then Set live. Disconnect and connect again: the screen you just made is the one you load into.
Nothing needs a restart from here on. Every design, text and song is changed in the creator and reaches the next player who connects.