Cityscape Shuffle (Randomized Loading Screen Backgrounds) [v1.2]
It’s a crime against eyeballs.
This lightweight mod randomizes your loading screen backgrounds using the game’s existing image collection (including the ones from all the DLCs you own)*.
No collecting files, no complex configuration, and no "now the game won’t load at all!" business. Just subscribe, enable, and restart the game.
Rather than going "full random" (which is prone to repetition), this mod uses a shuffle-without-replacement algorithm to ensure all backgrounds are shown before repeating the sequence.
Result: the longest possible interval before any background repeats. Hooray!
This mod also works on loading screens when…
- starting a new game
- starting the map editor
- starting the theme editor
- starting the asset editor
- starting the scenario editor.
Uses Harmony to intercept LoadingAnimation.SetImage() and swaps the default background material with a randomly selected image from the game’s built-in collection.
- Harmony 2.2.2+ – Subscribe and install (activation not required)
- Restart Cities: Skylines after first enabling this mod
The mod captures all available background images the first time the main menu loads. If you enable it after the game has already loaded, those background images cannot be pulled up as BackgroundPanel.Awake() can only run once per game session.
Instead of showing a fallback image — which would cause you to think "UGH! This is the exact same thing I’ve been staring at for years, this mod does not work!" — I decided to show an ugly red box. Now you’ll think "UGH! I’m gonna go complain on Steam Workshop," where you’ll see this reminder that a restart is required. omg I’m so sneaky!
Safe for existing saves. Can be enabled/disabled anytime without breaking anything.
INCOMPATIBLE with Loading Screen Mod Revisited — both mods patch the same game methods (LoadingAnimation.SetImage() and OnDisable()) and will conflict.
Want simple randomization with zero fuss? → Use this mod
Want advanced loading features + custom backgrounds? → Use Loading Screen Mod Revisited.
Cityscape Shuffle uses reflection to access BackgroundPanel’s private m_Images field (the game’s internal background texture list). It then patches LoadingAnimation.SetImage() to swap in random materials and properly manages their lifecycle to prevent memory leaks.
That’s it! No bloat, just 19 KB.
Technically this should automatically include background images from all your DLC – I can’t personally test this because I don’t own any DLC myself! Over 200 subscribers so far and nobody’s complained, so it probably works? If you have DLC and can confirm it works, please let me know so I can update this description.
1)
This mod was developed with assistance from Claude AI. It was built from scratch by analyzing the game’s decompiled code – not by modifying existing mods. Code was iteratively designed, reviewed, tested, and debugged across multiple sessions. All design decisions and testing were human-driven.
Download and audit the code yourself:
https://github.com/Jeaudoir/Cityscape-Shuffle
2)
Gaming is an occasional hobby for me. This mod does what I need. If you want to extend it, the code is yours – fork away!
Revisions:
Old revisions of this mod are available below. Click the link to download.
