Background Image Loader

Normal texture loading
The only textures loaded by XBMC are the ones currently visible. Nothing displays on the screen until all the images have been loaded in memory, this can result in "jerky" scrolling through panel containers. As you scroll down, XBMC will delay the scrolling animation until all of the images in the next row are loaded.

Background loading
Images are loaded one at a time in a background worker thread and are shown as soon as xbmc processes them. Has the benefit that images can be loaded into memory before they're visible, resulting in smoother scrolling and transitions.

Preloading
Used to automatically load the next items (or rows/columns in the case of a panel) while scrolling. Currently limited to 2.