From Construct 2 to Mobile

Hi All!

I've recently started a new project, specifically aimed at being played on a mobile, and designed for the iPad3 retina. On the pc browser, it's running great. Nice and smooth, showing 60fsp. Thing is, when I try it out on my PC at work i5, should be more than capable, it's quite slow, averaging 22fps.

It has one particle system, Box2D physics, etc. The only thing I imagine may be slowing it down are the large sprites. The background is the full 2048 x 1536 pixels, but is only 111kb in size. The second largest sprite is 980x980 (71kb). Are these two items the ones slowing it down?

I doubt it's any surprise, but when I preview the game on my iPad, it's very slow indeed. Maybe around 2-5fps.

I've also tried exporting to my android samsung galaxy s3 (quad core) to see if it has any luck. AppMobi doesn't work at all (just a blank screen), and PhoneGap works, but shows very slow... and isn't centralised on my phone screen, but I don't mind that too much as it isn't designed for widescreens.

Also looked at Cocoon, but their website confuses the heck out of me, so I quickly moved along.

Any advice to improve speeds would be greatly appreciated.

I have considered making the game in MMF2 instead, but at the moment, Construct 2 seems more capable.

Just tried deleting the 2 large sprites, and the game still runs slowly. Maybe it's the high resolution. 2048 x 1536 a little too high? It's being made for retina displays though, so I'm not sure what to do about this.

You should really use CocoonJS

Here is the WIKI ( Easier to understand )

wiki.ludei.com

I think the particle system is slowing the system

( Because you can't compare a PC to a Mobile )

Personnaly , My Pc is 3 years older than my Mobile and it runs faster

You need to atleast make a difference of 20fps or more between you pc and you mobile !

Have you read Performance tips in the manual? We're also working to improve directCanvas and CocoonJS support which hopefully will fix performance problems in future. Also CocoonJS is really simple, you just need to add the CocoonJS Launcher app and export to CocoonJS from C2, but the launcher is only available for Android right now (although iOS support is being prepared too).

The #1 performance problem with Windows PCs is also old graphics drivers getting blacklisted and falling back to software rendering. Try updating the graphics driver and see what chrome://gpu says (if you use it - if not, give it a shot).

When I try to use Cocoon, it just says "Oh noes! Invalid email address" despite what I put in... Very odd. If I delete the particles, I can get 16fps, but I kind of expect more. The particles rate can be lowered to 50, and it accepts it, but 11fps is crazy. I keep thinking it should be determined by the hardware. My ipad 3 is getting shocking speeds, and yet it can play games like Infinity Blade.

I have no idea what I'm doing with Cocoon. Does it create apps, or just allows you to play games?

I'm getting unplayable performance on iOS using phonegap build. With Android thru phonegap it's pretty good and I have successfully published, taking note of the performance tips. Gonna see whether appmobi with directcanvas will get me some performance traction on iOS!

...cocoon doesn't allow upload to the apple app store just yet and they haven't got a launch date for it happening yet, tho cloud service on its way. Looking forward to it happening.

Phonegap has become almost useless for iOS recently. My game works perfectly within the ios browser but once I put it through Phonegap and load onto the ipad device it halts to a crawl. I though phonegap used the local browser and its speed would be comparable?

Looking forward to cocoonjs build - my attempts so far with the android cocoon app has been a blank black screen with FPS numbers in at the top corner - even for their demo apps.

Really liked phonegap but the performance issues are killing it. appMobi is much the same IMO. fingers crossed for cocoonjs

So does Cocoon create apps? I really don't get on with the website or app. Very user-unfriendly I find. No idea why it thinks all my email addresses are invalid.

Hi,

if you want to develop a game for iOS you have to use Xcode and eventually an Objective-C based framework like, for example, Cocos2d.

I'm very sorry to say this, but I think it's not the right way to use a technology for a specified target (html5) to develop a game for another and totally different system (iOS). For a lot of time I used "hybrid" tools to devolp with one shot for different platforms and every time I found problems. The only time my work goes OK is when I use the specified tool for that platform. Remember: while you spend time to convert and readapt something to something else, others reach the target using the correct tools...

Think I should switch over to MMF2 then? I do have the iOS and XNA exporters, but it's so problematic to work on. My game at the moment is around 64 lines long. If I were to make the same in MMF2, it would be over 200, I reckon, take me a lot longer, and not look as good :(

I LOVE CONSTRUCT 2 PHYSICS!!!

AnD4D: Ludei's site is probably aimed at developers. All you need to know is in this tutorial: how to export to CocoonJS

Ludei are working on a cloud build system and appMobi already have one which allows you to build to both Android and iOS without any special tools or needing a Mac. We're working closely with both companies to ensure all features work identically on all platforms.

Thanks Ashley! I'd rather not have to struggle to re-make what I already built so easily in Construct 2.

With Cocoon, I get up to the register bit and it keeps telling me I'm using an invalid email address. AppMobi doesn't seem to work at all. Black screen... :(

Woot!!! Got it working! 26fps, is still too slow for what I want, but it's better than the 2fps I was getting from PhoneGap and the blank screen from AppMobi. However, it's not an app, is it? It just seems to play it from its own personal browser. The website talks about uploading to the store, but I cant see how...

AnD4D - Ludei are planning to launch a cloud build system to make native apps in the near future.