Mobile / cocoonjs optimisation tricks ?

[quote:3u9f2oep]@Silverforce

I just bought Star Nomad on iOS. Cool game, nice work! But still.. there is a micro-pauses. It's not a FPS failure - FPS is fine. If you look closely you'll find these small pauses. The gameplay is not smooth For me, it does matter. This little thing can separates bad game from good game.

Thanks! I run it on an iPad Mini 2 and iPhone 6 Plus, there's a slight pause when you bring up the star map or access menus the first time in-system (due to very aggressive garbage collector on layout changes), but in flight & combat is very smooth. Maybe I'm just not sensitive to micro-stutters.

[quote:127bi37z]Thanks! I run it on an iPad Mini 2 and iPhone 6 Plus, there's a slight pause when you bring up the star map or access menus the first time in-system (due to very aggressive garbage collector on layout changes), but in flight & combat is very smooth. Maybe I'm just not sensitive to micro-stutters.

I run it on iPhone 6.

I'm very interested what Ashley says about this. I would like to buy C2 business license, but this small anomaly is on my way... So, Scirra can't do anything about the micro-pauses..?

This thread was originally from early 2013 and things could have changed significantly since then. Please post a .capx demonstrating the issue so I can take a look.

This thread was originally from early 2013 and things could have changed significantly since then. Please post a .capx demonstrating the issue so I can take a look.

Thanks Ashley for your response. You can take a look if you own an iPhone or iPad. Download from App Store any game that has been made 2013-2014 with C2. Play it for a moment, observing the screen. All moving objects stuttering a little bit. I don't know there are the same problem on Android, but it exists on iOS. I have looked at this a long time, tried a different iOS games in 2014.

However, I think C2 is a very good tool. I would like to buy a license for business, but I do not do it before I know that Scirra know about this problem, and try to fix it. All the best and keep up the good work!

EDIT:

For example: Bee Active, Hungry Hal, Star Nomad, Swing Parachute, Flappy Family, e.t.c.

These I remembered first. Looks good, but when you look more closely ...

This thread was originally from early 2013 and things could have changed significantly since then. Please post a .capx demonstrating the issue so I can take a look.

It has gotten better, particularly now with a fully functional Android wrapper with plugins for monetization (XDK).. but the lacking in smoothness is still a problem, more obvious on Android and CJS Canvas+. WKWebView for iOS8 is much better but as Alatok noticed, there's still micro-stutters.

TBH I'm happy with both iOS and Android options but it could be better, particularly Android. This Chromium jitter bug will be around for awhile for Crosswalk since they are a build behind. :/

Alatok I think you can be confident in your purchase of C2 if you want to develop for mobiles, particularly for iOS. I have a long thread for SNE on Touch Arcade, and lots of players praise how well/smooth combat feels, no player has mentioned the micro-stutter as yet, but they do mention the major flaw of CJS's implementation of WKWebView: If the iOS device runs out of storage, you will lose your save-game due to the auto-clean clearing "temporary" files to free up storage. I put a warning in the app description, so far players have been ok knowing that.

Thanks — for your reply. My options are be to buy C2 license (I know I can do game myself with C2, and it's cheaper ) or hire a professional (e.g. Unity guy). For me, the most important thing is the end result. It must be perfect. Because I use my money and my time for this. I don't want put a micro-stutters warning in the app description.

I have considered the options for a long time. The only thing that bothers me anymore, is the micro-stutters...

I hope this problem can be corrected by Scirra-team.

Alatok

if I would like to make 100% serious, 100% professional game/app, and have enough money for that - then hiring Unity guy would be the best option. Construct 2 is great for simple games and prototyping, but Scirra does not take any responsability for good working of the final product.

Anyway we can also call ludei about micro-stuttering issue.

I think I know the cause of the micro-stuttering you are seeing in Star Nomad Elite on mobiles. Its due to aggressive garbage collection. When ships jump out of system (which happens often), the sprite is destroyed and removed from memory. Likewise for effects. WKWebView is very aggressive at GC, since I notice the memory footprint is obscenely low, ~8MB when in-flight.

It could be eliminated if we have manual control on assets in memory. But I doubt its gonna happen, particular for wrappers like CJS.

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it seems that the best option would be Construct 3 as an add-on to Unity

szymek

Well.. Maybe you're right. Unity can be better to me. It's a shame, I really like the C2 possibilities (how cool is it to say "I make the game by myself"?!. Not by hiring guy). But these little things..

Well.. Maybe you're right. Unity can be better to me. It's a shame, I really like the C2 possibilities (how cool is it to say "I make the game by myself"?!. Not by hiring guy). But these little things..

Why don't you try to prototype your idea in C2 (free version) first? Then you'd have something to show to the Unity-guy you plan to hire in any case.

Ho well, i've seen this post a bit too late, i'm having the same kind of problem with my project. Even on a super simple project for testing, i'm seeing jittering on the movements.

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Yes, I can do prototype. But my point is: what Scirra can do about the micro-stuttering. Then I don't need an Unity-guy. I can hire.. Yes.. but better options if I can to do my game from start to end by myself. From my own interests

Softloulou

Well, you may have the micro-stuttering problem If I understood correctly, no one can do anything about it.

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Yes, I can do prototype. But my point is: what Scirra can do about the micro-stuttering. Then I don't need an Unity-guy. I can hire.. Yes.. but better options if I can to do my game from start to end by myself. From my own interests

Softloulou

Well, you may have the micro-stuttering problem If I understood correctly, no one can do anything about it.

Well yeah i guess we can call it a micro-stuttering problem. But for the sake of example the capx is really small (for debuging testing purpose) and it happens mainly on Chrome (on Firefox and ie, still happens but less). It's a real problem if you are considering making a fast passed game. I don't think this could be associated with Garbage Collection (but well i'm no JS pro user). (I would be so happy if someone found a way to fix this )

Softloulou

There's many threads on the issue you are seeing in Chrome.

The short of it is that the Chromium team had a mental fatal error and released multiple versions since 38 that horribly mess up frame latency / vsync, introducing the stutter.