Scrolling image and framerate drops

RondoRocket

I have a lot of my gameplay in place and so I started adding more place holder art (simple boxes built in GS) and set them up to scroll. I used the technique where once the image is off screen it repositions itself in front of the actor and scrolls on screen again. Everything under Physics is OFF but I noticed my framerate drops 4-5 frames once I added it. The image is 512x32 so it fills the entire bottom of the screen in landscape mode.

Just curious if this is what I can expect as I add more images? I'm on an iPhone 3G using OS4.

Thanks for any input.

firemaplegames

Yes, unfortunately.
Especially on the iPhone 3G and older - those processors will really struggle.

RondoRocket

OK, thanks, good to know. My frame rate isn't terrible... I've managed to keep it 55-60 but I was just surprised at how much it dropped once I added a couple of scrolling images. It started to get down into the 40's and some times the 30's (with full gameplay) and I really wanted to make it playable on atleast the 3G's.

I found some good optimization threads having to do with Rules and so forth so I'll start overhauling in those areas to see if I can save some frames.

firemaplegames

yeah, you really ned to optimize absolutely everything to pull it off on the older devices.

RondoRocket

firemaplegames said:
yeah, you really ned to optimize absolutely everything to pull it off on the older devices.

I think one of the threads I was reading you had posted a lot of good tips on how to setup Rules so their is less impact on the processors. I'm going to give that a shot later since I know I have a some rules that are fighting for CPU time that don't need to be.

juzcook

Should we be expecting GS performance to improve in the next update? Meaning when our games run on older devices? There's so many more advanced games built for the iPhone that run perfectly, yet some simple things in GS slow the whole game down!

RondoRocket

juzcook said:
Should we be expecting GS performance to improve in the next update? Meaning when our games run on older devices? There's so many more advanced games built for the iPhone that run perfectly, yet some simple things in GS slow the whole game down!

I suspect a lot of that has to do with how the games were built, such as being coded from scratch or using a game engine which gave them access to the source code.

But I still think a couple of scrolling images shouldn't cause the frame drop I'm witnessing. But I'm not about to complain considering GS's ease of use. I was more curious going forward if this is typical so I know what to expect and not waste a bunch of days trying to fix something that isn't broken.