Time based crashes only on iPhone

jault01

So my game crashes only on the iphone, not in the GameSalad preview and not if I view it as web. I have 6 stages on my game. 2 30 second stages that do not crash, 2 45 sec and 2 60 sec stages that crash around the 30 second mark. Anyone have any clue as to why it only crashes on iPhone? Also I can no longer publish to web.

jonmulcahy

jault01,

does it crash when you preview it on the iphone through the gamesalad application? So you plan the game on the iPhone, but it records the stats on your machine?

also, do what tshirtbooth said, try switching the 45 sec and 60 sec stanges to be 30 sec stages and see if they still crash.

jault01

I just tried switching the times and my first test only crashed on the 6th and final stage, at the very end of the stage. My second test did the same. My 3rd crashed during the third stage. All times have been set to 30 seconds. I get crashes in the preview through gamesalad application, through exporting it and playing it from xcode, both the simulator and the device. It doesn't crash for web preview or gamesalad preview. Here are my memory sizes:

30 fps average during play

42.2 mb images
2.9 mb sound
15.4 mb engine
3.9 mb other

64.3 total mb during right before the crash happens.

The total project size is only 6.9 mb

I am really confused why it would crash. I basically have the 6 stages set up so you can play one after another. I also have it so you can load any of the 6. Stage 6 being the hardest, has the most images and objects. I can select just stage 6 and play it through with no crashes, but once in a while it will freeze and crash. I can also play all the way from level 1 and have it crash on 3, or make it all the way to 6 and it will crash. It seems to make no sense.

jonmulcahy

What version of gamesalad are you using? Can you click on about and confirm you have the latest?

jonmulcahy

yes, definitely check your images. idealy you want all images at 72dpi and nothing larger than 1024x1024. If you need large images like I did (320x2900), just cut them up into smaller pieces and tile them.

Also, make sure you compress them using any method you wish. Are you using PNGs? Bitmaps? JPGs?

This is a great online resource for shrinking your PNGs:
http://www.gracepointafterfive.com/punypng/

jault01

I am using Gamesalad 0.6.0 . I will look into the images. I have everything set to 72 dpi and I always make everything to the size it will appear on the iPhone. I have some nice animated text that appears, maybe I will kill the animation and just play the single frame. That should cut down some image info. I will post if this fixes the problem. So is there a certain Mb amount to stay under for the total? You say you never get past 60Mb. Mine must be the animation, because the bkg's are my largest files and they are 480x320, nothing larger.

jault01

I went through and changed image sizes and got my total project size down to 4.8Mb. Here are the numbers I am seeing while running the game through preview on iPhone:

Images 8.9
Sounds 2.9
Game Engine 16.4
Other 7.0

Total 35.1

The game still randomly crashes. I have deleted animation and used stills on everything except my animation for characters. Any other ideas of what to look at? I have also changed all backgrounds to compressed jpegs and those files went from around 200-250 down to 30-60 kb which are much smaller. I am again really confused.

jonmulcahy

two things to check, make sure you have the latest version of the gamesalad viewer on your device as well, I assume you do, because I don't think .6 will work with the .5 viewer.

when it crashes, what's the memory up to?

does it crash at the same part or is it always random? Could you try converting your images to PNG images? I've read the iphone handles them better.

How many actors do you usually have on screen when it crashes?

jonmulcahy

also, what device are you testing on? which generation? first gen ipod touch had a slower processer than the 2nd gen, and i think the 3rd gen has the same processor as the iphone 3gs.