Is it just me? - Serious performance issues
Mogos
Member Posts: 63
Hello everyone.
Since I've started creating my game with Gamesalad, I have two big problems (besides several other minor ones) and they are both related with the performance.
1 - Run time performance
The first one is at actual run-time. In the game I've publish (Doodle Rain), I've manage to minimize the problem but for the developer eyes, you can still see some performance issues, specially when creating actors at run-time. I create around 2 to 3 actors at run time and that's not a lot for a game but every time I do it, there is a slight frame drop.
2 - Creator performance
This is my biggest issue. I would imagine you all go through the same process of open scene, open actor, close actor, open actor, close actor, close scene, and so on and so on. In the previous version it was very frustrating because after a couple of this interactions I had to close gamesalad and open again, otherwise a simple "back" from an actor properties to the scene could take up to several minutes as opposed to the near instantaneous it should be.
I never complained and I waited for the next version wish I assumed at the time that would take care of this huge problem that must affect all users resulting in thousands of extra "waiting" hours.
My first game for iPad was built under this conditions and I'm building the iPhone version of the same game but decided that no time or patience anymore so better wait for the next version of Gamesalad.
I was very happy to hear about the new release, specially when I read the release notes stating "performance improvements". Now, after some hours on it I see that nothing has improved. I've rebuilt the iPad version and the runtime performance issue is still exactly the same.
On the Creator part, I actually thing it got worse that it was before. I cannot understand why a scene that has bellow 20 actors can preform so badly.
Just in case you are wondering, I currently run Gamesalad on a Dual Core iMac 27" with 8Gb of RAM (late 2009 model) so I'm pretty sure it's not my machine to blame.
Because I find it hard to believe that such problem was not addressed I have to ask all of you. Do you have the same problem ? Is there some configuration I can make to improve this?
To finish, I would also like to add another disappointment on this new version, the Loading Screen. White seems a very bad color but the worst part is that most of the times it stays white for 1 to 3 seconds giving the sensation it crashed. Also, sometimes, it crashes after the video, before I can even see my first screen.
Any input, opinion, suggestion is welcome.
Since I've started creating my game with Gamesalad, I have two big problems (besides several other minor ones) and they are both related with the performance.
1 - Run time performance
The first one is at actual run-time. In the game I've publish (Doodle Rain), I've manage to minimize the problem but for the developer eyes, you can still see some performance issues, specially when creating actors at run-time. I create around 2 to 3 actors at run time and that's not a lot for a game but every time I do it, there is a slight frame drop.
2 - Creator performance
This is my biggest issue. I would imagine you all go through the same process of open scene, open actor, close actor, open actor, close actor, close scene, and so on and so on. In the previous version it was very frustrating because after a couple of this interactions I had to close gamesalad and open again, otherwise a simple "back" from an actor properties to the scene could take up to several minutes as opposed to the near instantaneous it should be.
I never complained and I waited for the next version wish I assumed at the time that would take care of this huge problem that must affect all users resulting in thousands of extra "waiting" hours.
My first game for iPad was built under this conditions and I'm building the iPhone version of the same game but decided that no time or patience anymore so better wait for the next version of Gamesalad.
I was very happy to hear about the new release, specially when I read the release notes stating "performance improvements". Now, after some hours on it I see that nothing has improved. I've rebuilt the iPad version and the runtime performance issue is still exactly the same.
On the Creator part, I actually thing it got worse that it was before. I cannot understand why a scene that has bellow 20 actors can preform so badly.
Just in case you are wondering, I currently run Gamesalad on a Dual Core iMac 27" with 8Gb of RAM (late 2009 model) so I'm pretty sure it's not my machine to blame.
Because I find it hard to believe that such problem was not addressed I have to ask all of you. Do you have the same problem ? Is there some configuration I can make to improve this?
To finish, I would also like to add another disappointment on this new version, the Loading Screen. White seems a very bad color but the worst part is that most of the times it stays white for 1 to 3 seconds giving the sensation it crashed. Also, sometimes, it crashes after the video, before I can even see my first screen.
Any input, opinion, suggestion is welcome.
Comments
Loading Screen: They have stated that it should not be taking 1-3 seconds to load & that they would look into that. I am guessing this is a bug & will be fixed shortly.
Thank you for your very reasonably worded post. To answer one of your later questions, so far I've noticed most people have reported performance improvements, some have said it's about the same, and 1 other person has reported that it got worse for him. (So, total of 2 now that I've seen). I am not a customer service person but if you make a request ("Contact us," below), I think Codemonkey may have some useful suggestions for you. If nothing else, we can at least keep track of what types of machine configurations are having problems (though so far it's a pretty small sample). The only thing I can immediately think of that might help you is to uninstall and reinstall. For whatever reason, that occasionally makes programs seem to work better. But do put in a customer service request.
About the loading screen being white -- I believe there were initial plans to make a black one and a white one, and we ended up only having time to do one. Having the option to choose between different background colors or at least having black added as an option is being heavily considered for a future release. The crash you describe toward the end of your post is definitely a heinous bug, which I believe got fixed already today and will be in the next release.
Than you for the quick reply.
On the performance part, it's not clear to wish one are you referring to.
The most critical one for me is actually the Creator one since it's the one that really makes the development process slow and tedious.
Are you referring to the slowness at runtime or on the Creator ?
Hello JGary321
Thank you for the hint. I'll try that one to see if it produces better results.
And yup...thanks JGary for that tip... will definately give it a go if its gonna make life easier
MH
This is becoming more and more strange. I've worked a couple of hours with your technic, meaning, instead of using the back button, I use the change scene button, but the outcome is still the same.
Especially actors with big scripts take minutes and minutes and I don't really understand why this release did not improve that. This is a editor, not a game engine that needs to calculate multiple frames per second, physics, etc., how can it be so slow.
dmcdowell, to be honest, I don't agree with your comment, there are not only two people complaining about the performance, there are more.
Are there any hidden configurations that we can tweek to improve performance? Like using more memory, etc.?
In the meantime, I made some more tests and there is one that I believe it's very conclusive that it's a problem in GameSalad and not anything related with my computer.
For that test, I used a actor that I call "Controller". This actor has all the overview of the level, checks if over, changes scenes, etc.
This actor is also the one with more "code".
On the computer side, I did a fresh boot and had no other applications running.
I open my project, open Level 1 Scene, a double click the "controller" actor.
It takes about 2 seconds to open and then it lags a bit while it's closing the behavior groups and after like 3 to 4 seconds I'm ready to work. I don't change anything and I press the back button to go back to the scene and it takes like 1 to 2 seconds to be back on the scene fully operational.
Then I work on the project for 5 to 10 mins (normal think, adjusting actors and creating levels)
After that, I go back to level 1 scene and I do exactly the same thing on the "controller" actor and just to open it takes between 5 and 12 minutes.
While it does that, it consumes all available processor power but not much memory, there is still several Gb of memory available.
If I simply quit gamesalad, re-open, and repeat, it's fast again.
I believe this is clear that something BAD get accumulated within the Creator as we work on it and the more we work, the slower it becomes.
I believe this is something that should have TOP PRIORITY.
I like the new publishing wizard, it's nice but I could live with a BAD one since I don't publish every minute or every hour. What cannot be is that I have to quit game salad every 5 minutes (max) and re-open just to have a decent performance on the creator.
If you want, I can demo it, build a video and show it to you.
One additional comment. The slow performance is not only on this specific actor. I used it as an example but all actions of opening actors, changing scenes and returning from preview get slow and slow by the minute and they are all back to normal if I do a quit/open of gamesalad.
I've also checked with other gamesalad developers and they all have the same issue.
This is the first version of the creator I have used, so I don't have a reference point in terms of versions.
Typically I can work for about 10-15 minutes, before I notice a slowdown. Once that starts the more often I switch between editing an actor and the scene editor, the slower things get. Clicking on a more complex actor takes much longer to load the actor editor than a simple actor (but when the creator is first started, all actors load quickly). I checked RAM usage and it doesn't seem to be that bad, typically the Creator uses around 80-110 megs, but I still have plenty of free RAM even when the creator is slow. I noticed that the CPU usage goes through the roof when the creator is slowly trying to load the actor editor.
My game is moderately complex, around 30 actors with a few of them having around 50 behaviors/rules. Editing those actors loads very quickly when I restart the creator, but after opening and closing those actors 5 or more times, things slow down.
I typically restart the creator every 15 minutes.
Basically, I spend 80% waiting, 20% creating/working ... that is not good!
An improvement would be nice ...
It's fair to say that I am looking into Unity just to get rid of the lagg!
Any news on when a fix for this will surface would be most appreciated!
I am glad to have a fast Mac but still, a complex game is not feasible as things are now unless one is after a Guiness record as the most patient coder?
;o)
thanks