How many moving actors can Gamesalad handle?

emf715

I know it won't be an exact number, but around how many independently moving and colliding actors can Game Salad handle at once?

My focus is on iPad games, if that makes a difference...

quantumsheep

I think it really depends on a lot of things:

1. How complex the rules on the actors are
2. Are you spawning new actors or moving them off screen?
3. Are you using a lot of timers?

etc etc.

Performance is also improving slightly with each release, so eventually it'll be good enough to do a bullet hell shooter (please, GS - Make it so!)

Hope that helps,

QS

GamersRejoice

As far as I can tell that is impossible to figure out. There are way too many factors involved. Rules, behaviors, images, etc... All of these have an effect on the performance of the game and device. Start testing and see what you can get away with.

emf715

Thanks for the quick responses.

A tangential question: how much of a drop-off is there in performance in the built in viewer, vs on an actual iPad?
Does that make sense? For example, in my first game, Pico Firme Bago (download it!), I was surprised to see a loading icon when changing scenes on an actual iPad. There was never any delay in the viewer.

GamersRejoice

The viewer and the device behave differently, you really need to test on the device of choice to get an accurate representation.

TwistedMech

On an ipad I would avoid more than 50 32x32 characters. Avoid spawn/destroy and keep in mind that music and sound fx will cause performance drop off.

quantumsheep

TwistedMech said:
On an ipad I would avoid more than 50 32x32 characters. Avoid spawn/destroy and keep in mind that music and sound fx will cause performance drop off.

That makes me cry! I so wanted to do an iPad bullet hell shooter!

Bah!

QS

JGary321

quantumsheep said:
That makes me cry! I so wanted to do an iPad bullet hell shooter!

Bah!

QS

+1