Optimizing: Something for everyone

outasiteoutasite Member Posts: 417
edited November -1 in Working with GS (Mac)
Music
- You can use Audacity (a free program) to shrink your sound file sizes. To do so, download and open Audacity. Then change the bit rate settings for saving. File > Preferences (or Command+P). Then choose the "File Formats" tab and decreases the Bit Rate setting from 128k to as small as you can until the file begins to loose sound quality. 64k cuts your file size in half, and still sounds pretty good.

Art
- Retina: All pictures should be retina ready. All you have to do I make the picture size double what it says in GameSalad. For example a retina background will be 960x480 while your screen size in GameSalad is 480x320. GameSalad will do everything for you.
File Size: Be sure that your files are compressed as small as possible. If using a program such as Photoshop, this is really easy. File > Save for Web and Devices then change your settings (ie, the file type and compression).
Power of 2: This rule can be helpful but is not crucial. Its of biggest help when your game implements a lot of moving objects to reduce memory size. For this, all you have to do is make sure that your images’ dimensions fall in between the powers of 2 (2,4,8,16,32,64,128,256,512,1024, etc). So an image in dimensions of 24x30 will use a 32x32 amount of memory, and a 17x35 image will use 32x64. A better image size would be 16x32 so that it only uses 16x32 memory. Again this does help, but not crucial.
-Other programs: PunyPNG and ImageOPtim have also been found to help compress png files.
Cookbook: Image Optimization

*Note: You can always overwrite any image or sound with the new optimized files by just dragging the new files into GameSalad (as long as they have the same name).

GameSalad
Recycling: Excessive continuous spawning and responding of actors is NO good. So we save the world and recycle our actors. Basically instead of spawning an actor you will basically have it already on the scene but off and out of sight. Then when it is needed you move it on screen and do as you please. Then instead of destroying it move back off the screen until you need it again. Cookbook: Recycling
Instant Screen Reset: This is a really nice trick for removing that pesky little loading circle. Basically in every actor we make rules to save their starting position and other attributes. Then when you die, we set a boolean attribute to true and all actors are instantly reset to their starting area.
HREF="">Cookbook: Instant Reset
Visibility: If you are going to have any actors invisible, be sure to go into the actor attributes and uncheck visibility.
Movable: Be sure to uncheck moveable on all actors that are not moving as well.
Actors & Rules: Be sure to use a minimal amount of rules and actors in your game/scene.

Disclaimer: In no way do I want to take credit for anything posted on this thread. I only want to make the best and easiest program better for all.

I got a little tired towards the end a began to trail off. Be sure to post if you have any other ideas and have a better way of explaining and I will update the thread.
Thanks everyone and go get um.

Comments

  • osucowboy18osucowboy18 Member Posts: 1,307
    Great advice! Another way to cut down on an app's file size is to remove all unused actors/attributes/images. One way to quickly find out what actors/attributes/images aren't being used is to download Darren and Wayne's Project Optimizer tool. This great piece of software will help you cut down on your app's file size. I bought it, and I really helped me...I highly recommend it!

    - Alex
  • outasiteoutasite Member Posts: 417
    - Clean Up: A easy way to cut the file size of any project is to clean up! Just remove any and all unused actors, attributes, images, sounds, etc. Be sure to grab Project Otimizer over at DeepBlueApps.

    As stated from osucowboy it wouldn't let me update.

    I can't believe I forgot DeepBlue's Apps.

    Also if a moderator could move this to Working with GameSalad, pretty sure I posted in the wrong thread.
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