Loading times......again

Sparkyidr

hmmm
having a bit of trouble.

We all know that GS stuff takes an age to load at times, but the latest thing I am working on is really taking the pish.

I havde a single scene, with 16 button actors, a splash screen actor, and an info screen actor.
16 ogg files, and a few rules to play those oggs.

When I send the file to the viewer on the phone, once it's sent, the screen stays black for a good 30 seconds (so much so that I thought the viewer had crashed) before it "starts".
Did an ad-hoc build, and that takes 30-40 seconds to load......much longer than anything else I have built before.

The project is 3.5 meg

My other stuff is 7meg, and almost 10 meg, and they load so much quicker.

Is it cos I have EVERYTHING in a single scene. I.e title screen, info screen, play screen are all in a single double width scene?

30 odd seconds to load is a bit of a killer, would be pointless for me to release it like that.

Sparks.

scitunes

There was a post recently about ogg files. There was a ton of info that was a bit over my head, but it seems that with compressed audio like ogg files the game engine has to uncompress them during the scene load so that they can be played during the scene. Maybe that's your issue. Try removing the ogg files and see what happens.

scorelessmusic

I just did a project with GS that involves probably 200+ ogg files in a single scene. It works and remained stable even after a burn-in test (left the scene playing overnight.... no crashes, was still smooth in the morning, no leaks I suppose)

However, the load time is considerable going into that scene. Still, I would say it wasn't as long as 30 seconds. I'll time it the next time I get the chance.

BTW, that project has been compiled and sent to the App Store. Hope for a smooth clearance! I'm making a 'lite' version for the web for everyone to sample it.

JCFord

I have a similar set up a single scene with over 24 buttons and 24 ogg files, when I port it over to the iphone its 3mb but I do not have any delays?

make sure your oggs are 22mhz and mono and maybe set the compression to minimum on the files.

Sparkyidr

yeah, it's deffo the oggs causing the issue.
@JCFord, what do you use to convert your ogg files?

I'm saving them in soundforge on my pc, and I don't get a whole deal of options.

jonmulcahy

download audacity, it's free and allows you to do all sorts of things
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Sparkyidr

actually.. I have a different question too.

I have some audio files I want to loop.SO I create the wavs, and then convert them to aac/m4a

and they don't loop properly (I am using some drum loops, so they need to loop correctly)
So as a test, I imported the m4a into garageband, and set up some loop points, and it looked like a small bit of blank space at the end of the sample, and it was looping ok, so I exported it from GB and reimported into GS...and low and behold, it doesn't loop properly still.

The same wav, I convert to ogg, stick it in GS and set to loop, and it's perfect.
Anyone know of a decent way to export as m4a without adding and extra space into the file

JamesZeppelin

I'm wondering if you're sounds are a little too "high def"

just a thought

And yes I agree.

Audigy is great for quickly saving and shrinking down your files.

If you are used to protools/cubase/cakewalk/etc the interface will be really easy.

Sparkyidr

yeah, I'm probably being a little anal with the quality.
Just grabbed Audacity, so will have a look at what it can do for me.
I use Cubase every day, so am hoping it'll all make sense )

quantumsheep

Sparky,

Come to think of it, I've noticed a slight delay before my music restarts too. Must be a bug, as I edit it in Audacity to cut off any silence at the beginning/end.

Maybe someone at GS could have a look?

Cheers,

QS

JCFord

@Sparkyidr
I use Audacity on the mac, its free and can export to ogg.

scitunes

I gave up on looping because of that bug. I still select loop but I create an audio file that I think will be long enough for most plays (therefore only the really great gamers hear the glitch).

scorelessmusic

*sigh* I think I'm really pushing GS to its limits with my current music project. It's not compiling properly now. Was hoping to put up a web version for everyone to take a look (or listen) at a project that really drives the ogg limits, as well as looping. Wish me luck as I look into it in a couple of hours!

Sparkyidr

yeah, the looping thing is driving me nuts.
I don't think it's a bug with GS tho, I think it's more an issue with the m4a/aac conversion process.

I load a wav into garage band, and edit the start and end, and check that it loops, then export to m4a.. and gs doesn't loop it...so i then load that m4a into garage band, and there is a little "extra" on the end of the file!!!

I tried exporting to m4a in Audacity, but that seems to cut off a fraction of a ms from the START of the file.

Oggs seem to convert, and hence loop, properly...but then I have the uber long load on the scene.
Been a reeeeeeeeealy frustrating afternoon/evening.

quantumsheep

scorelessmusic

Finally! Managed to do a web version (trial). It's still not perfect, and I'm really driving the GS engine with this one. Since the random function isn't really working, I had to employ a creative workaround, and there are really hundreds of .ogg loaded as Mozart To Three (and Mozart To Infinity) isn't joking about assembling music on-the-fly.

In my compiled test on my iPhone, music loops smoothly and infinitely. We left it on overnight as we slept and it was still chugging along in the morning. (testing Mozart To Infinity)

You can check out Mozart To Three here:

http://gamesalad.com/game/play/42878