GS's 'animate' is screwed !

Clouds

"ps I never said what a bloody elegant demo 'frame rates04' was."

Lol ! I'm selling it as a 'fully working template' (with art) - $10.99 . . . . if you go for the premium package at $15.99 you get the projects I made working out the interpolate bug. 8-X

Rob2

Precisely again.. Basically there is a wifi link being maintained and data sent/provided every screen update/frame/second whatever that is not happening with an adhoc but the effect should be consistent .

Clouds

Going off topic here a little . .

So I take it Ad Hocs tend to run a little smoother than the Wi-Fi linked viewer ?

gyroscope

Hallooo; interesting conversation over here! Another drink? Oh, you all seem OK...

Can I add here: when the viewer is connected to the mac with a usb lead, GS loads the whole game into the viewer which then has the lot in the devices' RAM (at least it does that on my iPad); I can unplug the usb cable if I want and carry on playing for as long as I like... or have I missed the point here?

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iPad app: End of the Earth –•– http://davidgriffinapps.co.uk/
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Rob2

Once I behaviour is running I don't think there is any difference but certainly who knows what little glitches and ticks the different builds could throw up. It is the same engine running the same code but there are different connections around that could cause slight differences. Thats why I said 'in this case' because I understand your problem and know that an adhoc will make very little or no difference. If I'm wrong you can beat me.

Rob2

its wifi Gyro but of course. Load game and turn off wifi for a better test Tynan.

edit: me doh doh doh.

Clouds

@Rob2

"Load game and turn off wifi for a better test Tynan."

Yep, that's what I normally do, pass the project over via Wi-Fi and then break the connection before running the project.

The_Gamesalad_Guru

Isn't the GS viewer basically an emulator? And as we all know emulators suck. I am not sure of the specifics of a published GS file if it runs on an emulator on the device when published but if not then there would be a big difference.

Clouds

I just left a simple project running that displayed the time (actor's self.time) - I left this running for 40 minutes.

I can say without a shadow of a doubt that GS's time is rock solid, measured against a timer on my phone and the Mac's own clock it remained absolutely locked.

I ran my frame rate test - with the actor displaying the time - the time, predictably, kept solidly locked to the Mac's clock and external time references - and over a period of 20 minutes the grouped frame rates 29 - 28 - 27 - 26 - 25 - 24 - 23 - 22 - 21 fps . . . . & . . . . 19 - 18 - 17 - 16 fps . . . . & . . . . 14 - 13 fps remained locked together.*

My conclusion is that Gamesalad's frame rates really are screwed up, they bear little relationship to what you set them at - and even bear little relationship to each other.

*although after 20 minutes or so you noticed 29 fps and 28 fps are slowly drifting away from their 'group' (but not by much).

The_Gamesalad_Guru

@Tynan so was that doing a change image thing instead of animate?

Clouds

@Tynan so was that doing a change image thing instead of animate?

No, I am testing the accuracy of the frame rates in the 'animate' behaviour, so it would be no use using 'change image'.

I can now see why your 10 fps sound to animation sync stuff (over 30 frames or less) looks just fine (and super cute ) - that's because GameSalad's 10 fps animate slider control plays back the frames at exactly 9.1 fps - and we are unlikely to notice that the sync is out by 1 frame at 1 second, 2 frames at 2 seconds and 3 frames at 3 seconds . . . over 30 frames.

Here are GameSalad's claimed animate frame rates and the actual playback frame rates - the fastest animate will do to is 23.5 fps - I'd say (subjectively) that 12 fps and lower will look reasonably accurate over short durations (2 or 3 seconds) and 4 fps and lower are running at the correct speed . . . . go above 12 fps and - short of a lower frame rate playing back faster than a higher one - the frame rates are practically arbitrary (although this guide might help someone somewhere):



30 fps = 23.5 fps (9.99971)

29 fps = 20.1 fps (10.004)

28 fps = 20.1 fps (10.001)

27 fps = 20.1 fps

26 fps = 20.1 fps

25 fps = 20.1 fps

24 fps = 20.1 fps

23 fps = 20.1 fps

22 fps = 20.1 fps

21 fps = 20.1 fps

20 fps = 16.5 fps

19 fps = 15.1 fps

18 fps = 15.1 fps

17 fps = 15.1 fps

16 fps = 15.1 fps

15 fps = 12.9 fps

14 fps = 12.1 fps

13 fps = 12.1 fps

12 fps = 10.9 fps

11 fps = 10.1 fps

10 fps = 9.1 fps

9 fps = 8.6 fps

8 fps = 7.6 fps

7 fps = 6.7 fps

6 fps = 5.7 fps

5 fps = 4.8 fps

4 fps = 4 fps

3 fps = 3 fps

2 fps = 2 fps

1 fps = 1 fps

The_Gamesalad_Guru

@Tynan Thanks for doing all this work! So then; if these rates, as you say, are rock solid as to their offset, then if I audio synced my animations at 9 frames a second and then ran them in GS at their ten frames setting it should be very accurate. Am I correct in my assumption?

Clouds

@FryingBaconStudios

@Tynan Thanks for doing all this work! So then; if these rates, as you say, are rock solid as to their offset, then if I audio synced my animations at 9 frames a second and then ran them in GS at their ten frames setting it should be very accurate. Am I correct in my assumption?

Yep, you are spot on, working in your audio and video applications at 9 fps . . . . and then using GS's 10 fps animate behaviour should see everything playback at 9 fps (or near enough).


In fact as you have been working at 10 fps . . . you can simply carry on working at 10 fps . . . but stick GS's animate on 11 fps (which plays at 10.1 fps).

The_Gamesalad_Guru

Perfect! Yeah I just picked any number as an analogy.

Clouds

Perfect! Yeah I just picked an number as an analogy.

. . . . as for me, my 25fps animations are going to have to be played at 23.5 fps . . . . or 30 fps as it's known !!

I simply can't wait to say that to someone wanting to know why their little animation is out of sync with something else . . . "Just play your 25 fps clip at 30 fps so it plays at 23.5 fps" ! Lol !!

The_Gamesalad_Guru

@Tynan..LMAO

anithmuk

Great thread, @tynan good effort on doing all that work and clearing things up! I just started playing around with animations/movies and such in GS and was wondering why all my 30fps animations just didn't look right at all. I assumed it was just some bug or stutter in the creator/viewer. Guess I'm going to have to sync everything at 20fps now.

Clouds

Guess I'm going to have to sync everything at 20fps now.

Don't forget that animate's 20 fps runs at 16.5 fps . . . . . so if you want to work at 20 fps use animate's 21 fps (or any animate frame rate from 21 fps to 29 fps).


)

anithmuk

Guess I'm going to have to sync everything at 20fps now.

Don't forget that animate's 20 fps runs at 16.5 fps . . . . . so if you want to work at 20 fps use animate's 21 fps (or any animate frame rate from 21 fps to 29 fps).


)

Haha, oh man, my brain's starting to hurt

The_Gamesalad_Guru

Okay let me simplify the process. Create your animations at 20 FPS and sync them to your audio at 20FPS then when you bring them into GS set their animation frame rate to 21FPS easy.

anithmuk

yeah dw I got it before, I was just joking haha But thanks for the help

The_Gamesalad_Guru

No problem, just more of a general post for all.