Making game faster -sluggish gameplay after ad hoc tested

Zombiebrains

Hi guys

Yesterday I make a adhoc version of my first major game to test on my iPhone. I gave the latest Os 5.1 and also bought Lion do the the Xcode part worked....all ok so far.

When I switched my phone back on and started to play my game, the graphics were so sluggish it was terrible.

When I built it I used the right size gfx rules and if a graphic is not to be used I turned visibility off and if it was not to
Move I turned off 'Moveable' in the physics part.

My question is...are there any other good tips to help save memory and processing power as it works fine in Gamesalad but not too well on my iphone4 with OS 5.1.

Thanks guys

MotherHoose

optimize your images:

ImageAlpha
ImageOptim
both are free and work wonderfully
do with the contents of the gameProject's image folder
(right-click on the projectFile > Show Package Contents > images )

devices have less resources than your desktop computer.
uncheck all preload art …

use a changeAttribute behavior: self.Image … rather than a changeImage behavior
(seems that changeImage behaviors load the image at scene load)
use Graphics: Flip Horizontally/Vertically instead of the two separate images for an actor

try to use the same actors over again
EX: one background actor
that you drag to each scene
and do something like change the instance name to the image name for that scene
then add as first behavior: changeAttribute: self.Image To: self.Name

use tables to store values/parameters (imageName; Width; Height; X; Y; etc.) of your actors
better 10 tables … which are just data references … than 10 rules on each actor

good that you want your game to be the best it can be! … @Zombiebrains

MH

scitunes

The other things that hurt frame rates are the number of movable actors in a scene, the amount of constrains used, and the amount of timers running. In my experience the number of moving actors seems to cause the biggest problems and if those moving actors each have constrains or timers in them you can get into all kinds of trouble. I always try to find ways to recycle actors. So in a platformer you could have bad guys set up so that instead of 50 bad guys placed in the level as instances you only put the amount in that will be on the screen at the same time. Then when a bad guy leaves the screen you use a change attribute behavior to move the bad guy further along in the level. To the player it will seem like a new bad guy but it will allow you to have fewer moving actors in the scene.

scitunes

Try removing the actors that you think are causing the problems and see what effect it has. That will help you find your culprit.

Zombiebrains

Thanks MH

I will look to make some of those changes and let you know if things improve!

ZB

Zombiebrains

Thanks for that useful info Scitunes

I do have a few actors in my scene which I have spawned actors on a timer, this is to create a cool shadow snake effect...I will have to look at a different was of showing that as I suspect they are to blam for my very poor frame rates.

Zombiebrains

Yeah, I have a few ideas on the culprit.

I have these cool rainbow effect spawn actors. I also have a triple parallax starfield with multiple actors being generated and I think I forgot to say after the sprites are off screen to destroy them so that might be one thing...

A question...what difference does it make with ticking or unticking 'Preload image'option?