Inconsistencies on GS Publishing & Game Performance

iKandy

I have a billiard-type game using balls and physics. It plays really smooth in the GS Creator.
The problem is in the ad-hoc build-- it plays sluggishly, the game play stutters, etc.

So I did a little experimenting, rearranging of levels-- "optimizing" so-to-speak,
published an ad-hoc-- and to my surprise the problem was fixed!

So now I'm adding stuff the game, published several more builds that worked fine.

Finally, I'm happy with the game. I'm getting ready to publish the game to iTunes.
I published another ad-hoc test--- sluggish performance PROBLEM RETURNS!

This leads me to believe that the problem is created on the GameSalad side (when publishing)
and not my file.

Is this possible?
Had anybody else experienced this?

It's driving me nuts.

KodeRiter722

The thing is (and you may or may not already know this) that your computer has a LOT more RAM and a LOT faster processor than any phone/iDevice can possibly have. So if something is running smoothly in the GS creator it is not a good indication of its performance on an ad-hoc build. You really need to test on an actual device (using iOS Viewer) for accurate performance testing.

The best advice I can give is to frequently test on a device during development (and keep many versions of your app saved). This will help you to identify issues as they arise, and will make for much less frustrating debugging.

If this is not the problem than I apologize...I have a lot of tables being used in my games and being accessed with attributes in row/column names, and i f I ever mess around and one of my attributes tells it to access a column or row that doesn't exist then my game will slow to a crawl. Even tiny errors like missing quotations or commas or parenthesis in a single block of code can make your entire game behave strangely...

iKandy

yes, KodeRiter-- the RAM/performance on the computer vs iphone is common sense.

The weird thing about my problem is.... I take the same file that worked fine yesterday, publish it today and it's screwed up.

The only thing I can think of is restart the computer, with all the applications off, and try again. Or... it's an issue on the GameSalad side.

iKandy

... Restarting the computer, etc.... didn't work.

KodeRiter722

when you say the same file worked fine yesterday, do you mean it worked fine when you tested on a device? If you're game is running smoothly in the Creator and not in the ad-hoc build do you think there is any chance that you have some bad logic somewhere. One of my CS professors loves to say, "Computers don't do what you want them to do, they do what you tell them to do..." Have you tested in GS viewer and watched the Memory usage? Can you give us the numbers on that?

iKandy

The Gamesalad file published on device yesterday worked fine.
The EXACT SAME Gamesalad file published on a device today works terrible.

iKandy

Frames per second fluctuates between 60 and 9.
images 10 mb
sounds 2.2 mb
engine 3.4 mb
other 9.2 mb
TOTAL 25 MB

SingleSparq

I'm confused what we are talking about. Is it adhoc or iOS Viewer App? - IF were talking Adhoc build you wouldn't know the Frame information you show as that only shows up using the App viewer method.

IF you say the file Published yesterday worked fine but the same file published today doesn't - what do you mean by publish? I would only use the 'publish' word in an AdHoc sense.

"The Gamesalad file published on device yesterday worked fine.
The EXACT SAME Gamesalad file published on a device today works terrible."

If it was Adhoc and no changes were made why would you publish it again? If your not referring to Adhoc then any number of things can affect the performance between Mac and iOS viewer I would suppose. I think some clarity is needed.

imGua

I have sluggish Ad Hoc performance on iPhone, when I don't close GS Viewer on the device.

SingleSparq

I have sluggish Ad Hoc performance on iPhone, when I don't close GS Viewer on the device.

Not sure why that would be. If your running the adhoc then your not running the viewer (and vice versa). Your adhoc and viewer are self containeded apps and technically all other apps you may have running do not affect it as they are in a suspended mode. Only if other apps giving notices or emails coming in do I see a disruption with a running app.

Only possible thing would be freeing up memory by quitting other apps (some people dispute this though).