Big Trouble and little file size.
emeryemery
Member Posts: 4
I had created a very simple slideshow style app. It had 41 scenes and it laid out like this. Picture, quote, picture, quote and so on.
Well, I had spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to make a simple slideshow that progressed to the next scene with a simple tap of the screen. I had a lot of trial and error with creating PNGs that fit perfectly on the scene. After much testing and retesting, I settled into a really good groove and figured out how to make the images just right so no resizing was required ad the quality was clean.
So I deleted all the images from my project and started over with new smaller images. Oddly, even though I had deleted these images, when I would import the new optimized images, the GameSalad would ask me if I wanted to replace the images. While it was odd that it was replacing images I had already deleted in the project, I thought, just as well. Now I know I am getting rid of the older, larger images.
Also, the GameSalad app really slows down when you have 41 scenes and 41 actors that are each full frame (320X480) images. It took 1 to 2 minutes to switch between scenes but I got through it and had my app done and tested it on my iPhone.
So the initial App was 26MB and loaded a bit too slow. I knew that made no sense and after seeing that the iPhone App store will not let you download anything larger than 20MB when on 3G, I knew I had fix this.
So I decided to make a new project and try from scratch. What I did was re create my images so that I had the following configuration.
22 picture PNGs and 21 quotes in text on a transparent PNG. Each Quote scene uses the BackGround.png with the text PNG laid on top of that. The pictures are the same as they had been in the initial build.
By building my app from scratch and creating a new project file and changing the quote design to use the same BackGround image in each, I ended up with a 6MB App instead of a 26MB file.
There is no way the simple BG image trick made that big of a difference. GameSalad is obviously in beta for a reason. It was retaining those images and rolling them into the final App.
Be careful how you build your app. Make sure you have your images optimized and designed the way you want them in your final app or you will get a really bloated final design.
Well, I had spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to make a simple slideshow that progressed to the next scene with a simple tap of the screen. I had a lot of trial and error with creating PNGs that fit perfectly on the scene. After much testing and retesting, I settled into a really good groove and figured out how to make the images just right so no resizing was required ad the quality was clean.
So I deleted all the images from my project and started over with new smaller images. Oddly, even though I had deleted these images, when I would import the new optimized images, the GameSalad would ask me if I wanted to replace the images. While it was odd that it was replacing images I had already deleted in the project, I thought, just as well. Now I know I am getting rid of the older, larger images.
Also, the GameSalad app really slows down when you have 41 scenes and 41 actors that are each full frame (320X480) images. It took 1 to 2 minutes to switch between scenes but I got through it and had my app done and tested it on my iPhone.
So the initial App was 26MB and loaded a bit too slow. I knew that made no sense and after seeing that the iPhone App store will not let you download anything larger than 20MB when on 3G, I knew I had fix this.
So I decided to make a new project and try from scratch. What I did was re create my images so that I had the following configuration.
22 picture PNGs and 21 quotes in text on a transparent PNG. Each Quote scene uses the BackGround.png with the text PNG laid on top of that. The pictures are the same as they had been in the initial build.
By building my app from scratch and creating a new project file and changing the quote design to use the same BackGround image in each, I ended up with a 6MB App instead of a 26MB file.
There is no way the simple BG image trick made that big of a difference. GameSalad is obviously in beta for a reason. It was retaining those images and rolling them into the final App.
Be careful how you build your app. Make sure you have your images optimized and designed the way you want them in your final app or you will get a really bloated final design.
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