It seems that the behavior "spawactor" causes jerk

galban

It seems that the behavior "spawactor" causes jerk. I created an actor "canon" in my game that missiles every 5 seconds. When I test my game on IPAD, the scrolling jerks every 5 seconds (even with 3 or 4 canons...). if i delete canons in my game, the scrolling is smooth

how to avoid this effect please ?

StusApps

Make them be already there but invisible with an alpha set to 0, then just change their alpha to 1 when they appear.

firemaplegames

Yes, spawning is processor intensive. Especially if the cannonballs have Rules in them.

If possible, move the collision Rules to the Actors that the cannonball is supposed to hit, rather than in the cannonball itself.

A better method would be to have your cannonballs already sitting off-screen. When you fire the cannon, simply move them to the right place. When the cannon ball is destroyed, move it back off-screen instead of destroying it.

quantumsheep

I just love the title of this thread

JamesZeppelin

Also anything with a sound can cause a hiccup

Is it noticeably worse on the very first time?

If that's the case you can fix it by having it's sound play one time at no volume when the level loads so that the sound doesn't load into the memory during the middle of gameplay

But again that is only if it is worse the first time

galban

Thanks , I'll test alpha = 0 and alpha = 1

galban

Do you know if there are a sample with the method of "StusApps " on gamesalad forum
Because it's easy with one canon, but if there are 10 canons how to determine the cannonballs to use ?

StusApps

galban said:
Do you know if there are a sample with the method of "StusApps " on gamesalad forum
Because it's easy with one canon, but if there are 10 canons how to determine the cannonballs to use ?

I don't really know the specifics of your game, but if you have 10 canons then create 10 global boolean attributes (one for each). When the canon needs to be visible set that attribute to true, within each canon have a rule to change to visible when that attribute is true.

galban

In my game, my canons spawactor "fire"
if i place 10 instances of actors "fires" on the screen, i don't know how to determine what fire display because all instances have the same name "fire"

galban

this technic seems very complicated. if i use it, i must change all the levels of my game

In the manual, i can read "Spaw actor" : good for "firing" projectilles.
So i don't understand why it's causes jerk, even if my projectilles have not rules !

StusApps

oh i see. It's the canon ball that is spawning, not the canon.

How big is the graphic for the ball?

galban

No, png 12*26

StusApps

very strange. In break beat I was spawning about 8 (15x15) balls every 4 seconds as well as spawning a load of 80x80 blocks at the same time. The only time that would cause slowdown was when there were already a load of actors already on the screen. What's the current memory and fps like when just running the game without the cannons firing?

galban

whithout the canons my game is perfect.