Do I need to buy a Mac and do I need to change the supplier of my templates?
scottwood
Member, PRO Posts: 68
My subscription only started a couple of days ago, so I’m still very new to Gamesalad. To avoid wasted effort I’d appreciate your advice on a couple of things - should I change to a Mac and do I need to change the source of the templates I’m going to use.
Gamesalad seems to lock up and crash more often with a particular game template – but not when the code is being run, when it is being edited.
Is this likely to be a feature of the template or of Gamesalad itself?
Is the Mac version of Gamesalad generally more stable than the PC version?
I know Macs are very nice and all - but I’ve never used a Mac, I know PC’s well and I already have a reasonably good one to use. I may buy a Mac in the future for App publishing purposes, or if the ability to copy and paste between Gamesalad projects becomes more of an issue, but I’d rather avoid this if I can.
The template was bought from gshelper.com. I don’t think it is fair to name the supplier as I don’t know if it is their code that is causing the problem and I have not even contacted them about the issue yet.
Comments
It's a bit of a dicey time to be buying GameSalad. The Mac version has been the preferable version for most of the company's history. It allows for testing and publishing of projects and has had the most support. In the past few years, the PC version added features that the Mac didn't yet have. There was talk of bringing both on par.
At this point, the company is focused on the educational market and has created a web version of Creator that is in beta. I have a ton of experience with Creator as a Desktop tool (on the Mac) and I'd say that the web version isn't ready for prime time. But it's getting there. Slowly.
The plans are to move forward with the web version so I'd recommend making sure you're happy with how that works for you:
https://creator.gamesalad.com
New to GameSalad? (FAQs) | Tutorials | Templates | Greenleaf Games | Educator & Certified GameSalad User
Thanks @tatiang I'm still blundering about, watching tutorials etc - so it doesn't take much throw me off track. I had a quick look at the web version and quickly decided I preferred to use the desktop version for now as it is easier to follow the tutorials (almost all on Mac).
Once I feel more confident I'll spend some time with the online version. It makes a lot of sense, provided it has all the same features and reliability.
I was just wondering if the frequent crashes I'm getting are a problem with the template I've started trying with. My guess is not, because crashes occur when the code is not actually being run, just edited. I tried using a different template but there was a problem with the download and there is no .gsproj file!
I realized I didn't directly address your template question. If a project file is crashing Creator, it typically means that the memory usage is faulty. An example of this might be an endless loop that spawns actors or a table lookup that attempts to access row number zero. But if, as you said, it's crashing when editing the file... well, it's likely some other incompatibility. I can tell you that used to happen all the time with the Mac version (years ago, not recently) but I am not as familiar with the PC version. I still wouldn't expect it to crash frequently.
Mac templates are not going to have a .gsproj extension. The Mac extension is .gameproj. But you should still be able to open a file made for one platform on the other.
New to GameSalad? (FAQs) | Tutorials | Templates | Greenleaf Games | Educator & Certified GameSalad User
I would recommend getting in contact with the template vendor. Most times, they will be happy to fix the issue. They might not even be aware of the issue.
I you don't get a reply back, you can try contacting the GShelper Support. Although, sometimes you get a reply, sometimes you don't hear back (in which case you can contact GameSalad Team directly).
Best,
GSLearn.com | Templates | Free Demos | Udemy Course
In my personal experience, the Windows version is very unstable and buggy. Buying a Mac if you are going to be doing more development is probably a good investment, but not necessarily just for GameSalad's sake. Who knows what's going to be up with GS in a year.
The template in question is Endless Golf by @Two.E
So if anyone knows this vendor, I for one would like to personally shame them in person.
Best,
Two.E
(Currently looking for a solution that might be linked when the transfer from Mac version to PC occurs)
GSLearn.com | Templates | Free Demos | Udemy Course
What does this mean? I take it your template works fine on a Mac but crashes on a PC...?
New to GameSalad? (FAQs) | Tutorials | Templates | Greenleaf Games | Educator & Certified GameSalad User
Yes. No issues on Mac previewing or editing.
On PC it previews fine. But trying to open actors to edit logic, GS just crashes. Its not even the same actor each time.
GSLearn.com | Templates | Free Demos | Udemy Course
strange. @pHghost it's a bumme ryou find the PC version unstable. I almost use the PC version exclusively and only use mac during the publishing process and I don't have any issues with it. Plus whenever apple does this something I am completely unaffected.
There may well not be a general problem. The same template, the same GS installation, the same machine, everything - and now it seems to be behaving fine. It could have been pure chance that a particular project was loaded each time a background process on the machine such as an update was causing a problem.
The initial post was just trying to find out if, overall, I'm wasting my time sticking with a PC or should bite the bullet and purchase a Mac. Judging by the comments from @fmakawa this is not necessarily the case.
I was also concerned to make sure the template was well coded, before I wasted time working out how to edit it. I'm guessing some templates sources are more reliable and well commented than others. I've now corresponded with the author (@Two.W) for advice on how to approach something, and judging from how helpful he/she was I have chosen well.
Thanks for your help
Not all behaviours are the same on Mac and PC. I think that PC doesn't have either numeric expression, or text expression in a rule? This can cause problems, yeah.
You must be quite lucky then. I've seen crazy stuff on the Windows version. Perhaps it's better now, this was at least 6 months back.
But the biggest problem is usually moving a project between Mac and PC. If you are working in a team and each of you have a different machine -- not good. The PC starts messing things around. Images and sounds get corrupted, logic blocks stop working... eesh. My skins still crawls from remembering when I was trying to figure out WTH went wrong.
I've only used the mac version and though it can crash, its pretty predictable. Save before you run a preview kind of stuff...
I have only used the PC version the whole time using Gamesalad, and I have almost never had a problem with it, in terms of what is being discussed. Sometimes the bug of ''file is newer than creator'' happens to new projects, but that is rarely. Haven't had one in months, (but I have been sticking with the same file so who knows if it was fixed.) I must be lucky. Basically, I can achieve anything I want with the PC version usually, so I would advise saving your money. Got any questions? Since I have used the PC version a while I might be able to help.
P.S. I don't know much about tables so please don't ask me about them. Lol.
@scottwood I'm not sure that I would trust that link above.
It looks a bit sus to me?
Could be click bait spam... but I'm not game to try it.
Edit: I guess a Moderator removed it. Good, so no-one gets taken.