State of the Salad 03/2018

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  • JapsterJapster Member Posts: 672

    @adent42 said:
    @CasualEvolution I just put out a fix for Build RC. Try that one. That one should deliver Chartboost ads more effectively and fix a potential crash issue.

    Ironically, I forgot to mention, yeah, my app crashed once the other day too, for the first time ever - I did wonder.... :smile:

    Great news about the fix - hopefully my testing helped, but yeah, I hate pointers too, from my C++ days - powerful, but dangerous when they're wrong... :frowning:

    Right, I'm off to build again - Here goes nothing!

    Thanks again!

  • JapsterJapster Member Posts: 672

    Okay, built my app, and everything seems to work fine so far, with Ads showing, rewards, etc...

    HOWEVER.... ...and it's NEVER done this before, but now my game has several false starts? - Can you please check into it @adent42 , as it's honestly never done this before - iOS goes to launch it, and a split second later the app exits - happened about a dozen times to me! - if it actually loads up, it seems fine? - I'm also checking with my Beta testers now it's been approved for Beta testing...

    I uninstalled, and re-installed, and same problem...

    Weird, and worrying....

  • JapsterJapster Member Posts: 672
    edited June 2018

    For when you get in @adent42 - still consistently getting this, I really think something may have been introduced in the last build? - literally, I didn't even upload a fresh build at first, just rebuilt from my last uploaded project (that never crashed out/exited at startup), so not a thing had changed my end, but I'm now trying another build, and deselected RevMob (as they've STILL got my app status as 'pending' after SIX days, and completely ignored my emails... GRRR....) - Think they can do one, and I'll use ChartBoost and Admob instead....

    But I digress - will let you know the final outcome once I test this newly uploaded, none-RevMob enabled build...

    Cheers...

    UPDATE.... Well, that was weird.... I re-uploaded my app, rebuilt it, re-signed it, and now it's worked properly a dozen times on the trot... fingers crossed.... I'd even uninstalled the old, and re-installed the new, prior to that with no joy...

    Mind you, I'm now getting NO ads from Chartboost (I got 3 - 4 on the trot when first loaded, but now get an error every single time, even after exiting the app and trying again, several times), so I'll pop CB's Test Mode back on, and try again...

    EDIT:-

    Must've been Chartboost, sorry... Getting ads fine again this morning, on the same build... Apologies for hijacking the thread, but I genuinely thought it best to mention, in case it was an actual bug, like the previous one... :wink: Massive respect for being so open about that one, btw, @adent42 ... :smiley:

    In closing, so far, I'm REALLY happy with the current state of the RC, and just waiting for RevMob to sort their crap out, before I'll try testing that ad service out again...

  • adent42adent42 Key Master, Head Chef, Executive Chef, Member, PRO Posts: 3,172

    Yah, you might have been running the "current" build instead of the RC for the false starts. What you were likely seeing was the crash the RC was released to fix.

  • JapsterJapster Member Posts: 672

    @adent42 said:
    Yah, you might have been running the "current" build instead of the RC for the false starts. What you were likely seeing was the crash the RC was released to fix.

    Good point! - it was well late, and I was flagging, so it's a possibility... ;) Cheers @adent42 !

    Just been approved by Apple, so at least my changes are live in the App Store - thanks again, looking a lot more robust build - ads seem consistently reliable for Chartboost today... :smiley:

  • adent42adent42 Key Master, Head Chef, Executive Chef, Member, PRO Posts: 3,172

    FYI for all RC is now the main build, there is no more RC (at least for now). Cheers!

  • CasualEvolutionCasualEvolution Member, PRO Posts: 537

    Hi @adent42 I have some questions about diferents AD networks:

    • AdMob video reward are available? and are working?
    • AdMob has mediation too, we can use that? if yes, we can register other AD networks that are unsupported by GS and it canalize these trough AdMob ?
    • Tapdaq has video reward? sorry I not understand how it works, or is a mediation only? how we can use and maximice this feature.

    Sorry if all this must be obvious, but I am a "lite" confused, now I have Chartboost video reward working, but I want know if more options are available to crush the ADs
    Thanks

  • adent42adent42 Key Master, Head Chef, Executive Chef, Member, PRO Posts: 3,172

    No-ish. I put in some code to handle it, android, but we haven't tested it yet. I don't think I put the same code iOS. It's not a lot of work, but I really wanted to finish up GDPR. I'll see how much work it would be to get it into the next updates.
    No. We support no mediation on any network. I can look into making the mediation call for Admob, but it would only work for the networks that required no extra SDKs to hook into.
    Not sure. I'll look it up tomorrow, but actually couldn't get Tapdaq working beyond knowing it correctly called the initialization callback but had no ads for me. I never looked deeply into Tapdaq to see if they had their own ads beyond the mediated ads.

    Sorry I'm not more helpful at this time. As a future plan, I'm going to investigate using either Tapdaq or another mediation based network that supports all of our existing networks as the sole ad provider. That should simplify things for everyone, but for now, no mediation yet.

  • freneticzfreneticz SwedenMember, PRO Posts: 774

    @adent42 does IAP & Leaderboard works on Amazon? Or is there any known issues

  • adent42adent42 Key Master, Head Chef, Executive Chef, Member, PRO Posts: 3,172

    @freneticz we found an issue earlier today. Try republishing and see if it's fixed.

  • CasualEvolutionCasualEvolution Member, PRO Posts: 537

    Hi @adent42 and all, I don't have any experience in Android. What is the minimum Android version needed to work with GameSalad? Thanks

  • JapsterJapster Member Posts: 672
    edited June 2018

    Hi @adent42 - I've been trying to rebuild my latest update, and CB reward ads on Android have completely failed - I was building earlier today, and getting ads all of the time? - I thought it might be down to CB, and pretty much wasted 2 hours trying to figure out what I'd introduced, when I realised that through my testing, I'd ALSO lost my Admob banners!

    Just re-built the SAME one, using the standard / none-RC build, and both Reward and Banner ads showing as expected... argh.... I really, REALLY need the fix for the wait state issue, or if I release my app on Droid now, I'll probably also get penalised, so could you please look at the RC build asap?

    Maybe given the current state of play with fixes etc, maybe have a second RC/nightly build button for a little bit, but I have to know I can build and trust the current (previously working!) Android RC to be left as-is or promoted while I'm trying to get this android version out of the door? I'm wasting so much time atm, chasing none-existent ads bugs in my game, it's becoming a little frustrating... :frowning:

    Cheers...

    EDIT:- Another really frustrating thing is that sometimes, well, actually, a lot of the time, I get to watch a rewarded CB ad, and then get NO reward (This happens on both iOS AND Android). I've left some debug code in, and I definitely get a status change - I set the value it to '-1', set the provider name to "unset", and make the call. I watch the whole video, click the X, and more often than not I get a returned value of '0' and NO provider? (and no reward) - Other times, I get the expected '50' credits, and provider 'Chartboost' returned. I could really, REALLY do with you looking at this project for me please, to test the issue?

    I've just tried again, and yep, first time in, I get my values set correctly, and get rewarded. It seems that sometimes, if I choose 'X' on a prompt to watch a CB rewarded video ad, after that point it simply will NOT show ANY ads until I exit the app and reload (I understand that it seems to fail to show a new ad for X seconds anyway, if this happens), in which case it happily comes straight back up with one?

    Out of interest, I cancelled an Ad prompt, LEFT it for about 30 seconds, and re-tried - an ad prompt came straight up, and watching THAT rewarded me as expected. I then tried another, cancelled, and went straight back in a few times (to see if that was a factor) until it gave me a successful prompt to watch an ad again, and this time it also rewarded me - It really looks to be random from my side, so I honestly think that there may a problem with GS or Chartboost's API - it's way too hit and miss?...

    LAST NOTE:- On iOS it's even worse - now I've managed to upload a build of the SAME VERSION as the Android one, as soon as I get an ad which doesn't reward me (the very first attempt, unfortunately - an as was served, but didn't reward me / just returned '0' and a blank name), I can no longer get ANY ads! My brother-in-law mentioned this the other day, and I saw it with my own eyes on his phone - now after getting an ad that won't reward me, I simply cannot get ANY more Chartboost rewarded ads (admob banners are at least working still). Even closing the app down completely doesn't seem to fix this?! - I've tried re-opening the app 5-6 times, no joy. It now NEVER gets an ad... - Just returns either the original '-1' and 'UNSET', or sometimes '0' and a blank provider name, but NO successful attempts to get/show an ad... dammit.

  • JapsterJapster Member Posts: 672
    edited June 2018

    PS - It seems that the iOS standard build is screwed....

    I heard that the RC for iOS was broken, but I'd assumed that the newly-promoted standard build was usable? - Unless I've got it wrong... TBH, I've had enough frustration for one day, I've got work in the morning, and have to get to bed....

    Edit:- Trying to upload to the publishing portal once more, in case something happened to the upload - this bit me a little while ago too...

    NOTE! - This is of course not related to the above issue, which definitely need investigating. It goes without saying that I'm also signing with the .92b release of GSC.

  • JapsterJapster Member Posts: 672
    edited June 2018

    @Japster said:
    PS - It seems that the iOS standard build is screwed....

    I heard that the RC for iOS was broken, but I'd assumed that the newly-promoted standard build was usable? - Unless I've got it wrong... TBH, I've had enough frustration for one day, I've got work in the morning, and have to get to bed....

    Edit:- Trying to upload to the publishing portal once more, in case something happened to the upload - this bit me a little while ago too...

    NOTE! - This is of course not related to the above issue, which definitely need investigating. It goes without saying that I'm also signing with the .92b release of GSC.

    Hmm... Re-uploaded to the portal, and built an accepted version okay. I'm starting to wonder if clicking through the upload on the portal too quickly might make this happen - Earlier on, I clicked once it had uploaded, but before the icon had refreshed on the portfolio selection screen.... Now uploaded to Apple, and accepted, using the standard (none-RC) build option... phew.... g'night!

  • JapsterJapster Member Posts: 672

    @Japster said:
    Hi @adent42 - I've been trying to rebuild my latest update, and CB reward ads on Android have completely failed - I was building earlier today, and getting ads all of the time? - I thought it might be down to CB, and pretty much wasted 2 hours trying to figure out what I'd introduced, when I realised that through my testing, I'd ALSO lost my Admob banners!

    Just re-built the SAME one, using the standard / none-RC build, and both Reward and Banner ads showing as expected... argh.... I really, REALLY need the fix for the wait state issue, or if I release my app on Droid now, I'll probably also get penalised, so could you please look at the RC build asap?

    Maybe given the current state of play with fixes etc, maybe have a second RC/nightly build button for a little bit, but I have to know I can build and trust the current (previously working!) Android RC to be left as-is or promoted while I'm trying to get this android version out of the door? I'm wasting so much time atm, chasing none-existent ads bugs in my game, it's becoming a little frustrating... :frowning:

    Cheers...

    EDIT:- Another really frustrating thing is that sometimes, well, actually, a lot of the time, I get to watch a rewarded CB ad, and then get NO reward (This happens on both iOS AND Android). I've left some debug code in, and I definitely get a status change - I set the value it to '-1', set the provider name to "unset", and make the call. I watch the whole video, click the X, and more often than not I get a returned value of '0' and NO provider? (and no reward) - Other times, I get the expected '50' credits, and provider 'Chartboost' returned. I could really, REALLY do with you looking at this project for me please, to test the issue?

    I've just tried again, and yep, first time in, I get my values set correctly, and get rewarded. It seems that sometimes, if I choose 'X' on a prompt to watch a CB rewarded video ad, after that point it simply will NOT show ANY ads until I exit the app and reload (I understand that it seems to fail to show a new ad for X seconds anyway, if this happens), in which case it happily comes straight back up with one?

    Out of interest, I cancelled an Ad prompt, LEFT it for about 30 seconds, and re-tried - an ad prompt came straight up, and watching THAT rewarded me as expected. I then tried another, cancelled, and went straight back in a few times (to see if that was a factor) until it gave me a successful prompt to watch an ad again, and this time it also rewarded me - It really looks to be random from my side, so I honestly think that there may a problem with GS or Chartboost's API - it's way too hit and miss?...

    LAST NOTE:- On iOS it's even worse - now I've managed to upload a build of the SAME VERSION as the Android one, as soon as I get an ad which doesn't reward me (the very first attempt, unfortunately - an as was served, but didn't reward me / just returned '0' and a blank name), I can no longer get ANY ads! My brother-in-law mentioned this the other day, and I saw it with my own eyes on his phone - now after getting an ad that won't reward me, I simply cannot get ANY more Chartboost rewarded ads (admob banners are at least working still). Even closing the app down completely doesn't seem to fix this?! - I've tried re-opening the app 5-6 times, no joy. It now NEVER gets an ad... - Just returns either the original '-1' and 'UNSET', or sometimes '0' and a blank provider name, but NO successful attempts to get/show an ad... dammit.

    Still happening - tried multiple times, no ads after that none-rewarding one - when I eventually got one after 20-30 attempts, 30 minutes later, it played a Final Fantasy one, then didn't reward me, and now, again, simply will not give me an advert...

    @adent42 - I really, REALLY need a fix for this mate - I know it might be Chartboost's SDK on iOS (Android side seems perfect now, with this latest build), but the iOS build of the same version, no changes, simply does not work reliably or as expected for Chartboost, and I'm now going to have to pull the iOS version for fear I'll build up negative users/rep... REALLY stressed about this right now...

  • adent42adent42 Key Master, Head Chef, Executive Chef, Member, PRO Posts: 3,172
    edited June 2018

    We haven't made any changes to the non-RC builds since they were released. The RC build only has fixes for Sound / Wait state, so not sure what's going on with Chartboost.

    Please PM me the link to your games and I can take a look at the logs to see if anything obvious is going wrong that I missed (and please reference why you're sending me the link, I'm starting to loose track of why links are being sent to me if I don't get to look at them right away).

    Before sending me the links, try turning on Test mode on chartboost, which will give you ads every time.

  • JapsterJapster Member Posts: 672
    edited June 2018

    @adent42 said:
    We haven't made any changes to the non-RC builds since they were released. The RC build only has fixes for Sound / Wait state, so not sure what's going on with Chartboost.

    Please PM me the link to your games and I can take a look at the logs to see if anything obvious is going wrong that I missed (and please reference why you're sending me the link, I'm starting to loose track of why links are being sent to me if I don't get to look at them right away).

    Before sending me the links, try turning on Test mode on chartboost, which will give you ads every time.

    Thanks @adent42 - much appreciated - yep, I tried test mode, but that's a good point - at least my users will see ads, and be rewarded... good thinking....

    Of course, that may not help if you're checking current logs, so I can always put it back if you give me a shout?..

    Thanks again, I can't express how stressed I am at the moment with this - the only good thing so far is that the Android version is at least now working as expected, for CB, Admob, etc, but of course albeit without the wait state fix I think? - ie. I had to build using the normal, not RC, build?

    Oh, and to confirm - I tried building iOS RC again today, same problem, Apple rejected the build as invalid, so I'm assuming that's not fixed yet, but unsure now what's in iOS RC as opposed to standard build option?

  • DigiChainDigiChain Member, PRO Posts: 1,288

    @Japster Just to give my input on this - I've republished a few games to Android over the past couple of days using the RC build and both admob banners and chartboost interstitials appear to be working fine for me.

  • JapsterJapster Member Posts: 672
    edited June 2018

    @DigiChain said:
    @Japster Just to give my input on this - I've republished a few games to Android over the past couple of days using the RC build and both admob banners and chartboost interstitials appear to be working fine for me.

    Thanks @DigiChain - Yeah, Android ads seem fine mate, it's the iOS I am having major problems with, but good to know you're using live ads on Android, and it's working - reassuring... :smile:

    My main issues are that on iOS, the ads simply do not work reliably (although they DO work sometimes, in terms of serving content/ads, they just never reward it, then seem to get stuck in a failed state (ie. very, VERY rarely succeed in serving ads after that, and even then, never reward users for watching them... argh...)

    Worse, on Android at the moment, I now have an issue where I simply cannot seem to install an app from scratch - my game's tables changed, and now, I'm seeing missing menu options, no goodies in the goodies mode game, etc, etc... My game seems completely broken, but it's all down to tables, and not being able to remove ALL data from a previously installed copy of the app - on iOS, I remove the app, I get the GDPR prompt, and modes work as expected, menu options appear, etc.

    @adent42 - On Android, I clear cache, data, uninstall, re-install, etc, but I NEVER get the prompt again, and ALL of my settings are as they were when last installed - it doesn't seem to be clearing the data from the previously-installed version! - hence I'm getting issues, and I've released the damn thing... Thought it was my test device, but no, 3 other devices do the exact same thing... The ONLY devices it works on are those that it's been installed from scratch on, and only the current version. ie. even if any NEW users update at any point, I'm pretty sure they'll get the same breakages due to none-clearing of data, should I have to change any table data... :frowning:

  • JapsterJapster Member Posts: 672
    edited June 2018

    Well, it seems that Google's 'helpful' backups are the cause of my inability to clear app data...

    Note to others - search for Google Dashboard. Find your backups - Android... I have 70+ app settings automatically backed up (not my decision), AND RESTORING my game's settings from that, every time I re-installed my game. Cleared my cache and data for Courier Chaos, then uninstalled, then blew away the online Google backup , and lo and behold, one fresh install, asking me about GDPR.... FINALLY.... thanks a lot Google.... grrr...

    The stupid thing is that Google doesn't care if the version you've just installed is newer and/or incompatible due to changes you make between versions - it just seems (I think) to happily pull down and overwrite table data etc, for the currently installed release, with the one backed up previously online... Not even sure if/how/why it's doing it, as I'd have guessed it should just upload the settings and data for the one just installed? - @adent42 - Can you shed any light on this please mate? - All I know is that doing the above is the ONLY thing that fixed my installation / reset it.

    ...and yes, I STILL have the issue with CB, although interestingly, and worryingly, I can no longer upload reward images without an error (since last week), change to test mode and set a time without an error (since today) -yesterday seemed fine), across multiple browsers and machines...

    ....Starting to suspect that CB may have screwed their console up, maybe worth asking them @adent42 , if it turns out it's their issue, not GS's?

    Internet Explorer:-

    Chrome:-

    (This just sits here for minutes, does nothing....)

    ..and the image issue - I just get a "checksum error" every time... at the bottom left, by SAVE:-

    PS - now that Android CB is stuck in LIVE (none-testing mode, ads hardly ever work again, even on Android, so it seems deffo an issue with LIVE ads, for me at least, but not always failing, which eliminates my ID being wrong...) argh... ffs!.... :( )

  • squirrel42squirrel42 Member, PRO Posts: 195

    I build my app Chartboost interstitial 'unchecked' and the app loads to my device fine. I build it with Chartboost interstitial 'checked' and it will not copy to device (greyed out, artwork-less icon). Nothing else changes between the builds. Is this a current known issue (difficult to keep up!). Thanks in advance.

  • adent42adent42 Key Master, Head Chef, Executive Chef, Member, PRO Posts: 3,172

    @squirrel42 no known issue. Are you signing with 1.25.92?

  • JapsterJapster Member Posts: 672

    @DigiChain said:
    @Japster Just to give my input on this - I've republished a few games to Android over the past couple of days using the RC build and both admob banners and chartboost interstitials appear to be working fine for me.

    Thanks @DigiChain - Maybe I can pick your brains then mate? - I've got a pause behaviour that pauses to another scene, with a rewarded video option. in the pause scene, I wait - anything from 1 to 5 seconds during testing stuff out, and check the value returned - I pretty much always get a 0 or -1 (my initial value), with blank or 'unset' (my initial name), or blank if '0' gets returned?

    When it works and shows a video, I get '50' (my reward), and "CHARTBOOST" returned, so my settings look right, and I do sometimes get a result.... Honestly at my wit's end...

    Again, if I turn off test mode, the same thing happens, only I don't even get rewarded. - the video plays, until the end, then I still get '0' and blank name returned...

  • squirrel42squirrel42 Member, PRO Posts: 195

    @adent42 Sorry, yes I was using an older version, works fine with 1.25.92. Thanks

  • DigiChainDigiChain Member, PRO Posts: 1,288

    @Japster - It sounds as though you're doing it similar to how I would of done. Generally I don't use Reward Ads (and haven't set them up from scratch for a very long time now) so don't have a great deal knowledge with them.
    I did just check to see if the reward ad in one of my republished apps is still working though, and it does appear to be.

  • JapsterJapster Member Posts: 672

    @DigiChain said:
    @Japster - It sounds as though you're doing it similar to how I would of done. Generally I don't use Reward Ads (and haven't set them up from scratch for a very long time now) so don't have a great deal knowledge with them.
    I did just check to see if the reward ad in one of my republished apps is still working though, and it does appear to be.

    Cheers mate - well, I'm leaning towards a theory it's somehow still screwed... CB checked for me, and no joy either, although I'm sure they'd have mentioned it if it was wrong, after they'd checked my settings...

  • adent42adent42 Key Master, Head Chef, Executive Chef, Member, PRO Posts: 3,172

    FYI, sorry I've been offline with helping with ad stuff everyone. Been catching up with EDU work this week and also getting Creator fixed. After spending sometime trying to untangle the problem I gave up and just downloaded an older version of XCode. Things are looking good so far. I'll update with a link tomorrow after some more testing.

  • JapsterJapster Member Posts: 672
    edited June 2018

    @adent42 said:
    FYI, sorry I've been offline with helping with ad stuff everyone. Been catching up with EDU work this week and also getting Creator fixed. After spending sometime trying to untangle the problem I gave up and just downloaded an older version of XCode. Things are looking good so far. I'll update with a link tomorrow after some more testing.

    Thanks @adent42 - I take it this means you may have some good news then? - cheers... :smile:

    I have to add, that out of desperation, I tried again on Android from a little earlier, until now, and this time, at least TEST mode is showing ads, AND so far, rewarding them (6-7 in a row now, across 3 launches).... (NOTE - it's the SAME build, already on my device, that's been failing over the last few days...) ...wondering if it's something CB have done at their end, but I'll try tomorrow... and will retry after reloading the app a few times in case it's a startup issue in GS...

    One thing that is strange/worrying is that I had TEST enabled on CB's site, and was shown a LIVE ad, so I switched to LIVE mode, and now it's showing TEST ads... (CB's own one...) possibly a delay thing, but my earlier change had been active for 3-4 hours, so I don't think it's a sync issue at CB's site... very weird...

  • EspinoEspino Member Posts: 15

    Dear

    In the .92 GameCircle has stopped working, there is some solution to make it work. I am creating and signing with the .92.

    I also realized that when you create rules and attributes, if you select or select them and press the "Create Group" button, they disappear.

  • adent42adent42 Key Master, Head Chef, Executive Chef, Member, PRO Posts: 3,172

    Okay... I finally got a good build (some weirdness related to signing and how we include libraries need to be resolved before it could run correctly on a machine other than the dev machine).

    https://releases.gamesalad.com/creator/GameSalad-Creator-1.25.93.dmg

    It's not an official release yet, but I though I'd let you guys take a wack at it while we continue testing.

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