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Adobe AIR Development

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Developer
GoldenJoe
Posts: 342
Registered: ‎09-28-2009

Just a friendly warning.....

I observed a PlayBook today running several apps, including my own. I should warn you that every flash game I observed that was doing much of anything had significant framerate issues. If you made one of the nicer flash games, you may want to consider buying a PlayBook at launch instead of waiting for the freebie. 

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Developer
jffurlan
Posts: 1,003
Registered: ‎01-16-2011
My Carrier: Rogers

Re: Just a friendly warning.....

Thanks for the heads up. Do you think this is something that could be fixed on RIMs end with a software update, or something developers will have to do to better optimize their code?
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Developer
AppStoreLover
Posts: 297
Registered: ‎10-30-2010
My Carrier: other

Re: Just a friendly warning.....

I remember in the mainStage file there is an option to set frameRate. What was it set to ? 30?

60 fps should be butter smooth :manvery-happy:

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Developer
GoldenJoe
Posts: 342
Registered: ‎09-28-2009

Re: Just a friendly warning.....

I'm not sure. To be honest, I was shocked to see my game running at 10-30fps. It has always maintained 60fps during development, and I profiled it very thoroughly to ensure that there were no memory leaks.

 

Like I said, any game that was doing much of anything experienced slowdown. The most hard-hit one was some game with very nice art where a guy runs along, and you tap to make him jump. Another game where you direct missiles ran pretty well until walls started collapsing and performing physics calculations, then it grinded to a halt.

 

I'm using fairly efficient collision detection in my game. Upon profiling tonight, I determined that one of my most expensive functions was playing sound...if that's the case, my code can't be that inefficient. Perhaps it is in large part due to the flash implementation on RIM's end. Technically, the PlayBook I tested on was a prototype, and was not running final software. Maybe it will be a different story tomorrow. I certainly hope so, but I also know better than to assume. In any case, if you have a game with pretty much anything moving around constantly, I suggest you take a trip to the store tomorrow and test your app just to be safe. An ounce of prevention, as they say...

 

Additionally, I recommend profiling your games for memory and performance if you haven't done so already. My whole game was one giant memory leak until I profiled it the final weekend of development.

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Developer
TheDarkIn1978
Posts: 409
Registered: ‎12-10-2010
My Carrier: N/A

Re: Just a friendly warning.....

 


GoldenJoe wrote:

The most hard-hit one was some game with very nice art where a guy runs along, and you tap to make him jump.


 

are you referring to Canabalt?  if so, are you talking about browser-resident flash games or AIR applications?

 

have you ever published your game for mobile before?  there are several ways to optimize applications for mobile development, one of those being the use of cacheAsBitmapMatrix.  a more conservative approach would be to rasterize all vector graphics - although that's generally a good idea for desktop deployment targets, too.

 

i suspected there would be a lot of disappointment from developers once they test their applications on the device, especially if they're new to mobile AIR and/or assumed the desktop (even in the emulator) results would be similar to the device, which in nearly all cases they will not.


PlayBook Applications:
Drop Swatch
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Developer
EraserX
Posts: 168
Registered: ‎01-13-2011

Re: Just a friendly warning.....

@GoldenJoe - suppose I was to pop in to a store with a display unit:  I have never used AppWorld before, could I install my app without signing in?  If I need to sign in, is there a separate 'Appworld Login' or does our developer logins (from the Vendor Login page) carry over to Appworld?

 

Thanks man!

 

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Developer
jffurlan
Posts: 1,003
Registered: ‎01-16-2011
My Carrier: Rogers

Re: Just a friendly warning.....

app world users a different log in than our vendor portal login.

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Developer
EraserX
Posts: 168
Registered: ‎01-13-2011

Re: Just a friendly warning.....

Thanks jffurlan
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Developer
GoldenJoe
Posts: 342
Registered: ‎09-28-2009

Re: Just a friendly warning.....

 


TheDarkIn1978 wrote:

 

are you referring to Canabalt?  if so, are you talking about browser-resident flash games or AIR applications?

 

have you ever published your game for mobile before?  there are several ways to optimize applications for mobile development, one of those being the use of cacheAsBitmapMatrix.  a more conservative approach would be to rasterize all vector graphics - although that's generally a good idea for desktop deployment targets, too.

 

i suspected there would be a lot of disappointment from developers once they test their applications on the device, especially if they're new to mobile AIR and/or assumed the desktop (even in the emulator) results would be similar to the device, which in nearly all cases they will not.


 

Not sure about the name of the game...for some reason the link you provided isn't working on my computer. It had a bubbly Indiana Jones theme if it helps. All the games I mentioned were AIR games from AppWorld.

 

As for my game, while it is my first AIR game, I've done mobile before. All graphics are rasterized, objects are removed from memory as needed, etc. The only thing I'm thinking that could be expensive is my collision detection (physics can be pricy if done wrong), but the other games were slowing down just as bad if not worse, and I'm sure they weren't all doing circle-to-circle and circle-to-line collision the same way I was each frame.

 

Can anyone who purchases a PlayBook confirm whether or not this is just an issue with the prototype, or if our games are faulty (or both)?

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Developer
smiley
Posts: 1,101
Registered: ‎07-14-2008
My Carrier: Fido

Re: Just a friendly warning.....

This should not be surprise when you develop on the desktop and testing on the simulator.  Even to back old days with the PalmOS.   Running apps on the simulator is like x times faster and then when you actually run on the real device it crawls.

 

RIM should have done a better job dealing with developers and giving developers the real PB before launch.  Now I sure every new PB owner will complaint about it.  I already read the most apps on appworld s*cks.

 

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