State of GameSalad on 5-22-2013
CodeWizard
Inactive, Chef Emeritus Posts: 1,143
Hello! It's that time again... time for another weekly state of GameSalad post. On your mark, get set... go!
Estimated Stable Build Schedule
We have no planned stable build releases for this week. We’re focusing all of our efforts on the nightly builds and getting them out to all Pros first. Sure looks like nightly builds will be ready for all Pros tomorrow.
Pending Updates
These updates are pending for stable build release. They are available in the nightly builds of the engine and Creator. Once they are well tested they will be pinched off and released to the general public.
1. We’ve done an initial optimization pass on some of the Lua code. Especially related to how we compute delta times in the iOS engine. Should help improve general performance.
2. An optimization pass has been completed for OpenGL rendering. This should help out performance in several cases, especially particles. We’re seeing pretty absurd improvements for particles.
3. We’ve optimized some Lua memory footprint code that has the potential to shave megabytes off of your game’s memory size. At least it’s shaved some MBs off of my test cases. This was mostly done by optionally allocating some objects that were previously allocated all the time.
4. We removed the publishing fireworks sound effect.
5. We’ve addressed some of the Creator stuttering related to looking for Android ADB installations.
6. We’ve fixed an issue in Creator that caused entering non-numeric text into numeric fields. This also has a positive side effect of fixing some possible rounding issues in number constraints.
7. We’ve added WAV file support to Creator and the native engine. This support allows you to choose WAV files as your preferred file format for sound effects. The effect of making this choice is to have much faster loading on iOS. Speed gains are less notable on Android due to the suboptimal way we handle loading data from the device. We’ll be resolving that soon.
8. We’ve added TGA image support to the native engine. This support allows you to choose TGA files for your images. TGA files load significantly faster than PNGs. We still have some creator work necessary to finalize this support.
9. We’ve updated how the ad bar works in your free games. It now takes less memory (1/30th as a matter of fact) and also takes advantage of some new iOS features to make installing targeted apps easier.
10. We've fixed a bug with pausing the game that messes up your camera. Good fix!
What We're Working On
1. We're continuing to profile the game engine looking for CPU bottlenecks and RAM hogs. We're continuing to identify places that should receive immediate optimization. This effort will continue for the foreseeable future. This is my main engineering focus for now.
2. We still have a bit of work to finalize TGA support in Creator. While delayed, this should wrap up any day now. I have it on good authority that day is tomorrow morning.
3. We're still working on getting the new nightly build process in place for Pro users. Nightly builds are flowing out to line cooks and sous chefs. We’re finishing up some web work this week before we can release this to all Pro users. That work is being completed as I write this, so it’s looking like tomorrow is the day!
4. We're still wrapping up the major Mac Creator improvement pass. These improvements will greatly enhance the stability and performance of the Mac Creator. We'll be rolling this out to all Pro users for feedback once the nightly build process is ready for use. We’ve reduced the number of engineers working on this to one so that more optimization tasks could be started.
5. We have an engineer doing an optimization pass on the HTML5 and Lua engines. This should help improve general performance of both engines. Lots of good progress has been made on this over the past week. This work will be continuing for the next week or two.
6. One of our engineers is working on reorganizing our engine code to make debugging and development easier for us. Part of this work includes integrating the third-party Zerobrane Lua IDE. It also includes integrating a Lua debugger and socket library. Some good building blocks for things to come. This work is done but pending some code reviews. Once ready we’ll put it in the nightly builds.
7. Looks like one of our engineers will be resurrecting the old "stretch" mode to complement overscan and letterbox for universal resolution support. He's pretty confident that should be achievable this coming week. More news as progress is made.
8. We're also working on upgrading the ad bar to provide better cross-promotion opportunities to Pro users. We've got some irons in the fire here and will have more news as work progresses.
9. You may have seen a recent poll asking you all for information on Creator improvements. @BlackCloakGS and team will be digging in on these requests in a prioritized way. Expect them to start showing up in the nightly builds on a regular basis.
http://forums.gamesalad.com/discussion/56981/are-these-fixestweaks-what-youd-want
10. We have an engineer starting to breakdown the work involved in implementing asynchronous multiplayer support. Pot’s on the stove on this and we’ll be simmering it for some time now.
11. We’re working to get Windows Creator in the nightly build process so that we can start iterating on fixes and improvements with it as well. More news as it’s available.
What's Coming Down The Pipe
Our primary focus will remain code cleanup, bug fixing and engine optimization for the next few weeks. Once we're satisfied with where the core engine is at, we'll begin turning our attention to new feature development and additional platform support.
The top things on my list are: creator workflow improvements, custom fonts, automated texture atlas support, improved render batching, Android IAP and async multiplayer support. Some other odds and ends may come up first as necessary, but those are the main points I'll be pressing for. ETA of those features is not available yet, but they're top on my list to tackle as soon as feasible. More news as we make progress on our existing workloads.
Looks like we may be biting off a virtual file system implementation relatively soon. This will help us better secure your projects, reduce their size when installed and improve load times. More news soon.
Custom fonts are getting some attention in the next couple of weeks. More news soon.
Summary
We’re working the black arts of voodoo in the kitchen to summon awesomeness for you. Nightly builds are literally a day away from being available to all Pros. Now I should probably turn my attention to writing that intro post for them. As usual, I’m super excited about that!
Until next week...
Estimated Stable Build Schedule
We have no planned stable build releases for this week. We’re focusing all of our efforts on the nightly builds and getting them out to all Pros first. Sure looks like nightly builds will be ready for all Pros tomorrow.
Pending Updates
These updates are pending for stable build release. They are available in the nightly builds of the engine and Creator. Once they are well tested they will be pinched off and released to the general public.
1. We’ve done an initial optimization pass on some of the Lua code. Especially related to how we compute delta times in the iOS engine. Should help improve general performance.
2. An optimization pass has been completed for OpenGL rendering. This should help out performance in several cases, especially particles. We’re seeing pretty absurd improvements for particles.
3. We’ve optimized some Lua memory footprint code that has the potential to shave megabytes off of your game’s memory size. At least it’s shaved some MBs off of my test cases. This was mostly done by optionally allocating some objects that were previously allocated all the time.
4. We removed the publishing fireworks sound effect.
5. We’ve addressed some of the Creator stuttering related to looking for Android ADB installations.
6. We’ve fixed an issue in Creator that caused entering non-numeric text into numeric fields. This also has a positive side effect of fixing some possible rounding issues in number constraints.
7. We’ve added WAV file support to Creator and the native engine. This support allows you to choose WAV files as your preferred file format for sound effects. The effect of making this choice is to have much faster loading on iOS. Speed gains are less notable on Android due to the suboptimal way we handle loading data from the device. We’ll be resolving that soon.
8. We’ve added TGA image support to the native engine. This support allows you to choose TGA files for your images. TGA files load significantly faster than PNGs. We still have some creator work necessary to finalize this support.
9. We’ve updated how the ad bar works in your free games. It now takes less memory (1/30th as a matter of fact) and also takes advantage of some new iOS features to make installing targeted apps easier.
10. We've fixed a bug with pausing the game that messes up your camera. Good fix!
What We're Working On
1. We're continuing to profile the game engine looking for CPU bottlenecks and RAM hogs. We're continuing to identify places that should receive immediate optimization. This effort will continue for the foreseeable future. This is my main engineering focus for now.
2. We still have a bit of work to finalize TGA support in Creator. While delayed, this should wrap up any day now. I have it on good authority that day is tomorrow morning.
3. We're still working on getting the new nightly build process in place for Pro users. Nightly builds are flowing out to line cooks and sous chefs. We’re finishing up some web work this week before we can release this to all Pro users. That work is being completed as I write this, so it’s looking like tomorrow is the day!
4. We're still wrapping up the major Mac Creator improvement pass. These improvements will greatly enhance the stability and performance of the Mac Creator. We'll be rolling this out to all Pro users for feedback once the nightly build process is ready for use. We’ve reduced the number of engineers working on this to one so that more optimization tasks could be started.
5. We have an engineer doing an optimization pass on the HTML5 and Lua engines. This should help improve general performance of both engines. Lots of good progress has been made on this over the past week. This work will be continuing for the next week or two.
6. One of our engineers is working on reorganizing our engine code to make debugging and development easier for us. Part of this work includes integrating the third-party Zerobrane Lua IDE. It also includes integrating a Lua debugger and socket library. Some good building blocks for things to come. This work is done but pending some code reviews. Once ready we’ll put it in the nightly builds.
7. Looks like one of our engineers will be resurrecting the old "stretch" mode to complement overscan and letterbox for universal resolution support. He's pretty confident that should be achievable this coming week. More news as progress is made.
8. We're also working on upgrading the ad bar to provide better cross-promotion opportunities to Pro users. We've got some irons in the fire here and will have more news as work progresses.
9. You may have seen a recent poll asking you all for information on Creator improvements. @BlackCloakGS and team will be digging in on these requests in a prioritized way. Expect them to start showing up in the nightly builds on a regular basis.
http://forums.gamesalad.com/discussion/56981/are-these-fixestweaks-what-youd-want
10. We have an engineer starting to breakdown the work involved in implementing asynchronous multiplayer support. Pot’s on the stove on this and we’ll be simmering it for some time now.
11. We’re working to get Windows Creator in the nightly build process so that we can start iterating on fixes and improvements with it as well. More news as it’s available.
What's Coming Down The Pipe
Our primary focus will remain code cleanup, bug fixing and engine optimization for the next few weeks. Once we're satisfied with where the core engine is at, we'll begin turning our attention to new feature development and additional platform support.
The top things on my list are: creator workflow improvements, custom fonts, automated texture atlas support, improved render batching, Android IAP and async multiplayer support. Some other odds and ends may come up first as necessary, but those are the main points I'll be pressing for. ETA of those features is not available yet, but they're top on my list to tackle as soon as feasible. More news as we make progress on our existing workloads.
Looks like we may be biting off a virtual file system implementation relatively soon. This will help us better secure your projects, reduce their size when installed and improve load times. More news soon.
Custom fonts are getting some attention in the next couple of weeks. More news soon.
Summary
We’re working the black arts of voodoo in the kitchen to summon awesomeness for you. Nightly builds are literally a day away from being available to all Pros. Now I should probably turn my attention to writing that intro post for them. As usual, I’m super excited about that!
Until next week...
Comments
- Thomas
"10. We've fixed a bug with pausing the game that messes up your camera. Good fix!"
Do you mean using the pause behavior or the device going into sleep mode and returning?
Sounds to me,@CodeWizard, that custom fonts is quite a hassle, at least more than I would think it is
Chakku
"7. Looks like one of our engineers will be resurrecting the old "stretch" mode to complement overscan and letterbox for universal resolution support."
Does that mean there's a universal build option now?
Also , I see they're optimizing the LUA engine, awesome! Does that mean LUA free has been pushed?
Thanks.
- Thomas
Here's the bug from our database that's been fixed. Looks like it may just be pause, but it might also apply to sleep / wake.
Attached is a game that was made by one of our users. The initial scene has the X camera value set to 50. When a 'pause game' or 'scene change' is triggered, the origin resets to zero and visually reflects the change in preview.
STR:
1. Open attached project in locally built creator or dmg
2. Preview project
Notice the scene reflects the X camera value being set to 50.
3. Select 'pause'
Notice the camera origin resets to zero
Expected:
Camera origin reflects the value indicated in the gameproj
Observed:
Camera origin is reset to the default 0,0 when pause or change scene is triggered
Check out my first State of GameSalad post for more details about Lua.
http://forums.gamesalad.com/discussion/56063/state-of-gamesalad-on-4-17-2013/p1
Cheers.
It's getting close. Still working out some final details. It might slip until tomorrow. I'll post more soon.
@jamies15-3
Async multiplayer is something beyond what Game Center provides. We need to have a cross-platform solution. We'll post more info about that when we have the details.
- Alex