Does Appmobi & CocoonJS Deliver?

Hi guys, gals,

Let me just say that I'm sorry that we have not been trolling this forum on a regular basis until now. I promise that will change. Here is some 1st hand information from Ludei:

1st, let me explain the Splash screen requirement. The platform is completely free until sometime in Q1 (possibly the end of the quarter). So the only thing we can get for the effort and expenditures we've made on the platform is awareness. And we really need the awareness right now. So please bear with us. The splash screen will be removable once the platform business model is in place. I apologize for any inconvenience that causes, hopefully the value you get from the platform (for free!) is more than worth it.

2nd, the business model is coming and I promise you'll like it. There will be a free component and the paid model will not be "$250/mo", although you could end up paying us $250 per month, but you'd likely be making $25,000 yourself if you were (and no, it is not going to be rev share based). Patience please, coming soon. It is 98% baked.

3rd, the platform is now at 1.0. We have accelerated Canvas cross-platform and many developers are seeing a 10x improvement in graphics performance, especially on Android. We also have JS APIs for cross-platform In-App Payments, for iOS and Android today, many more coming in the 1st half of next year. We have APIs for multichannel audio, Box2D native acceleration, gyroscope, camera, geo, accelerometer, and now even SVG support via the new Canvas Path command (1st in the world, as far as we know, really freakin' cool!). And we have support for Live Updates in the field, push messaging, analytics and numerous ad networks, not just Mopub. Lastly, we released our Cloud Compiler in October and we already have over 100 games in the app stores. The Cloud Compiler will be extended in Q1 and Q2 to support numerous output formats, we intend to support packaging for every relevant destination where our developers could make money. Stay tuned.

Lastly, our most successful developers have come from Scirra and Construct2. I want to thank Ashley, Thomas and Paulo for all the great work they are doing and thank the developers that have come over and given us a look. If you looked at us 2 months ago, even 1 month ago, come back and look again. The platform changes for the better almost daily.

We will pick up Construct2 developers where Scirra leaves off and get you across the finish line with fast, feature rich packaged apps and a full suite of cloud and monetization services. Stick with us.

Joe Monastiero

President, Ludei

I agree with this. I've only tested CocoonJS but the performance increase was next to nothing. I was expecting native performance but got basically the same performance I get in Safari on an iPad.

Oplus1, Safari on the iPad is the fastest web browser in the industry, especially in the iPad3. However, when you are targeting games cross-platform for iOS and Android, you need to take into consideration the installed based and there several hundred million iphone 4, older iPads and Androids with 2.2, 2.3, 3.whatever and 4.x on them. And these devices do not rock HTML5 in the native browsers. However, with CocoonJS, we are seeing 10x improvement in performance on some of these devices and the only device close to running near the same speed as CocoonJS is the iPad3.

However, I'd like to make sure everyone understands that we are NOT a performance enhancement solution. That is part of what we do, but a small part. Eventually, all browsers will run like Safari on the iPad3 (better even, of course). We're a platform for HTML5 gaming. We provide numerous cross-platform deployment, enhancement and extension APIs in addition to a rich set of cloud services to support your games once deployed. The platform is young, but powerful and being enhanced and extend daily/weekly. Come in, work with us, give us a chance to show you what we can do. Our engineers are brilliant. Challenge them. You'll like the results.

Joe

BTW - download our latest Launcher app (our test container) from the app store or Google play and try some of the demos for yourself. The source code for each is on our website.

— mo

Thanks for clearing that, i hope the fair price for business model. Sometimes CocoonJS doesn't work for standard HTML5 features like AJAX, accelerometer with gravity, etc. I can wait when it's completed on Q1.

— mo

Thanks for clearing that, i hope the fair price for business model. Sometimes CocoonJS doesn't work for standard HTML5 features like AJAX, accelerometer with gravity, etc. I can wait when it's completed on Q1.

Box2D acceleration is available now, has been for about 60 days. AJAX/XHR is supported now also, at least partially. You can go to our site or ask our support team for more info on this.

However, keep in mind, we are not a big DOM house. We support a simultaneous WebView for your use, but of course, it is unaccelerated. To get acceleration, you need to integrate CocoonJS and Canvas.

Joe

I have finished around 3 games with Construct 2 but i am facing problem in ads display. I have done everything correctly and ad does show up but after some hours. I cannot understand the exact reason for this.

— mo

What about ad integration? Are we going to be forced to use Mopub, or can we get native AdMob/iAd support in cocoon?

— mo

What about ad integration? Are we going to be forced to use Mopub, or can we get native AdMob/iAd support in cocoon?

ArcadEd,

Talk to our support team (support@ludei.com) to get details on the alternate ad networks that we support. If you have any issues getting the answers you need, let me know.

> — mo

>

> Thanks for clearing that, i hope the fair price for business model. Sometimes CocoonJS doesn't work for standard HTML5 features like AJAX, accelerometer with gravity, etc. I can wait when it's completed on Q1.

>

>

Box2D acceleration is available now, has been for about 60 days. AJAX/XHR is supported now also, at least partially. You can go to our site or ask our support team for more info on this.

However, keep in mind, we are not a big DOM house. We support a simultaneous WebView for your use, but of course, it is unaccelerated. To get acceleration, you need to integrate CocoonJS and Canvas.

Joe

CocoonJS acceleration wasn't perfect, besides html5 browsers for mobiles worked perfect, your dev team told me it's suspicious and make another work around, it wasn't helpful

I am glad to see Ludei aka JMO make an appearance. I await the pricing for 2013 and will be willing to see what's on offer. I do hope it's a model like Appmobi with a 'pay as you earn' tariff. That would really help hobbyists and indie devs who don't earn a dime - yet!

Thanks JMO and co for your feedback.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2013 <img src="smileys/smiley1.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

I've been testing my first game with CocoonJS and Android. The results are fantastic, and the entire process is very intuitive.

Unfortunately, they do not currently support keyboard input on touch screen devices. I'm creating a custom interface that is part of my game, but won't be able to use the external inputs yet.

This is probably on their list, but I'm not sure how far out it is.

For anyone wondering about the effects of screencanvas rendering in the latest update: I've noticed an all-round boost in frame rate on iOS via CocoonJS. In my game, there's a significant increase during cut scenes (essentially 3-5 large sprites being panned slowly) - the scenes have gone from ~30FPS to ~42FPS. However, the increase is negligible during gameplay (10-15 sprites, basic physics, GUI overlay) - the scene has gone from ~28FPS to ~30FPS.

This means that the change probably won't make a previously unplayable game playable, but it might help make for a smoother experience.

For anyone wondering about the effects of screencanvas rendering in the latest update: I've noticed an all-round boost in frame rate on iOS via CocoonJS. In my game, there's a significant increase during cut scenes (essentially 3-5 large sprites being panned slowly) - the scenes have gone from ~30FPS to ~42FPS. However, the increase is negligible during gameplay (10-15 sprites, basic physics, GUI overlay) - the scene has gone from ~28FPS to ~30FPS.

This means that the change probably won't make a previously unplayable game playable, but it might help make for a smoother experience.

Screencanvas improves rendering speed for sure but it depends on many things: The device graphics hardware and driver, the application rendering pipeline, etc.

About keyboard support, CocoonJS provides a text input dialog for basic text input (checkout our extension file CocoonJS_App.js for the TextDialog related functions and also our TextInput demo at storage.cocoonjsservice.ludei.com/demos/cjs3801793643225403841keyboard.zip). I guess you are talking about external keyboard/device support. Adding such a feature is not in our short term roadmap unfortunately.

ludei

With no Ajax and no Keybaord input I have no choice but to use Phonegap for my game on the Ouya.

I only hope you add these features if and when the Ouya becomes popular. Until then I'll just work on making custom Phonegap plugins that optimize Construct 2 games.

For turn based strategy game with snes graphics and minimalistic animations, which one would you recommend performance wise? (including sounds)