Artpunk's Forum Posts

  • Im testing a prototype of my game on both Android and iOS. The devices Im using to test are a Nexus 5X and an iPhone5. I have tested by building in Intel XDK, then installing the apk and ipa files on each phone.

    So the Nexus is more powerful and gives a comfortable 60fps, while the iPhone5 spends most of its time between 40 - 50fps.

    On the iPhone5 game-play is not too bad (certainly still playable), but I notice a real lag when starting a new level, when a new layout is loading up. I would like to improve this if I can. On the Nexus everything is snappy and runs really well, game play is fine and there is no lag between levels.

    I am wondering what this lower performance on the iPhone could be caused by. If its something I can optimize and hopefully improve, or if its simply due to the hardware: an older phone not being able to run the game very well (even though its a pretty simple game).

    When I go back to previewing over local network to use the deubugger, if I look at the 'Profile' tab in the debugger, I can see that the iPhone has a higher value for 'draw calls' than the Nexus. Could this higher reading for 'draw calls' be pointing to a reason why the game is running slower on iPhone?

    The readings for the debugger Profile tab look like this for each device:

    Nexus 5X

    Events: ~25%

    Engine: ~12%

    Draw Calls: ~10%

    iPhone5:

    Events: ~17%

    Engine: ~10%

    Draw Calls: 20%

    Do these readings seem high? For events and draw calls? This is my first game so Im not sure.

    The game is a simple platformer with tilemap backgrounds. I am trying to follow the recommendations in the manual for optimizing for mobile:

    -there are not many objects in the layout (47 total at the point in the game where the above readings are taken).

    -no fancy effects

    -no big images (its all tilemaps and small sprites).

  • Will you need to solve this issue in more apps?

    Well I am currently working on my first game. But once i get this one finished I have a million ideas falling out of my head for future games, so I'll probably be battling with these kinds of issues in the future. Hopefully the status bar issue is resolved for me now though. But if you made a plugin that gave a bit more control: allowing the nav bar to be visible at all times for eg, that could be useful?

  • Ive just been playing with hiding the status bar in the latest XDK. I had some help from another user. Checkout this thread: How do I Remove Android status bar, using Intel XDK

  • What works for me in my current project is to have a splash screen layout in my C2 project. I dont use the XDK splash screen plugin. Rather the first layout to load in my project is the splash screen I made in C2 with company logo etc on it. From there the next layout the player sees is the main menu.

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  • Hi, yes I always have the 'Hide status bar' option ticked in Cordova export. It doesn't seem to do anything tbh.

    Well... the problem for me with using the 'fullscreen' option in XDK is that makes both the status bar AND the nav bar hidden and inaccessible. What I was initially aiming for was to have the status bar hidden, but the nav bar visible at all times during game play to provide an easy way to quit out of the game. So the 'Fullscreen' option didn't allow that.

    The method above works for me:

    -'fullscreen' unticked in XDK - this makes nav bar and status bar both visible during game play

    -Add status bar plugin in XDK. Call 'StatusBar.hide' in C2 - this causes both the nav bar and the status bar to initially be hidden during game play BUT they both become visible when the player touches the edge of the screen.. allowing an easy way to quit from the game via the nav bar. This isn't exactly what I was trying to achieve but it's close enough that i'm happy with it.

  • Hey thanks for the reply. I got this figured out with help from another user in this thread

    What worked for me was to leave the Full Screen option deselected in Intel XDK, and then add the StatusBar plugin (again in Intel XDK), and then enter an event in my C2 project to say: On start of layout -> Browser, call javascript: "StatusBar.hide()".

    This causes the statusbar and navbar to be hidden while game is running, but you can still access navbar by touching the edge of screen. So that was pretty close to what I was trying to achieve, so Im happy with that.

    Ill check your game out

  • Thanks for your reply — This helped a lot. I didn't understand that I needed to call the 'StatusBar.hide' attribute from C2.

    My game is now working they way I was aiming for. By leaving 'Full Screen' deselected in Intel XDK, and then hiding the status bar using this method above, both the status bar and navbar are hidden while the game is running but can easily be accessed by touching the edge of screen, which is fine, because it provides an easy way to quit out of the game if needed.

  • I made progress on this. There is a 'Full Screen' option in Intel XDK. If its selected the navigation buttons are hidden. If it's deselected the nav bar is visible. Problem is the status bar is also visible. So now I need to work out how to hide the status bar...

  • Does anyone have experience with this? I am publishing for Android with Intel XDK.

    In Intel XDK there is a tickbox for 'Full Screen'. If deselected, the Android status bar and navigation bar is visible in the built game.

    If the 'Full Screen' tick box is selected neither the navigation bar nor the status bar are visible.

    I want the nav bar to be present, but not the status bar. I think the way to do it, is to have 'Full Screen' deselected and then add the status bar plugin, and then somehow edit that plugin so that on start, the status bar is hidden.

    In the documentation for the status bar plugin it says that the status bar can be hidden, and gives some code to do it...

    But I have no idea where to enter that code, which file needs to be updated, or how to do it through Intel XDK.

    Can anyone offer any advice on this?

  • No one has any insights on this ? How about this: a question to people who have experience publishing their C2 games to Android. Do the default Android buttons display during game play when your game is launched?

  • Working on a game for mobile and I have started testing it on Android. I am using Intel XDK to build.

    For the most part my game works well, performance is fine, but ive discovered that once the game launches Android's default buttons don't display (back, home and menu I think? The buttons are a triangle, circle and square, usually at the bottom of the screen, or on the side in landscape view). So there is no easy way to quit out of my game. Other Android games I have on my phone display these buttons during game play, they just remain at the edge of the screen, providing an easy way to quit out of the game..

    So im not sure what I need to do to get these default buttons to remain visible. Is it a plugin I need to add in Intel XDK or something?

    The only plugin I added to my build was the InAppBrowser.

    Or alternatively is it better practice to have a button in the main menu that would close the game and return the user to the Android interface?

    Thanks for any help.

  • Hello thanks very much for this information, this helps me understand which of your examples I should try to customize to my project. I need to save data about:

    -levels completed

    -number of items collected in each level

    -max number of collectible items in each level

    -score.

    I think therefore the localstorage system would be best (I dont need to save everything, like positions of objects etc for each level).

  • Hello I just purchased this template. Im wondering if anyone who has purchased this can help me understand what the various files are. The creator has included 12 capx files that all seem to be fully working menu systems but with slight variations in how they are built? Or in how they save data?

    The files have good commenting for events, but there is no documentation explaining exactly what the differences between the various capx examples is... and what they are optimized for, or what the 'use case' is for each one.

    The capx files are organized into folders 'LocalStorage' and 'LoadSave'... so what does that distinction mean?

    Which of the capx examples is best optimized for use in a mobile game?

    Thanks for any insight.

  • Hi guys. Thanks for your replies, they were very helpful. I kept working on it and I now have my turrets working exactly how I want them.

    fixed capx

    I wanted to be able to vary the attributes of individual instances within a layout. Doing it this way I can control the following attributes for each turret instance:

    -The direction the turret fires (to left or right of screen)

    -The number of shots fired in each burst

    -The pause between shots

    -The pause between bursts

  • Bump.