RaptorWingGames's Forum Posts

  • Thank you. I'll do that.

  • When I load my game on a Samsung phone using Runtime 3, I get a lot of white, bright halos around moving objects that aren’t supposed to be there. When I load it on PC using Runtime 3, everything is fine. Also, Runtime 2 works perfectly well on the phone without any graphical issues.

    Does anyone know why this could be? Are there are there any settings I can tweak to fix this?

    Thanks.

  • Hello,

    I am experiencing odd graphical issues when using Runtime 3 vs. Runtime 2. I don't know if it is a genuine bug, or if Runtime 3 is enabling some feature or another that I'm not aware of. When I test my game on a Windows PC, everything looks and runs fine using Runtime 3. When I test it as an Android debug on a Samsung, everything runs fine but the game is full of graphical aberrations: specifically, the edges of moving objects appear extremely over-saturated, as if everything has a white halo. Again, there is no such visual concern when testing on PC. I tried testing a Runtime 2 debug copy on the same phone, and the graphical issue disappeared. Everything was fine.

    I know that bug reports need to go to GitHub. I was just wondering first if anyone else has had this issue, in case there is something non-bug related that might be causing it.

    Thank you for the help.

  • Thanks for the help.

    Unfortunately, I still had performance issues even after unselecting the “minify script” option. I’m glad to know that Google is working on a fix, but is there anything I can do on my own to sort out Cordova’s issues?

    For instance, are there any plugins that might help? Or has anyone had any luck getting better performance using a third party build option, like Phonegap or Ionic? Construct has done everything I need it to; I don’t want Cordova to be the thing holding my game back.

  • Hi Ashley,

    I am testing on a Galaxy J7 Perx, Android version 7.0. When I run a Debug APK the renderer expression returns "webgl."

    When you say that Google will update Chrome shortly, does that translate into improved Cordova performance? I was also wondering if there were any Cordova plugins that can improve game performance, or any Construct settings (scaling, etc.) that might impact Cordova quality. I'm very happy with Construct 3 and the game I've been able to make; I just need to get it working as well in its mobile form.

    I appreciate the help.

  • Hello,

    I am ready to deploy my game. Everything runs great in Chrome on my target (mobile) platform. When I compile an Android Debug APK via Construct 3 for final testing, there is a noticeable stutter. It’s not frequent, but it’s consistently reoccurring and very jarring when it does happen. It’s completely absent in Remote Preview tests on that same phone.

    Can anyone suggest ways to improve performance in Cordova? I don’t understand why Chrome itself does fine, but the packaged APK version struggles.

    Thanks a lot.

  • Is there a recognized “optimum” resolution to set Construct projects to when developing for Android? I realize that screen sizes vary; is there some resolution that guarantees the best performance for a low-end 16:9 device?

    My game runs solidly at 60 fps, except that every 7 seconds or so, it drops down to 59 for a second or two. 59 frames would be fine, except that it creates a very noticeable stutter in my auto runner. I don’t know if that has anything to do with the fact that Construct relies on delta time to keep things moving consistently. I’ve eliminated garbage collection; I’m trying to see if there’s anything else that could be causing it to lose a frame so consistently.

    I appreciate any suggestions.

  • Thanks for the offer, Ashley. I think I figured it out. The other day, I flagged the "Show Translucent Inactive Layers" option on the Layer property bar, just to make it easier to offset the layer I'm currently working on. That appears to be the issue. When I activate it, all of my layers switch to "Uses Own Texture = yes." As soon as I turn it off, they revert to "Uses Own Texture = no."

    I am actually a little bit disappointed. I thought I had stumbled across an area I could tweak for performance gains.

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  • That's a good idea. Worst case, I think I can consolidate everything onto a single layer without it affecting the game, but I am curious to know what the troublemaker is.

  • If you load up a layer in Construct 3, the Properties panel gives you a number of options in each category. Under "Appearance," there is: a "Transparent" check box, the "Background Color" selector, the Opacity selector, the "Force Own Texture" checkbox, and a readout labeled "Uses Own texture," set to either yes or no.

    On my trouble layers, "Force Own Texture" is unchecked, and Opacity is at 100%, but "Uses Own Texture" is set to "yes" without any way to modify it. According to the Construct 3 manual page for layers, Uses Own Texture is "a read-only property indicating if the layer renders to an intermediate texture. This has a performance overhead. The Force Own Texture setting enables this, but some other properties also cause the layer to use its own texture...."

    It goes on to explain what other settings can cause a layer to use its own texture even when not forced to. My problem is that none of those settings are active on my trouble layers, which is why I'm so confused as to what is causing them to do so anyway.

  • I have two layouts, each with three layers. Two of the layers on each, both with minimal assets on them, have “use own texture” flagged to yes. According to the manual, that’s just a read-only display to inform me whether they’re using their own texture. I have no idea why they’re doing it, though.

    I don’t have “force own textures” set. Neither layer has any effects applied to it. They’re at full opacity, and they use the normal blend mode. Those are the most common causes I read about that can compel a layer to use its own texture, and I can confirm that they don’t apply here.

    I’ve read that layers using their own texture adds some performance overhead, which is something I’m trying to minimize. I can combine all three layers into one if I have to, but I was curious if anyone knew why they might be flagging that way.

    Thanks.

  • Thanks to the advice I’ve received on here, I’ve almost eliminated stutters from my game. The last issue I have is when I test on mobile. The game runs at 60 fps on a low end Android; for the first minute or so, it drops a single frame or two every several seconds, causing a very noticeable, but brief, stutter in my bullet objects. After that first minute of playtime, however, it completely clears up.

    I preload all of my objects. I don’t create or delete anything once the game starts in order to avoid garbage collection. And I make extensive use of groups to disable any bunches of non-relevant code. Does anyone know why the game might stutter occasionally at first, then completely smooth out? I’d love to be able to solve this if I could.

    Thanks in advance.

  • Thanks, Ashley, I am looking through it now. There's a lot more room for fine tuning than I thought.

    P.S. I really enjoy Construct. I've had a personal license for 2 and now 3 since last summer, and I've found it to be by far the most user friendly development kit I've tried.

  • I have been using Construct 3's remote preview mode to test my game on different mobile devices. Reworking the game to minimize garbage collection seems to have solved the issues on PC, but my ultimate goal is mobile, so I'm fine tuning stuff there. What I find interesting is that I get wildly different performance between iPhone and Android, but not in the way I would have expected. My iPhone is a considerably nicer platform, and I know from some of the other games I have on it (XCOM, for instance) that it has a fair amount of horsepower, yet it struggles wretchedly on my little auto runner. Remote Preview can't detect the GPU %, but estimates the CPU usage as averaging in the 80% range. It stutters, ridiculously so, almost to the point of being unplayable. I'm using the default browser to test on, which I assume is Safari.

    My Android, by contrast, is a comparatively cheap little phone I picked up specifically to test lower range mobile. There's the occasional noticeable hitch, but by and large it runs much smoother. The GPU rating appears on the preview and the CPU usage is way down. I know there are a lot of variables to factor in, but the performance difference still floored me, especially given that the iPhone is, technically speaking, the more powerful piece of hardware. Android is my main focus anyway, since I don't have a Mac to compile on, but still. I'd like to iron out those last little Android slowdowns if I can, but I was just surprised by how it all turned out.

  • This is all great. Thanks, everyone, for responding in such detail. I’ve seen optimization articles by Ashley in the Construct 2 manuals, but I don’t know if anything definitive has been compiled that reflects the latest technology conditions. I can’t help but wonder how many other tips/tricks/optimizations have been discovered as people push the engine in different ways and for different formats. I’d be very interested in seeing some kind of community style census to pool the best tidbits from everyone’s experiences. I have more to reconsider in my own project just from these posts here. Thanks again.