Game Development Community

Engine decision

by Mark Schmidt · in iTorque 2D · 03/08/2009 (10:36 pm) · 9 replies

I'm having some issues here. I've spent quite some time with iTGB working on my game and have gotten pretty far. I uploaded to my iPhone awhile back and it worked though I noticed some slowdown. I have since added a few more things. Now when I run it, it seems a tad slower. When I start some particle effects (I have a nuclear explosion for one of them) it really crawls.

I guess I'm really starting to wonder if I should even continue. I hate to knowing I plunked some coin down and I've generally been impressed with the GG tech. I guess I'm really looking for some reassurance that some optimizations are coming. I also have a license for another engine (starts with a U) and I'm going to take another look at it. Any thoughts?
NextNext Thread
PrevPrevious Thread
More from iTorque 2D


Torque Owner Ee
#1
03/09/2009 (4:59 am)
Wait for 1.2 Mark before finally deciding what to do next. It's been in the oven for a really long time and it should fix most of the issues.

Oh that game engine starting with a U, is it "Ur own engiNITY 3d"?

Torque 3D Owner Dave Young
Dave Young Games
#2
03/09/2009 (7:02 am)
Right now the iTGB engine for project use is good for certain things, not so good for others out of the box. You really need to bend your mind towards optimizations and probably engine mods to get exactly what you need out of it. We've had the luxury in the past for the PC/Mac platforms of letting waste slip by and not necessarily needing to optimize at a low level. We also haven't really had to go in and leverage old tricks and design considerations that developers of old have had to.

Yes, hopefully there are some optimizations coming in the next release but we know nothing about any upgrades so far or when it might be released. So unless some word comes from on high addressing the specific things you're needing sped up, the only 2 options are jump in deep yourself and see if you can do it, or use another engine.

I have a few particle effects in my game and I don't have a slowdown, but I took care to use the minimum particles I needed to get the nice effect, realizing how small they really would be in the actual device. So it was a sacrifice for performance really.

Torque Owner Mark Schmidt
#3
03/09/2009 (10:47 am)
Ee, are you working on the engine itself, or is the statement "it should fix most of the issues" just what you have heard?

You are correct about your last statement :-)

Torque 3D Owner Dave Young
Dave Young Games
#4
03/09/2009 (10:53 am)
I am still having trouble picking out the Unity iPhone games out there. I use ShiVa for the 3D stuff and think I can spot it. Know any examples of Unity iPhone games?


Employee Michael Perry
ZombieShortbus
#5
03/09/2009 (10:54 am)
They have a thread in their forums about that subject.

Torque Owner Ee
#6
03/09/2009 (2:48 pm)
@Mark
LOL I'm not working on it. I'm just being optimistic about it because I really want iTGB to succeed. Talk to me again if 1.2 fails miserably :)

Torque 3D Owner Dave Young
Dave Young Games
#7
03/09/2009 (5:24 pm)
The other thing I noticed that will make an app crawl is using certain behaviors that have the onUpdate callback. These will get called every frame pretty much. When I need to use those I write in some extra 'early out' code in the onUpdate callbacks to improve performance, and try to avoid behaviors in general on the iPhone.

Torque Owner Ray Graham
#8
03/09/2009 (5:38 pm)
I wouldn't say to avoid using behaviors. But definitely avoid using onUpdate. I don't use any.

Torque 3D Owner Mat Valadez
Default Studio Name
#9
03/09/2009 (10:56 pm)
Yes, if you find yourself using onUpdate, make that behavior into a component (make sure you define USE_COMPONETS to get the C++ onUpdate callback)