Framerate loss on iPad2 and 3

[JLowther]

I've successfully deployed my game to an iPad2 and 3, but the framerate seems to stutter even when doing something a simple as making text appear during a dialogue or panning the screen.


Is there any way to better optimize before or after deploying to iOS?

 

[Andar]

before deployment - the one thing you never should forget is that a full computer has a lot more power than any tablet, and because of that can mask suboptimal eventing.


You should check all your autoruns and parallels in the game - a single badly written (or empty) autorun will lag any mobile to hell, while the computer can handle one or two such events without problems.


And if even show text show lag, then you have probably several bad parallel processes going on at the same time - they are either on the common events or on the map where theshow text stutters.


If you show us screenshots of them, then we can tell you where you can optimize.

 

[JLowther]

before deployment - the one thing you never should forget is that a full computer has a lot more power than any tablet, and because of that can mask suboptimal eventing.


You should check all your autoruns and parallels in the game - a single badly written (or empty) autorun will lag any mobile to hell, while the computer can handle one or two such events without problems.


And if even show text show lag, then you have probably several bad parallel processes going on at the same time - they are either on the common events or on the map where theshow text stutters.


If you show us screenshots of them, then we can tell you where you can optimize.

I appreciate the offer, but there are definitely no autoruns happening anywhere.


Just to make sure, I created a new project that's completely empty, save a few images that I have slide back and forth on the screen and the same stutter persists.


Ergo, I'm suspicious of it being something in the way xcode builds the file.


I'm having cordova use the --release tag to ensure it doesn't bog it down with any debugging tools, as well as running it in xcode as a release build with what should be no debugging but it's still sluggish. :\

 

[JLowther]

I've also tried archiving the file as an ipa and installing it manually via the iTunes method suggested in RMMV's documentation but it seems to change nothing.

 

[Andar]

JLowther, please avoid double posting, as it is against the forum rules. You can review our forum rules here. Thank you.


If you have something to add and your own post is the last one, simply edit that.


Which version of MV is your project based on? Updating the editor does NOT update older projects, for compatibility reasons and more all project updates have to be made manually. If you haven't updated your project to at least 1.3.0, then that might be the cause as there were several problems with the first MV versions.


However, there are a few things not yet corrected in 1.3.1, but no one has an ETA for the next update (which will fix the last memory leak and correct the scrolling text bug)

 

[JLowther]

I'm 90% sure it was created under 1.3.1, but just to be sure, I created a brand new project which has nothing in it but a starting location for the party.


The game is running noticeably slower on the iPad3. In fact, I can hold the iPad up to my computer as both play the game, click a location on the other end of the screen and the party on my computer reaches that point far faster than the party on the iPad does.


Again, completely fresh project with no plugins, nothing edited at all.


EDIT:


Here's a side by side video comparison so you can see what I mean (I added a treasure chest that says one line of dialogue when you click it but didn't use it in this video):


https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/67091205/party_compare.mp4


As you can clearly see, even though the party on the iPad is instructed to move first, they get beaten to the edge of the screen by the party on the macbook. :\


The iPad seems to literally be running at 3/4ths speed or something...


EDIT2:


I've tried messing with every optimization-related setting in xcode that I can find and it doesn't seem to change the performance of RPG maker on the iPad one bit. Any suggestions would be welcome as I'm out of ideas.


EDIT3:
 


I've observed that events that are set to wait a certain number of frames take 2-3X as long on the iPad build, though I'm guessing this is due to the framerate being lower...


EDIT4:


Had high hopes for the update but the game still runs very slowly, even after creating a completely new project under 1.3.2