RPG Maker MZ performance on Android and my disappointment

[slayer2]

A week ago I saw that RPG Maker MZ was half price and I bought it without thinking twice.

I do some tests on Android and everything seems correct except for some graphical issues where some tilsets show a bit of the next tilset as a border (For example, if the tilset has an image of a tree and next to that image there is another image of a rock , if you place it on the map you should see the tree on one side and the rock on the other, because in Android you can see the tree, but it would take a little bit of the image of the rock showing as a small frame or line on its right ).

Also going from one map to another, using a door to enter the map of a house, the colors are distorted for a few seconds it looks strange, but then everything looks good. All these are just things that I don't care too much about and if someone knows how to solve them or give me some advice, I would greatly appreciate it.

The worst comes when I try to cycle day and night, time and climate. All these are tests that I do before starting a game because they are things that I would like to implement in a game. After building those systems with common events everything works great on Windows, I test it on my Samsun Galaxy S21 and although there is some lag if it works. I test it on my Tablet, which is basic, which is a Realme Pad with 4G RAM with Android 11 and the game starts to lag after a few seconds and closes.

I am very perfectionist and if I make a game I want to cycle day and night, time and weather. That for the moment, I don't know if I'm going to want to add more things later. I don't understand how the Tablet can open 3D games like Genshin Impact and then it doesn't have enough power for a game with RPG Maker MZ.

On the other hand, they sell you RPG Maker as you will be able to make your Android games as if it turned out to be super simple, but then you have to find your life because the program only exports the project, if you want to make an .apk or . AAB you can now pull Google, tutorials and information you find. I think that he was able to release a specific tool and that he had to update it every time it was necessary to pay a license for the program for something.

Bueno, ¿alguien puede ayudarme con algún complemento para mejorar el rendimiento en Android, o complementos en Cordova, Android Studio o lo que sea que haga que la aplicación administre mejor los recursos del dispositivo, lo que sea para que funcione mejor?

Also free day and night, weather and weather plugins. To remove the common events and leave the plugins to see if it works better.

No sé si un complemento será mejor que los eventos comunes, si usará menos recursos o no.
I need someone to give me ideas to improve performance because I'm somewhat disappointed.

thank you.

 

[Andar]

I test it on my Samsun Galaxy S21 and although there is some lag if it works.

That rather points to a bad implementation of the time/weather system, not to a problem with the engine itself.

I suggest you post screenshots of how you tried to do your time and ask for help optimizing it.

I don't understand how the Tablet can open 3D games like Genshin Impact and then it doesn't have enough power for a game with RPG Maker MZ.

Most likely it is exactly because they are 3D instead of 2D.

3D requires mathematics and processing power (and many graphic chips have subunits specifically designed for 3D-mathematics.

2D requires RAM, not mathematics - and that is something that is almost always short in smaller devices.

Please do NOT fall into the trap of thinking that 3D is more difficult than 2D - that opinion has not been true for two or three decades, it was only true before the mathematics were developed into subunits for the display chips (at times of DOS and Windows 95 the processor had to handle the mathematics, and that was a problem then).

Also free day and night, weather and weather plugins. To remove the common events and leave the plugins to see if it works better.

Contrary to the opinion of many inexperienced users, plugins are NOT miracle workers.
Time and weather - if done correctly, see above - are usually better as events than as plugins.
The only reasons some plugins for those functions exist is if people wanted to add options that are not available through event commands, like additional types of weather and so on.

 

[ATT_Turan]

Just to add a few things onto what Andar explained:

I test it on my Tablet, which is basic, which is a Realme Pad with 4G RAM

That's pretty bad. I wouldn't expect a modern game to run on those specs unless it was specifically programmed for the hardware.

On the other hand, they sell you RPG Maker as you will be able to make your Android games as if it turned out to be super simple

No, they don't. I just read through the product description for RPG Maker MZ on this Web store as well as Steam, and I don't see any claim that you can export games for Android at all.

 

[slayer2]

Just to add a few things onto what Andar explained:

That's pretty bad. I wouldn't expect a modern game to run on those specs unless it was specifically programmed for the hardware.


No, they don't. I just read through the product description for RPG Maker MZ on this Web store as well as Steam, and I don't see any claim that you can export games for Android at all.

I use Google translate and it may not have translated well. I know they don't make an exporter for Android, what I wanted to say is that they should. I know that RPG Maker MZ, like MV, only export the project in compatibility with Android so that you can create your application or open the game with the browser. But they don't warn of the limitations of this or that an intermediate of what requirements a device needs to run a decent game of RPG Maker. At least I see that it is compatible with Android, and I already think that everything I put in the game will work the same as on PC.

 

[Andar]

what requirements a device needs to run a decent game of RPG Maker.

I restate my comment from above:
A time system event should run correctly and without lag even on a low-level android device - as long as it is done correctly.
And in 99% of all cases when someone says that a time system lags, it usually has the wrong number of waitframes. Because both no/too few and too many waitframes will cause lag.
But the correct number depends on the specific game and its logic and can't be given without seeing the events.

 

[slayer2]

Reitero mi comentario de arriba:
Un evento del sistema de tiempo debe ejecutarse correctamente y sin retrasos, incluso en un dispositivo Android de bajo nivel, siempre que se haga correctamente.
Y en el 99% de todos los casos, cuando alguien dice que un sistema de tiempo se retrasa, generalmente tiene el número incorrecto de marcos de espera. Debido a que no hay / muy pocos y demasiados marcos de espera causarán retrasos.
Pero el número correcto depende del juego específico y su lógica y no se puede dar sin ver los eventos.

Well, your answer motivates me and gives me hope Well, now I'm in the testing phase testing on Android and before I start creating my game, I want to see that everything works on Android and what plugins to add or not.

It may be that, that I have created common events with something that fails. I have also created those events separately for example:

Time, Day and night, Different sounds depending on whether it is day or night and depending on the weather, weather.

There are some events that I could join, but I have put them aside to visually organize myself. Some event may contradict or step on another... I'll have to take a good look.

But of course, as on PC and on my smartphone, despite everything, the game works well, because when I tried it on the tablet, I was disappointed. Well, I thought that a game with these characteristics had to be manageable for not very powerful devices, and maybe it is, but I'll have to try more.

Thank you

 

[slayer2]

Just to add a few things onto what Andar explained:

That's pretty bad. I wouldn't expect a modern game to run on those specs unless it was specifically programmed for the hardware.


No, they don't. I just read through the product description for RPG Maker MZ on this Web store as well as Steam, and I don't see any claim that you can export games for Android at all.

I take it for granted that it is the Tablet that does not meet the specifications or it has something, because it tested on these smartphones and if it works well. The lowest-end smartphone that he was able to test is the Samsung Galaxy A71 with 6Gb of RAM running Android 13.

The application is with API 33 "Android 13" and at least API 30 "Android 11".

The Tablet has Android 11 and 4Gb of RAM but the processor is slow.
I wanted the game to be able to run on a device that is not very powerful, but it seems that if I want that, I have to limit extremely basic features that I think my game should have. So I will forget to test it on Tablet.

I will continue to add whatever I feel is necessary for me to bring my game. When I see that it at least works well on the Galaxy A71, I'll be happy to really start making a good game.

Out of curiosity, apart from the fact that the game closed on my tablet. It gave me an error loading .ogg sound files that I had set to the day and night common event.

It is strange because if it were a file failure, the same thing has to happen in other devices

 

[ATT_Turan]

Out of curiosity, apart from the fact that the game closed on my tablet. It gave me an error loading .ogg sound files that I had set to the day and night common event.

It's hard to help you without knowing what "the error" said exactly. There are a number of possibilities, but the most common is adding user-made files to the project that don't adhere to HTML naming rules (e.g. containing spaces).

 

[slayer2]

It's hard to help you without knowing what "the error" said exactly. There are a number of possibilities, but the most common is adding user-made files to the project that don't adhere to HTML naming rules (e.g. containing spaces).

In the error it said "failed to load file" and then the path of the .ogg file appeared.

This file, yes, it was a file of mine that did not come with RPG Maker. But I've tried various programs and websites to convert it to .ogg and nothing.

If it really was a file thing, I would get the same error on the other devices, but this only happens on the tablet.

I have common events that control the time, day and night, weather, sounds depending on the weather day and night... In the rest of the devices it works fine without any kind of lag. The problem is with the tablet since the game closes directly. It only works with the day and night environment variables, when I put the rest it goes a bit wrong and since there are sound changes in the variables it gives me that error that I have mentioned.

If the variables give problems, they give them to me also in the rest of the devices, but they work fine.

It also seems that the .ogg file loads fine for me, but if at the moment it is changed to another file, then another sound has to be played, depending on how I give it if it works or not, it doesn't make sense... since it is now yes, not now. The sound that has worked then may stop working later and the error that I have already mentioned appears. But it is that I do not care if it does not happen in the rest of the devices and that I have tried it in more than 4, is that the tablet does not support it.

What, if I have to look, and I may open another post about this, is that it doesn't matter if I create the application with Cordova or Android Studio, but the Android game creates a line on the map's tilset. As if it invaded part of the following drawing of the tilset. I leave a picture.


It is a capture of the smartphone and it happens to me on all the devices that I have tried. Instead when I test the app in the android studio device emulator, it looks fine.

 

[Andar]

the path of the .ogg file appeared.

and what is the filename?
We can't help if you refuse to give details.
In this case you were already told that in many cases the mistake is in the filename itself, because Windows allows filenames that are forbidden in a networking environment, and when you have one of the forbidden letters in the filename then it will fail on android despite working on windows.

So if you want that checked, then please give us the full error message, INCLUDING the filename that does not work under android

 

[slayer2]

and what is the filename?
We can't help if you refuse to give details.
In this case you were already told that in many cases the mistake is in the filename itself, because Windows allows filenames that are forbidden in a networking environment, and when you have one of the forbidden letters in the filename then it will fail on android despite working on windows.

So if you want that checked, then please give us the full error message, INCLUDING the filename that does not work under android

In order to show you the error, I had to remove the common events in parallel with the weather and some others that it had. Well, if not, the game just starts the game, it crashes after 3 4 seconds and the application closes. All this being just a test I have not made a game nor have I put custom content except for some .ogg sound files with basic names like ambiente.ogg ambienten.ogg vietof.ogg gallo.ogg lobo.ogg

But it does not make sense, for example, that during the day the sound of people in the town is heard with the ambient.ogg file and then at night the sounds of the night are heard with the ambient.ogg file the difference between a file and the another is the letter n and all without spaces and in lowercase. It depends on the tablet, you can start the game and it loads and plays ambient.ogg or you may start the game and it doesn't want to load the ambient.ogg file and the error appears. It might play the file, but then when it's time to replace ambient.ogg with ambientn.ogg, ambientn.ogg gives the same or no error and works and when it has to play again ambient.ogg gives the error when in At first it worked... It depends how you hit the tablet.

I have these sounds configured in my day and night cycle, during the day one thing sounds at night another is simple... in this case they are BGS sounds but it's the same... it can be with any sound.
When I put more common events like the weather, well, no error comes out directly, the game closes 3 seconds after starting.

It is with the only device with which it happens, with the challenge 0 problems.

And the thing about the tilsets does happen to me at all, and it seems strange to me that emulating the game in Android studio works well and looks good, but then on the devices it stops like the previous image that I attached.

I attach an image of the error that appears on the tablet.

Thank you.

 

[slayer2]

I just did more tests and I see that when I remove my .ogg files from the game it works on the Tablet even with all the common events…. I am so happy!!!!!!!!!!!

I have replaced the .ogg with sounds that already come with RPG Maker MZ.

But sometimes before I have to open the game about 4 or 5 times because it ends up closing after a few seconds. But once it opens fine, it always opens fine, so it seems that it already works.

I have left it a few times the day and night cycle, also the random time so it has been rain, storm, snow, day and night without problems.

Therefore, the tablet does run the game, but it gives me some problems with ogg that I don't get on other devices.

I will have to do several tests with sound editing programs, I use Audacity to edit the free sound files I find on the internet. But these are the ones that are causing problems. I put the files at 44,100 kHz, which is how the rpg maker files come.

 

[Andar]

Therefore, the tablet does run the game, but it gives me some problems with ogg that I don't get on other devices.

You kinow why you have to provide all audio files twice, in two different formats?

The ogg files are for PC-based use (Windows, MacOS, Linux), because the codecs for ogg are best used there.
The m4a files are for mobile deployment (Android and iOS) because all mobile devices have a hardware decoder-chip for those formats, and for this reason can use that format better.

Since you claim your tablet runs with android (if I read above correctly), then it should never try to load the ogg files but default to the m4a files.

If it doesn't, then something went wrong in the engine of your game, which would also explain the other problems and you should try to find that cause and repair it - either an in compatible plugin or a file damage or something like that.

 

[slayer2]

You kinow why you have to provide all audio files twice, in two different formats?

The ogg files are for PC-based use (Windows, MacOS, Linux), because the codecs for ogg are best used there.
The m4a files are for mobile deployment (Android and iOS) because all mobile devices have a hardware decoder-chip for those formats, and for this reason can use that format better.

Since you claim your tablet runs with android (if I read above correctly), then it should never try to load the ogg files but default to the m4a files.

If it doesn't, then something went wrong in the engine of your game, which would also explain the other problems and you should try to find that cause and repair it - either an in compatible plugin or a file damage or something like that.

But it doesn't make sense, if all the files that RPG Maker MZ includes are .ogg and if they work on the tablet, why will it work with that one and not with other files of mine that are .ogg?

Then either I put an m4a file directly into RPG Maker's sounds folder or save it via RPK Maker's file manager. The file does not appear to be able to select it in an event where I want to use that sound.

If I leave two files in the game, one .ogg and the other m4a with the same name, it does appear in RPG Maker, but how will it know which of the two to play? I suppose that it goes directly to the .ogg file, which is the one that it detects, the m4a by itself does not detect it.

Also if I have to have .ogg and m4a sound it increases the size of the game.

 

[Andar]

The file does not appear to be able to select it in an event where I want to use that sound.

of course not - the same as you don't select the ogg file either.

what you select is the filename, which is why you need both filetypes with the same filename.
The engine will select the extension automatically and without showing both files.
That is part of the player program, which is different for different hardwares and checks which files it needs. It should only go to the ogg if it detects that it is not android/iOS - which is why I assume that your engine files are broken or damaged.

why will it work with that one and not with other files of mine that are .ogg?

then you most probably used the wrong codec for the ogg-file.

ogg is a container type of file, which can use many different ogg-codec (CODer - DECoder). The filetype is constantly improved with more and better codecs, and a player can only read the codecs it knows - which is why this needs updates.
So if you create your soundfiles with the newest and most extreme codec for smallest filesize, older players that are missing that codec update will not be able to play the ogg file with the new codec.

 

[slayer2]

of course not - the same as you don't select the ogg file either.

what you select is the filename, which is why you need both filetypes with the same filename.
The engine will select the extension automatically and without showing both files.
That is part of the player program, which is different for different hardwares and checks which files it needs. It should only go to the ogg if it detects that it is not android/iOS - which is why I assume that your engine files are broken or damaged.


then you most probably used the wrong codec for the ogg-file.

ogg is a container type of file, which can use many different ogg-codec (CODer - DECoder). The filetype is constantly improved with more and better codecs, and a player can only read the codecs it knows - which is why this needs updates.
So if you create your soundfiles with the newest and most extreme codec for smallest filesize, older players that are missing that codec update will not be able to play the ogg file with the new codec.

The way that occurred to me to see if RPG Maker MZ does something with the m4a files that I create, is when exporting for Android, select that it only export the files used. With this I have seen that it only exports the audio used and both in its .ogg and .m4a format. This means that if it detects both files, but exports both.

I have tried the application on the Tablet and it gives me the usual error, and it keeps appearing that it is looking for the file environment.ogg not m4a and that it has exported the .ogg version as .m4a
So even though you export for Android it seems to be looking for the .ogg extension.

I have tried converting all the audio files in case RPG Maker MZ was not working well handling .ogg files from the same program as .m4a, to always use the same format, but nothing still doesn't work.

I've tried .ogg files with Audacity, I've tried .ogg and .m4a files with Wondershare UniConverter 13 and Xilisoft Video Converter Ultimate, but nothing seems to work.

Even though I have two audio versions both .ogg and .m4a together, the game doesn't work on the tablet and it keeps looking for the .ogg version. If I put only .ogg it doesn't work. If I put only .m4a
I have tried deleting all the .ogg files and leaving their .m4a files and with this the game does not even open on Android because it cannot find its .ogg file
From the looks of it, it only wants to load .ogg.

On the other hand, I have sounds of a rooster and a wolf that sound depending on whether it is night or not and I have converted it from .mp3 to .ogg with Wondershare UniConverter 13 since this software is paid and I have its license, but Xilisoft Video Converter Ultimate is a trial version that I downloaded to see if it was a problem with the other program. And these sounds do work by converting them to .ogg

What's more, the same environment.ogg file is played by the game and listened to, until it stops loading it and the error appears. It also only happens to me on the tablet.

But with the original .ogg files of the game it doesn't happen.

I'm going to try converting all the original RPG Maker .ogg files with Wondershare UniConverter 13 and if the game hears the program is not the problem.

I don't know what else to try anymore.

 

[slayer2]

I just converted all the original sound files to .ogg so that they had the same audio encoding format as the audio files that are giving me problems and the game loads them well, so the format and the file converter program It works well. The problem is RPG Maker MZ, I'll keep trying and if I find a solution I'll comment.

Thanks for the help, you can learn from everything

 

[Bex]

I have no real clue about this Topic, but were .m4a Files not a thing of RMMV and MZ only got .ogg?
Which would explain why .m4a does not work in MZ? In that case you would need Rpg Maker MV.

But i thought .OGG works if deployed for HTML Browser. But never tested if that Browser Game than runs on Android
or if a Android Browser does not like to execute the game like a windows browser?
Maybe someone knows more.

 

[slayer2]

I have already solved it, now it works perfectly for me on the tablet 0 Problems except for the one that I already mentioned about the edges of some images of the tilset.

The solution, to cut the duration of the sound files from 3 minutes to 30 or 40 seconds, which in the end is no longer needed, are ambient sounds and with the repetition of the same sound in a loop, it is correct and sufficient. The thing is, since I'm just doing tests, I didn't cut these files. Before an audio file could weigh 14Mb and now it weighs 700Kb or 1Mb.

In any case, it is also a problem with the charging power of the device, in others it did not give me problems and in the Tablet it did.
But in any case, I would have cut the sound whether or not I had problems with this, only that as I am testing...

Now I need to solve the tilesets.

Thanks for the help