Performance issue « cocos2d for iPhone

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Performance issue

(14 posts) (7 voices)

Started 1 year ago by itlgames
Latest reply from itlgames

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itlgames
Moderator

Banging my head against the wall, I need some help!

I finally managed to migrate my old game (and base for future games) to cocos2d 1.0.0 (riq's branch with some improvements from araker, to be exact, with a few small modifications, nothing low level)

So far so good, I can see improvements, but sometimes I can see FPS dropping to around 40fps when I am doing nothing, I for example load a batchnode of tiles (about a 100), then another batchnode of dynamic sprites on top, in this case I only have 1 sprite, and testing on a iPhone 3G with 3.1.2, on Instruments I get this:

I'm sure I can get a steady 60fps even on the iPhone 3G as I'm not doing anything big, so not sure if the Instruments rings a bell to anyone, it didn't to me and I couldn't find anything related.

EDIT: Works absolutely fine on a iPhone 4

Posted 1 year ago #
araker
Moderator

That usleep indicates that the GPU has time left and is idle, nothing wrong with that. You could add the OpenGL ES instrument as well, measure the FPS and then take a sample count where the FPS is lower.

Posted 1 year ago #
itlgames
Moderator

That's what I though, that was idle, so thats why I can't understand why the 40FPS.

I took a sample using Core animation and OpenGL, both giving same result:

Posted 1 year ago #
Birkemose
Moderator

Having playtested your ambitious game, my questions would be?

1)
Why upgrade tools unless you have complaints.
That is a waste of time. Get the job done in stead.

2)
Why spent time with frame rates that is still above 40 on a 3G?

You are spending time on tech issues, where your should be spending time finishing your game.

Smack me if I am wrong ;)

Posted 1 year ago #
itlgames
Moderator

You are absolutely right @Birkemose, I should just finish the game! but I guess I'm a bit obsessed with performance, you know the whole code you betatested is identically to my first game Alone, it's the same XCode project with just different target, so on this new game you tested I only change the database and the set of graphics, so my whole idea is to improve as much as I can this game engine so I can exploit few more times (if it works, cos with Alone it wasn't very successful)

It just bugs me why if the GPU is idle, the Sampler CPU looks pretty idle as well, why my framerate is dropping? Anyway, going to leave it for a bit cos I'm flat dead, if anyone has any idea or any suggestion, will really appreciate, otherwise, as @Birkemose said, I will just finish this bloody game (FYI: http://www.itlgames.com/tblq)

EDIT: another reason to migrate is to be able to use batchnodes containing particles, only possible with latest code araker's did on the TextureAtlas class.

Posted 1 year ago #
Birkemose
Moderator

Yeah, but you have the skills and the means. Stop the excuses and get it done.

Posted 1 year ago #
SharkDodge
Member

It's an easy fix to go to 60fps on the iPhone 3G. Just go to gameconfig.h(or something like that) and change the autorotate to none or director. I don't know the exact filenames since I'm on my iPhone.

Posted 1 year ago #
itlgames
Moderator

Thanks @SharkDodge, that was probalby the first thing I did.

My game runs 60fps in general, it's when I load the batchnodes, I must be doing something wrong cos see the images below, according with instrument GPU and CPU are idle but still running at 40fps.

On an iPod 1G I get similar result, but instead of __semwait_signal I get opengl_break_error, I read somewhere it's cos I'm using OS 3.0 and it's just not understanding the real symbol or something like that, could that maybe the same on the iPhone 3G with OS 3.1.2? Maybe my game is spending time in "something" but for some reason it thinks is the __semwait_signal, dunno, there must be something definitively to make it run at 40fps, but I can't see why.

Or a 40fps is a expected behavior on a iPod 1G/ iPhone 3G when let's say we load one batchnode of 100 tiles (54px x 35px) and another batchnode of just a few sprites?

EDIT: you see @Birkemose, I keep going with the excuses!! ok, I will give it a couple of days and if not solved will forget and keep progressing, promise! you will see another version to betatest soon... btw I may introduce IAP and make it freemium.

Posted 1 year ago #
MikeSz
Member

We once had a similar error - game was locked at 40 fps after some time. We had the proper config set (no autorotation) and so on

Turned out that at some point we had some residue UI element (I think that was UIAlertView), that was not removed properly or something (it was months ago, sorry for my lack of memory)

So my recommendation - go through the code and try to remove lines related to anything UIish and see if that helps

Posted 1 year ago #
itlgames
Moderator

Thanks @MikeSz, for one second I thought that was the problem as I use a UIActivityIndicatorView, but I removed and made no difference... :(

And I know it should run at 60fps even on old devices, I recently did a 2d platform game for someone else and with a map of 54x10 tiles was running 60fps steady on iPod 1G !!

So what really bugs me is not been able to find out where the time is spent... anyway will keep checking.

Posted 1 year ago #
itlgames
Moderator

Turns out it was a CCRenderTexture I was also using between the two batchnodes, in fact not just the CCRenderTexture, but if it's empty, I by mistake was still adding the CCRenderTexture even if there were no nodes included, and that seems to be affecting!?!? How weird?? If I have nodes on the CCRenderTexture then it works fine. OK, I'm not going to think about it, it just works, so that's what matters...

Posted 1 year ago #
adamk77
Member

@itlgames

Could you point me to the location where I may be able to obtain araker's code where we're able to use batchnodes containing particles?

You wrote:
"EDIT: another reason to migrate is to be able to use batchnodes containing particles, only possible with latest code araker's did on the TextureAtlas class.

Posted 1 year ago #
totalchen
Member

I got the same problem and I could't fix it.
I hope I will figure it out.

Posted 1 year ago #
itlgames
Moderator

hey @adamk77 sorry missed your reply, you first need to get the reorderSprite branch, I think it's here:

https://github.com/cocos2d/cocos2d-iphone/tarball/release-1.0.0-rc-reorder-sprite

Then you can use the batchnode class I did:

http://code.google.com/p/cocos2d-iphone/issues/detail?id=1148

Scroll down to get latest files. The class is not perfect and can be improved, I'm sure, but so far it works as expected and I can't find any extra penalty if I use only a few particles, so performance on a normal situation with only a few "foreigners" performs as well as the original CCSpriteBatchNode.

But note my class won't work on Riq's branch as I use the reorder stuff araker did.

@totalchen yeah I got stuck here and can't find a solution, it's pretty weird Instruments tells me GPU is idle but still FPS are low, no idea, may even consider to leave the hole thing at 30FPS for now, I just need to finish the game!

Posted 1 year ago #

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