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stickyice17
Member
Anyone response please...
i am currently animating the sprites using SpriteSheets but the problem i am facing is the memory usage... The spriteSheets work fine if there are only few sprites (with different pngs & plists) to be animated but as the number of sprites on screen increases proportionally the memory increases.
So anybody please tell what should i do to reduce the memory...??
It should be assumed that adding sprites will increase memory usage. Proper use of a spritesheet will reduce how much memory is used by the texture, but as you are creating objects, they must, by definition, use memory. I don't really understand what you mean when you say the memory use increases proportionally. How much memory is being used for each sprite? Are you running into memory warnings? Performance problems?
I'd reccommend reading http://www.cocos2d-iphone.org/wiki/doku.php/prog_guide:best_practices
Also, it is easier for us to help with your concerns if you post relevant code here so we have something concrete to start from.
stickyice17
Member
yeah exactly i am running into memory warning..
i give some sample code
`CGSize s = [[CCDirector sharedDirector] winSize];
[[CCSpriteFrameCache sharedSpriteFrameCache] addSpriteFramesWithFile:@"shopkeeper_Person.plist"];
CCSprite *sprite = [CCSprite spriteWithSpriteFrameName:@"shopkeeper_Person_01.png"];
sprite.position = ccp( s.width/2+140, s.height/2);
CCSpriteSheet *spritesheet = [CCSpriteSheet spriteSheetWithFile:@"shopkeeper_Person.png"];
[spritesheet addChild:sprite];
[self addChild:spritesheet];
NSMutableArray *animFrames = [NSMutableArray array];
for(int i = 1; i < 15; i++) {
CCSpriteFrame *frame = [[CCSpriteFrameCache sharedSpriteFrameCache] spriteFrameByName:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"shopkeeper_Person_%02d.png",i]];
[animFrames addObject:frame];
}
CCAnimation *animation = [CCAnimation animationWithName:@"shopkeeper" delay:0.2f frames:animFrames];
[sprite runAction:[CCRepeatForever actionWithAction: [CCAnimate actionWithAnimation:animation restoreOriginalFrame:NO] ]];`
this is the code for my one character's animation (that when gets added uses around 4 MB) and i have several other characters(with different .plists & .pngs)..
this code works fine if i add the sprites of this person using this spritesheet no extra memory is consumed but as i add the spritesheets of my other charaters using the same method the memory increase proportionally...(like 4MB +4MB + 4MB..and so on depending upon the number of different characters i add)
i hope so now you can understand my problem..why i suffering with the memory consumption problem.. :(
chrisco
Member
A call to [[CCTextureCache sharedTextureCache] removeUnusedTextures]; will clear up any spritesheets that you're not using at the time. There's a similar method for CCSpriteFrameCache as well.
It might come down to optimizing your artwork though:
What size are each of your png files?
Is it possible to reuse frames in an animation to use up less space on a sheet?
How many different characters will be onscreen at once?
Can you/are you using Zwoptex to maximize usage per sheet?
stickyice17
Member
@chrisco
i have called the
[[CCSpriteFrameCache sharedSpriteFrameCache] removeUnusedSpriteFrames]
but that doesnt reduce the memory..
--> the size of each png is around 196-260 kb
--> the possiblity of reusing the frames is not possible because each frame is associated with one image
--> Right now i have placed around 10 characters and due to memory issues i have stopped adding more characters.. but my intentions are to add more new characters if this issue could get resolved
--> yeah i am using Zwoptex for maximizing the usage per sheet.
chrisco
Member
It's hard to know for sure without actually seeing the assets or knowing the formats you're using right now, but this quote from the best practices that @dragyn mentioned might help out:
Textures
When possible, try to use 2-bit, 4-bit or 16-bit textures
16-bit textures for PNG/GIF/BMP/TIFF images
[CCTexture2D setDefaultAlphaPixelFormat:kCCTexture2DPixelFormat_RGBA4444]; // add this line at the very beginning
4-bit or 2-bit textures: Try to use PVRTC textures.
CCSprite *sprite = [CCSprite spriteWithFile: @"sprite.pvr"];
Use 32-bit textures as the last resort
It is Possible to use 8-bit textures with kCCTexture2DPixelFormat_A8, but it is only valid for grayscale images. Although they are faster than 16-bit textures in 1st and 2nd gen devices, they are MUCH slower than 32-bit textures in 3rd gen devices and on the iPad
camsauce
Member
It is Possible to use 8-bit textures with kCCTexture2DPixelFormat_A8, but it is only valid for grayscale images. Although they are faster than 16-bit textures in 1st and 2nd gen devices, they are MUCH slower than 32-bit textures in 3rd gen devices and on the iPad
Do I read this correctly that a 32-bit PNG image is faster than an 8-bit one? Surely this can't be correct. A 32-bit image would be 2x-4x larger and consume more memory? I know this is in the best practices guide but does someone have a technical explanation why this could be the case?
stickyice17
Member
chrisco
Member
@stickyice17 - It would be extremely helpful if you could post an example of one character's spritesheet - if you're concerned about having it ripped off by people, you could always send me PM with a download link. I really think that you'll have to reexamine how your sheets are set up, as that seems right now like it will be the only fix. The other other option I can think of is limiting the amount of unique characters on screen. If you're not willing to do that, you may have to make sacrifices in other areas.
stickyice17
Member
Finally i traced the problem .. :]
I had to reduce the frame size of my images that were being used on the SpriteSheet png files. These frames were causing the increment in the memory usage of the whole character when gets added. The size of each frame is 220x160 and the number of frames on each SpriteSheet were around 20.
After a lot of testing on the animation with SpriteSheets i had identified that the only & easiest way to resolve this issue is by reducing the size of these frames because this way i even don't have to change a single line of my code from my project but i'll just re-draw the SpriteSheets with new but smaller frames..
anyway thanks for everybody who posted here and all the ideas you people gave me, helped me alot.
@chrisco
i really appreciate your concern regarding my help.Thanks :]
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