Bizarre iOS Viewer Behaviour On Duel Wireless Bands, White Squares Replace Actor Image After Update

EOS

So I noticed something really bizarre after I updated to 10.2 and I'm going to try and explain it as concise as possible.

I use a duel band router at my office - the two bands are named "Office Network" and "Office Network 2". My iOS devices are always connected to the 'Office Network' band and cannot even connect to "Office Network 2". Normally my laptop (which runs the Gamesalad creator) is also connected to 'Office Network". However, when I connect my laptop to "Office Network 2" and open the iOS viewer on either my iPhone or iPad (which are connected to 'Office Network', remember), the Gamesalad creator still gives me the option to run my game through the iOS viewer, and it works. The iOS viewer doesn't seem recognize the Gamesalad creator ('Connected to wifi, Gamesalad creator not found' when viewer is opened), however it still runs my game. I even get the pop-up 'GameSalad Creator not Found on Network, etc...' while I'm playing my game through the viewer.

It gets stranger.

Some people have complained about white squares replacing their actor image after updating to 10.2. I have also experienced this, however I've only see it happen when my laptop/iOS devices are connected to the same wireless network. So when my devices and laptop are all connected to 'Office Network' and I try to test the game on the iOS viewer - bam, white squares for all my images. However, if I connect my laptop to 'Office Network 2' and my devices to 'Office Network' as described above, everything runs/looks just fine.

TL;DR: Gamesalad creator previews game through iOS Viewer, even if each iOS device/laptop is on a separate wireless network. White squares replace actor images only when all devices are on the same network. When running the devices off separate networks, the actor images appear as they should.

tatiang

In my experience the white squares replacing actor images is a result of attempting to change self.Image to another value at the wrong time. So for example, grabbing a value from a table before the table value gets set or while a Change Table Value behavior is running.

The newest version of Creator features performance improvements, so it's understandable that the timing could change from what worked before (or even that hardware or network settings could affect it).

You may have to comb through your rules and simplify (delete rules) until you find the cause.

EOS

Thanks for the response tatiang.

I don't think it is a change self.image problem because my game does not attempt to change an actors image at any point. There are only 3 images in my game and they are completely static - no image changes, no animations, nothing. I know some games have been acting strange with various Change Table Value behaviours, however I don't have a table in my game. I'm pretty sure this is iOS Viewer related as the images look fine in the Creator preview, and like I described up top, the white squares do not appear when I'm running the iOS viewer and Creator on separate wireless networks...which shouldn't really be possible to begin with.

Slowboy

Hi @EOS, try this... Quit the viewer, restart it, and now run your game from the Recent Games list... got image?? No white squares?? For me, it appears that you'll get white actors while using the viewer on a 'live link', but you'll have proper images while running the app from the recent apps list?

I guess as long as we can prove that everything's OK in AdHoc, all should be well and your game can be considered safe to publish??

Also, while it may seem a pain having to first preview, knowing you will get white actors, then quitting and rerunning from the recent games list, I find that the loading times are much shorter when running from the list. So, the only 'extra' time wasted is the quicker loading from the list...
I guess I'm just thinking aloud and convincing myself that all is not lost and it's pretty safe to continue development as normal, working around this minor inconvenience and ignoring the issue until it gets quietly fixed at some point in the future!?

Any more thoughts on this white actor thing anyone?

Slowboy

Heh, wouldn't you know it - the very next time I open my game from the Recent Games list, I've got white actors!...looking like it might in fact be somthing to do with the overscan switch?...Hmm, yes, I think that's it - my app has just loaded on a 'live link' with the creator and is showing images, no white actors! The only thing I did differently was that I DIDN'T touch the Overscan button on the viewer first. It's normally a habit of mine to turn Overscan OFF before testing, as soon as I open the viewer...
Sorry, bear with me, this is getting stranger...
rrrr, thought I'd cracked it, but maybe not, but definitely some results!....

Ok, same app, running as follows....

'Live Link', running from Creator...
Overscan ON - 1st run = OK, good images
Overscan OFF - 1st run = WHITE, all white actors

Recent Games, running from list...
Overscan ON - 1st run = WHITE, 2nd run = OK, 3rd run = OK
Overscan OFF - 1st run = WHITE, 2nd run = OK, 3rd run = OK

...er, make of that what you will! I'm hoping that means that it's almost certainly a Viewer issue and shouldn't affect your game, I can't be bothered to test any more, and will be carrying on regardless - can anyone see if they get the same results, and perhaps try an AdHoc? I'm sure I will soon, but soldiering on for now!

The_Gamesalad_Guru

Using any other image type than PNG can cause the white issue. If you used Jpgs or gifs change them to PNGs

Slowboy

I'm ALL pngs, never changed. Never been foolhardy enough to mess with that jpeg hackery!

EOS

Hey @Slowboy I thought I found a pattern but the white squares are seemingly random for me too. I retested my game on the separate wireless networks again over the weekend and I began to get white squares when the Creator was on the 'wrong' wireless network, which had previously given me the proper actor images (though its still strange the Creator/Viewer work on separate networks). So back to square one (no pun intended)... like you said, might as well keep soldiering on.

When I get some time this week I'm going to try @uptimistik 's suggestion as it does seem to be a viewer issue. I don't have any jpegs or image changes either so I don't think that could be it.

tatiang

@Slowboy Do you mind submitting a bug report with those details?

DigiChain

Just to pitch in - I've also had the white squares bug in the viewer. All my images are PNG. Everything was white squares from the moment the app launched, I have no change image rules and don't use tables in the bugged app.

I just quit out and restarted and things were fine again.

Slowboy

Yeah @Digichain, I was just coming back to mention this - it's actually completely random. If you have white squares, just run it again, and they're bound to be gone next time!
Oh, and sorry @tatiang, as above, not really worth reporting my findings as they were completely random! ;]