State of GameSalad on 3-20-2014

CodeWizard

Hi everyone!

We're still head's down fixing bugs on release 0.11. We found a nice memory leak related to changing scenes. The fixes to that leak are causing other bizarre bugs that we're working through. Once that's resolved then we should be able to push out a new Release Candidate.

Here's the latest bug review for this release:

We're getting really close! It's my hope that we can push another RC to you this week and potentially release this to everyone as a "stable build" next week. It's been a long haul but we're getting there.

Beyond release 0.11, there's not too much to report. We're still working on our updated Creator tool and graphics optimizations. It's about time for another roadmap update. I'll get on that shortly.

Until next week!

Braydon_SFX

Awesome stuff as usual. Keep it up GS team!

kolabo

Excellent news!

jkravetsky20

Please also release it for Windows. When is it going to be available for Windows?

GameLabs222

BBEnk

@CodeWizard‌

I sent in a Bug about animation and different sizes and got this reply back after some back and forth on the issue.

"Bob (GameSalad)
Mar 20 03:54 PM

We did change a lot of things since 10.4.1. Many of them did relate to how the old animation process worked, and didn't work. What you're seeing is the result of that. The workaround in use here doesn't apply anymore. You can't really guarantee order of operation in Creator. While it makes best effort to work top-to-bottom, it isn't guaranteed. The best solution would be to try to use consistent asset size for your animations whenever possible.

GameSalad Customer Support"

Now the part that bothers me is.

"You can't really guarantee order of operation in Creator. While it makes best effort to work top-to-bottom, it isn't guaranteed"

It would seem important that GameSalad works in the correct order of operation I depend on that for many things.

So is the Animation behavior now working outside of the rule I create or whats it doing?

Ij10281

@jkravetsky20 I hope they will!!! First they will release 10.5, for windows, but I was told by support no Android Monetization will be in the 10.5 Windows Creator.

ericzingeler

@BBEnk‌

Yes, order of operation is extremely important. Unfortunately, whatever order of operation that does exist in GS, it can't be relied upon.

FYI:

Order of operation inside an actor is top to bottom.

but

Order of operation on the layer level is bottom to top.

Yes, doesn't make sense from a user interface design standpoint. Ok, I should stop before I enter rant mode. :-)

Hopscotch

@BBEnk, this un-"order of operation" is what makes your game fluid. Embrace it, it actually is a benefit.

It has always been the case for timers. The new "Loop over Table" does it too.

It may be counter intuitive to someone used to procedural code, but it is predictable in its behaviour. See it as if GS spawns a new function running parallel to your behaviour whenever you create a timer.

will produce this

Edited for better example.

BBEnk

@Hopscotch‌

Interesting so your saying that Animations may now act like Timers? this may actually explain what has happened to my Animations in the RC and nightly builds, they work perfect in 10.4 down but not with this new Animation code. And this explain why I need to add extra code to make the A.I. work.

Thanks for insight gonna look at something.

BBEnk

@BBEnk said:
CodeWizard‌

I sent in a Bug about animation and different sizes and got this reply back after some back and forth on the issue.

"Bob (GameSalad)
Mar 20 03:54 PM

We did change a lot of things since 10.4.1. Many of them did relate to how the old animation process worked, and didn't work. What you're seeing is the result of that. The workaround in use here doesn't apply anymore. You can't really guarantee order of operation in Creator. While it makes best effort to work top-to-bottom, it isn't guaranteed. The best solution would be to try to use consistent asset size for your animations whenever possible.

GameSalad Customer Support"

Now the part that bothers me is.

"You can't really guarantee order of operation in Creator. While it makes best effort to work top-to-bottom, it isn't guaranteed"

It would seem important that GameSalad works in the correct order of operation I depend on that for many things.

So is the Animation behavior now working outside of the rule I create or whats it doing?

So after a little more digging and playing with the rules and using DEBUGGER "I should really use this more often" anyway It seems first of all all of my Animated actors were executing there Turn and move rules twice "I fixed that"..

But with the actor turning I use two different size images for that "I have my reasons" and the way I handled this was a simple change size width of actor before animation started and this worked perfect in 10.4 and down, But in 0.11 and Nightly's this broke. But I was able too fix easily after playing with DEBUGGER and watch what was happening and that was and it still seems to me, that the Animations are starting one frame late so I simply put a change image of the first image of Animation right after the change size and before my Animation starts and that fixes the issue.

And I may be the only person this effects, but I just wanna put it out there for people to see. My game Steam Jack has a lot of Animations like this and maybe your does too, So could be helpful for you.

P.S. that Debugger can be very helpful.

Hopscotch

@BBEnk, just tested it,

with a very slow animation, your problem is quite noticible. The animation starts late, skipping 1 to 2 frames in the beginning. Not stepping through the images and not changing to the animated images.

Also, if there are more images in the sequence than frames per second, then the timing is completely off (looks like 3 frames per second end up as 1 frame per 3 seconds) .

zimtastic

Interesting so your saying that Animations may now act like Timers? this may actually explain what has happened to my Animations in the RC and nightly builds, they work perfect in 10.4 down but not with this new Animation code. And this explain why I need to add extra code to make the A.I. work.

@Hopscotch‌ - My animations broke when going to the RC as well, how did you get yours working? Mine are fairly straightforward, with same size images and everything - I really don't understand why they don't work anymore.

Also, @CodeWizard‌ - a new RC this week would be amazing! I'm having an issue with scene changing (e.g. it doesn't work for a particular scene) and I'm assuming it's related to the memory leak you mentioned. This would be perfect timing for a new RC to come in and save the day!

Hopscotch

@zimtastic, I didn't get it to work, it is a bug. The timing gets calculated wrong when doing the animation, meaning the animation starts one or two draw cycles later than instructed.

The_Gamesalad_Guru

A little advice for those currently frustrated with the bugs. Personally, I've put all my development on hold until the bugs are exterminated. I'm using this time to study and learn to use the new features with small prototype projects. All these new expressions and such really change the way you can build your logic in GS. When you really dig into it the stuff is pretty powerful. Most of the clever things that can be done are still yet undiscovered. Why not take a break and see what you can discover.

tylerglessner

@FryingBaconStudios said:
A little advice for those currently frustrated with the bugs. Personally, I've put all my development on hold until the bugs are exterminated. I'm using this time to study and learn to use the new features with small prototype projects. All these new expressions and such really change the way you can build your logic in GS. When you really dig into it the stuff is pretty powerful. Most of the clever things that can be done are still yet undiscovered. Why not take a break and see what you can discover.

I wholly agree with this and made that decision several days ago!

TheGabfather

^ Ditto.

CasualEvolution

me too!

Wboko

WOW, not very many comments this week.... LOL

Hopscotch

@uptimistik, carefull with your analogies >:)

StormyStudio

@Wboko said:
WOW, not very many comments this week.... LOL

Hmm.. where's Sherlock when we need him... few options.

• Everyone tired them selves out last week.
• All those threatening to leave.. err... left?
• There's less to complain about.
• People are getting knee deep in their projects using new tools.
• Everyone is sitting back waiting for a final stable release.
• The world has been covered in a big wave of meh! from custom frogs being spawned somewhere in the Deep South.

codybeans

Last two choices for me, stormy.

Hopscotch

Zombies, its always zombies!

StormyStudio

@Hopscotch said:
Zombies, its always zombies!

They'll never learn, those silly brain eating jokers..

Armelline

@StormyStudio said:
There's less to complain about.

Heh, at least the community can't be accused of complaining just for the sake of it then :P

Wboko

@StormyStudio said:

• The world has been covered in a big wave of meh! from custom frogs being spawned somewhere in the Deep South.

All those threatening to leave.. err... left?...... SOON!

justinodunn

Would you recommend the release candidate version of stable version? I want to use candidate because of its monetization options for android

quantumsheep

@Wboko said:
All those threatening to leave.. err... left?...... SOON!

OH NO!

tenrdrmer

@StormyStudio said:

• The world has been covered in a big wave of meh! from custom frogs being spawned somewhere in the Deep South.

I knew @socks was going to use those frogs incorrectly. The mess we have to clean up now. Just devastating!!

Ij10281

@CodeWizard Update today or tomorrow?!

mactds10

fingers cross stable tomorrow!