State of GameSalad on 3-27-2014
CodeWizard
Inactive, Chef Emeritus Posts: 1,143
Sorry for the late post, folks. I've been traveling and schmoozing with board members today. Now that I'm back in my hotel I've got some time to post.
Let's dig right in on 0.11. Those of you keeping up will notice that we're still working toward a final stable build for 0.11. The current release candidate isn't a buggy POS but we're still not comfortable calling it stable.
We ran into some new issues with those of you that use optimized PNGs. This is causing our new image loading code to have issues. That's the big issue remaining right now. Funny thing is that these optimized PNGs don't really make loading faster because we need to de-optimize them at load time. Your best bet for fastest loading performance is to use TGAs as of today. And, if you use PNGs, you're better off using 32 bit images. Alas, as we push forward with the new graphics engine in the works we'll see this problem go away for good. But, for now, we'll suffer through ensuring perfect backwards compatibility.
Here's the latest bug status for 0.11:
We keep fixing more bugs, don't we? 
I expect another RC to be released on Monday and, if the code gods are willing, we'll have a stable release one week from today. I'm sure Murphy's Law will kick in and make me eat that estimate but it sure sounds good to share right now.
Beyond our continued work on 0.11, we're still plugging away on our new cross-platform creator version. We've been prototyping some visual behavior editing tools that look quite promising. We're also settling on a final UI visual look. If all goes to plan (ha!) we'll have something we can start letting folks play with by the end of June. But, I'm getting ahead of myself...
Speaking of new graphics engine work... there's a major rework of our graphics engine taking place right now. It's not for 0.11 but will make it into a coming release. This new engine is vastly improved over the current one we have. I can't wait for you to get your hands on it. But, because it's a pretty big change we'll let it sit in QA for some time before pushing it out in a nightly build. Biggest improvements? Much faster rendering performance. We're implementing a "mega texture" system that really helps your game take full advantage of target hardware. So... much... faster.
Read more about mega textures here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MegaTexture
Sweet hotness!
More news at our regular time next Wednesday!
Comments
Good job guys!!
Fantastic stuff ...
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Thanks for the update! Keep it up GS.
I've never used .TGA before, always .PNG. I guess after your update, now will be a good time to start that transition
@CodeWizard I think most people compress images to reduce overall file size not thinking it will make the images load faster. This is especially true for Android builds and the 50mb limit for being able to download to the google App Store. Until we get the ability to split the file per google standards so you can upload files bigger than that we're stuck with heavy compression as a solution. Apple's gave us some breathing room at 100mb but with uncompressed files that limit can be reached pretty quickly. I imagine there needs to he a balance of speed and package size in this whole image equation.
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I may be wrong here, but I thought the compression pass we do before we submit the app to Apple means that we get most of that app size reduction back... In other words, if you use .PNG the compression pass before we submit will not reduce the size of the file much, if anything. If you use .TGA's they will compress a lot during that last compression pass. Like I said, I might be wrong and I don't know how this affect Android, though it should probably be the same. I don't use .TGA for two reasons: The .TGA files are so big that they really slow down my upload speed to GS every time I test the game on my device and I do that a lot. Secondly, 90% of my art files have some kind of alpha in it and as far as I know, using alpha and .TGA together is a big pain in the a$$.
Awesome job gamesalad
I also compress PNGs to get the game size down.
With my current game I had to compress all PNGs and remove many animation frames just to get it down to the necessary 50mb to upload to Google. Without compression it would have been nearer 170mb. And if I'd used TGA a hell of a lot more still.
In short, I hope GS will continue to be able to use optimised PNG files otherwise many of us will find Google Play is no longer a market for our games.
Cheers for the update @CodeWizard
Looking forward to more GS developments, would be nice to hear about additions (social integration etc) as well as engine improvements.
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Developer Blog » 08/01/2015 - Week 72 – Apple, the great dictator…
Mega Texture developed by THE John Carmack.
Sure he might have lost some street cred for letting Oculus go to Facebook but still.. he's a gaming legend.
I can't wait to see the new UI visual look and very eager to get my hands on it. Though I'll probably get frustrated at first having to learn a new setup and will miss our much loved simple cousin the 'current GS creator UI'.
Thanks for the update.
I really would love some mention about a Windows version. Not everyone has a mac. If you're not doing a Windows 0.11, and waiting for the x-platform engine, thats fine, just let us know so I can stop buying templates for 0.11
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It's a limit for 3G download?
Shadows Peak is an atmospheric psychological horror that explores the dark side of a player.
@imGua - no, 50mb is the limit of the apk size that we can upload to Google Play. If it's larger you can provide separate expansion files - but we don't have the ability to do this (and it's beyond my understanding anyway!).
I would expect that to be the case. I would think any think they devote to the current windows version would just delay the new cross platform version that will replace it anyways. Just speculating though.
Who does one - hypothetically - bribe to get onto that list?
Can't wait for the next stable in the mean time! Keep up the good work!
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What the heck are those fancy medals?
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+1
Awesome job @codewizard and entourage
Nothing to say other than:
"Fancy Medal Time!"
Dr. Sam Beckett never returned home...
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I'm not entirely sure, but it seems to give 100000 points.... looks like I will not be catching up any time soon. Wait, scratch that - I won't ever be caught up.
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Shiny, isn't it!
OMG, apk for my game weights 125 mb
Do people use TinyPNG to optimize images?
Shadows Peak is an atmospheric psychological horror that explores the dark side of a player.
Where's my Poser medal?
I've been sporting ripoff staff avatars for a long time now
whine
My 3/5 star doesn't make me feel less of a man, heck I don't even pay attention to it (because I never bothered reading about how forum points work..), but something fancy shiny like that must make someone feel important!
@imGua ImageOptim and ImageAlpha have been my best friends for PNG's.
@Codewizard Just to clarify, is there no way to put a compressed png into new GS projects now? My concern, like @FryingbaconStudios said, is not image loading time, but game package size... My current project, without compression, will never be able to fall under that 50mb mark. Are there any plans to allow other file formats, such as jpegs?
Megatexture sounds awesome! Seems like we'll be working with UV's? Also can't wait for the new UI design... especially if it's headed in the direction I think it may be.
I may be completely wrong but the design seems to be borrowed from Motion, which I fell in love with while taking a Motion Graphics class. I remember thinking how awesome it was to go back and forth between the 3D and 2D view at the press of a button, and how I could drag and drop behaviors.
I can't wait to see where GameSalad will go down the line.
I use TinyPNG and don't think you'll have any problems getting 125mb down to 50mb, you can make huge filesize savings with it.
@Codewizard - I'd like it if you could clarify if compressed PNGs will no longer be supported too. If so I don't think I'll be able to update any of my Google Play games from this point forth as file sizes will be too large
Wow I just noticed that too. What the heck??? Makes the point system kinda useless now. Do people really need more bling on their Forum line?? It's starting to look like how Borat would dress as a General. LMAO talk about fake gaudiness. Do I smell a Banana Republic brewing in the GS hierarchy..LMFAO
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I like the badges -- super cool. I do not like that 100,000 points haha. Maybe it was a mistake. Maybe Vanilla messed up big time.
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Wow didn't notice that either. Guess it's part of our retirement package!
I'd like to present the new fearless leader of the gamesalad forums.
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I like shiny
It's the same amount of bling as most, just replaces the star