@adent42 said: @CasualEvolution The code is done to allow for Admob Video Reward, Interstitial and Banner ads to run at the same time on Android, but you can't configure it right now.
That's because, if I enable the new configuration options, it would confuse people who are on iOS or are using a non-RC build.
I'm going to finish the iOS updates this week and then we'll start on a mediator (we also have a few education things to work on, so there's a small delay between projects).
While IronSource is the front runner, we haven't decided yet because I need to do some technical evaluation to ensure the SDK of whomever we choose is modular enough for our needs.
@adent42 said: @CasualEvolution The code is done to allow for Admob Video Reward, Interstitial and Banner ads to run at the same time on Android, but you can't configure it right now.
That's because, if I enable the new configuration options, it would confuse people who are on iOS or are using a non-RC build.
I'm going to finish the iOS updates this week and then we'll start on a mediator (we also have a few education things to work on, so there's a small delay between projects).
While IronSource is the front runner, we haven't decided yet because I need to do some technical evaluation to ensure the SDK of whomever we choose is modular enough for our needs.
You are a God walking amongst mere mortals.
adent42Key Master, Head Chef, Executive Chef, Member, PROPosts: 3,067
FYI: iOS updates for Admob are looking good so far, but I'm tracking down a bug in RC related to how much of the screen an android game takes up.
@adent42 said:
FYI: iOS updates for Admob are looking good so far, but I'm tracking down a bug in RC related to how much of the screen an android game takes up.
How about Appodeal for ad mediation? Tapdaq always seems so expensive. But I have used IronSource and I like it. The reason why I use appodeal with most of my apps is that I only get two checks. One from Appodeal and one from Admob and that not only simplifies my life but also means that I am not chasing the thresholds for payment.
You can also include or exclude whatever you want. For example, I exclude Facebook, Flurry and many others for various reasons.
adent42Key Master, Head Chef, Executive Chef, Member, PROPosts: 3,067
FYI, not a lot of progress yet this week as:
1) We were working on some edu stuff.
2) I'm the one doing android work and for the stuff I tried to get to this week, I had mysterious compile issues that meant I had to wipe out everything and rebuild almost every time I wanted to compile. I finally figured out what was wrong, so development can go smoothly again.
3) I finally figured out why the RC was not taking up the full screen. RC has now been patched (luckily it's a simple Android Manifest config).
If you published your game from the RC, I'd republish!
All that being said, I'm spending the rest of my day looking into Appodeal, Ironworks, and a sound issue.
Happy with the progress but curious as to 2 things:
1. Android splash screen bug- is that being fixed? It makes our games look so unprofessional.
2. Loading times- loading times can be outrageously long in particular on android and and when you use tables, is this being fixed?
I'm back on board as soon as these are done. Using other platform is good and great but this is so quick and easier to use for a lot of stuff.
@fmakawa said:
Happy with the progress but curious as to 2 things:
1. Android splash screen bug- is that being fixed? It makes our games look so unprofessional.
Loading times is a thorny issue for our engine, so I'm don't have much to say now until I look into it more. Better men than me have tried to improve loading, but I have some ideas I want to look into that might help.
For Android splash screen, I made some fixes and additions that help with the issue.
Basically, the splash screen is centered now. Because of how rotation works currently (i.e. in mysterious ways I don't fully understand yet) on Android, we can't easily do a full screened loading image and have it always work out right while also allowing rotation.
Instead, by creating a square image, your image is always centered and rotates to match the screen and looks right.
Publishing also allows you to set the background color that fills the rest of the screen behind the loading image (in case you don't want your logo sitting on a black background.
You can also, optionally, upload a 9-patch image instead and if set up correctly, should stretch the edges to scale to the screen while keeping the main image centered.
Once I'm done with ads, I might go back and check / make tutorials for all of these settings to make it clear what happens, but if you play with it some I'm hoping it makes the experience better for all.
@adent42 I only get a creative preview ads that says congratulations you have successfully implemented rewarded video on my ads now. i only use interstitial ads.
@adent42 said: @freneticz try publishing with the RC again. I left some text keys in the config for interstitial video and reward ads. I just removed them.
What you're seeing is the google test reward ad, which is what I used for testing.
Will do...
One more thing is a problem with the leaderboard on the IOS version of my game.
Cant get the score to update on the leaderboard, works only first time you get a highscore. (Same code on Android version & its works there)
adent42Key Master, Head Chef, Executive Chef, Member, PROPosts: 3,067
edited November 2018
@freneticz that will take a bit longer to look into, so maybe next week. I haven't really touched the Apple Game Center code at all, so no idea what could be happening there.
One thing i've noticed about loading times, they are quickly becoming irrelevant as the storage is getting ridiculously fast on apple and samsung devices.
Like what was a 5-7 second load on a 6s+ turns into a 1-2 second load on a iPhoneX.
XR and XS's are even faster. Same with iPad Pro's.
So as time goes on and devices get replaced we have to worry much less about it.
@AlchimiaStudios said:
One thing i've noticed about loading times, they are quickly becoming irrelevant as the storage is getting ridiculously fast on apple and samsung devices.
Like what was a 5-7 second load on a 6s+ turns into a 1-2 second load on a iPhoneX.
XR and XS's are even faster. Same with iPad Pro's.
So as time goes on and devices get replaced we have to worry much less about it.
@AlchimiaStudios said:
One thing i've noticed about loading times, they are quickly becoming irrelevant as the storage is getting ridiculously fast on apple and samsung devices.
Like what was a 5-7 second load on a 6s+ turns into a 1-2 second load on a iPhoneX.
XR and XS's are even faster. Same with iPad Pro's.
So as time goes on and devices get replaced we have to worry much less about it.
I used tables a lot in one game and loading time was like 25 seconds. So even by that measure even if that is reduced to a 5-7 second wait it is still do high
Loading times is a thorny issue for our engine, so I'm don't have much to say now until I look into it more. Better men than me have tried to improve loading, but I have some ideas I want to look into that might help.
About this issue, depending on the application, with increasingly fast devices this may no longer be the priority, but if you are going to put an eye on this issue, do not forget to review this I reported to you some time ago, I think it can be part of the solution: https://forums.gamesalad.com/discussion/92973/fast-scene-change-no-preload-spawn-objects
adent42Key Master, Head Chef, Executive Chef, Member, PROPosts: 3,067
edited November 2018
Sorry about the lack of updates. We've been working on some education related scalability updates and those took a bit longer than expected.
While it's not anything anyone here was looking for, the upshot for you is less downtime as fewer people will be directly hitting our main auth servers (instead the HTML5 based creator has a new service to hit). We also did a quick dive into the HTML5 tool to improve it's handling of larger projects. It's still not quite as smooth as I'd like, but overall it should improve memory usage and allow for better handling for projects with lots of resources (actors, stages, etc), as well as editing actors with large behavior stacks.
The last couple of days was getting our GameCenter code updated. We've had some reports of multiple attempts to update leaderboards not working. Though I couldn't reproduce that exact issue, I did note that the code was using deprecated calls to GameCenter and that there were some places we could clear up the code. Sooo... that's done.
With this update I only have one more issue to look into for this RC, related to the volume of sounds when a game is backgrounded and restored.
The goals of the current RC / next engine release are:
1) All add types at once in Admob. Updated Admob SDKs (check on Android, code ready on iOS)
2) Google Play Game Services for Android. (check)
3) Correct full screen mode for Android. (check)
4) Updated code for GameCenter support. (check)
5) Fix volume issue with sound (pending).
I'll be updating the RC in the next couple of days (hopefully tonight) for the iOS related stuff (Admob, GameCenter, Removal unused of Revmob code).
If you've been using the RC, please, please let us know if you're running into any issues!
We'll, of course, be testing it ourselves, but our testing so far looks good. The more test cases we can get, the better.
Next will be on to what a lot of you are waiting for: Ad mediation
I'm going to take a swipe at integrating Appodeal first. They have an all-in-one SDK which is why I like it.
The main worry is that the downloaded SDK is rather larger and very different in size than what they state on their documentation. I don't have a timeline yet but I should have a better idea on Monday once I've had a weekend to digest everything.
For the Iron Source fans, I hoping to get to the point where I can do both, but because Iron Source's SDK requires a lot of individual SDK libraries, I think it might take longer to integrate and also blow up the final app package size so I'm going with the path of least resistance to get stuff out sooner.
Thanks everyone for their patience!
adent42Key Master, Head Chef, Executive Chef, Member, PROPosts: 3,067
Well... that was quick. I think I'll be trying Iron Src first. As much as I want the all-in-one SDK thing to work, it's too big for our source control system.
Is there an issue with Chartboost reward ads on Android. I have the reward set to 100 (coins) but when the view is completed it only adds 1 (coin)? I have Chartboost rewards working fine on Amazon version..
As such, the main motivating factor for me (recouping some of the money I've laid out over the years), is pretty much dead in the water at present - given the long-standing issues with ads in general, both from a GS and from external issues, I'd imagine a lot of GS'ers would probably want Ad Mediation incorporating first if possible? - I certainly do...
I just had to add iPhone X support to a very complex project where none of the quick and easy methods could be used. I needed to preview the project over 1000 times during this process (it wasn't, but sure felt like it, and was definitely a lot). As people presumably know, iPhone X is not one of the default resolutions in GameSalad. Luckily you can set a custom resolution, so accurate previewing of iPhone X projects can still be done. However, custom resolutions are not saved. So every time I previewed, I had to add and select the custom resolution again.
In the end I used a piece of software called "MurGaa Recorder by MurGaa.com" to record the process of selecting the drop down, picking custom, adding a resolution, entering the correct dimensions, picking "overscan" and hitting reset. This saved my sanity, though not all that much time.
@adent42 Now that X models are so common, I beg of you to add them to the device preview dropdown list, or at the very least make custom resolutions save between previews. Thanks!
@Armelline said:
I just had to add iPhone X support to a very complex project where none of the quick and easy methods could be used. I needed to preview the project over 1000 times during this process (it wasn't, but sure felt like it, and was definitely a lot). As people presumably know, iPhone X is not one of the default resolutions in GameSalad. Luckily you can set a custom resolution, so accurate previewing of iPhone X projects can still be done. However, custom resolutions are not saved. So every time I previewed, I had to add and select the custom resolution again.
In the end I used a piece of software called "MurGaa Recorder by MurGaa.com" to record the process of selecting the drop down, picking custom, adding a resolution, entering the correct dimensions, picking "overscan" and hitting reset. This saved my sanity, though not all that much time.
@adent42 Now that X models are so common, I beg of you to add them to the device preview dropdown list, or at the very least make custom resolutions save between previews. Thanks!
I feel your pain! Been there...done that.
A fix for this would be much appreciated.
@adent42 Now that X models are so common, I beg of you to add them to the device preview dropdown list, or at the very least make custom resolutions save between previews. Thanks!
Comments
Can't wait:)
You are a God walking amongst mere mortals.
FYI: iOS updates for Admob are looking good so far, but I'm tracking down a bug in RC related to how much of the screen an android game takes up.
Hope it’s coming along well.
How about Appodeal for ad mediation? Tapdaq always seems so expensive. But I have used IronSource and I like it. The reason why I use appodeal with most of my apps is that I only get two checks. One from Appodeal and one from Admob and that not only simplifies my life but also means that I am not chasing the thresholds for payment.
They are also fairly transparent with what they are getting you can check it out here https://www.appodeal.com/reports/
You can also include or exclude whatever you want. For example, I exclude Facebook, Flurry and many others for various reasons.
FYI, not a lot of progress yet this week as:
1) We were working on some edu stuff.
2) I'm the one doing android work and for the stuff I tried to get to this week, I had mysterious compile issues that meant I had to wipe out everything and rebuild almost every time I wanted to compile. I finally figured out what was wrong, so development can go smoothly again.
3) I finally figured out why the RC was not taking up the full screen. RC has now been patched (luckily it's a simple Android Manifest config).
If you published your game from the RC, I'd republish!
All that being said, I'm spending the rest of my day looking into Appodeal, Ironworks, and a sound issue.
Cheers
Happy with the progress but curious as to 2 things:
1. Android splash screen bug- is that being fixed? It makes our games look so unprofessional.
2. Loading times- loading times can be outrageously long in particular on android and and when you use tables, is this being fixed?
I'm back on board as soon as these are done. Using other platform is good and great but this is so quick and easier to use for a lot of stuff.
Keep up the good work @adent42 . Any time frame on ad mediation?
+1
Check out my games on the App Store!
Wordgraphy / Polycolor / 20 Seconds / Minimal Maze
@fmakawa, @unbeatenpixel
Loading times is a thorny issue for our engine, so I'm don't have much to say now until I look into it more. Better men than me have tried to improve loading, but I have some ideas I want to look into that might help.
For Android splash screen, I made some fixes and additions that help with the issue.
Basically, the splash screen is centered now. Because of how rotation works currently (i.e. in mysterious ways I don't fully understand yet) on Android, we can't easily do a full screened loading image and have it always work out right while also allowing rotation.
Instead, by creating a square image, your image is always centered and rotates to match the screen and looks right.
Publishing also allows you to set the background color that fills the rest of the screen behind the loading image (in case you don't want your logo sitting on a black background.
You can also, optionally, upload a 9-patch image instead and if set up correctly, should stretch the edges to scale to the screen while keeping the main image centered.
Once I'm done with ads, I might go back and check / make tutorials for all of these settings to make it clear what happens, but if you play with it some I'm hoping it makes the experience better for all.
@adent42 I only get a creative preview ads that says congratulations you have successfully implemented rewarded video on my ads now. i only use interstitial ads.
This is on Android & i build with RC.
Homepage: freneticgamez.eu/
https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=FreneticGamez
@freneticz try publishing with the RC again. I left some text keys in the config for interstitial video and reward ads. I just removed them.
What you're seeing is the google test reward ad, which is what I used for testing.
Will do...
One more thing is a problem with the leaderboard on the IOS version of my game.
Cant get the score to update on the leaderboard, works only first time you get a highscore. (Same code on Android version & its works there)
Homepage: freneticgamez.eu/
https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=FreneticGamez
It shows real ads again, thanks ?
Homepage: freneticgamez.eu/
https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=FreneticGamez
@freneticz that will take a bit longer to look into, so maybe next week. I haven't really touched the Apple Game Center code at all, so no idea what could be happening there.
One thing i've noticed about loading times, they are quickly becoming irrelevant as the storage is getting ridiculously fast on apple and samsung devices.
Like what was a 5-7 second load on a 6s+ turns into a 1-2 second load on a iPhoneX.
XR and XS's are even faster. Same with iPad Pro's.
So as time goes on and devices get replaced we have to worry much less about it.
Follow us: Twitter - Website
Agreed
I used tables a lot in one game and loading time was like 25 seconds. So even by that measure even if that is reduced to a 5-7 second wait it is still do high
Hi @adent42 any news about ad mediation?
About this issue, depending on the application, with increasingly fast devices this may no longer be the priority, but if you are going to put an eye on this issue, do not forget to review this I reported to you some time ago, I think it can be part of the solution: https://forums.gamesalad.com/discussion/92973/fast-scene-change-no-preload-spawn-objects
Sorry about the lack of updates. We've been working on some education related scalability updates and those took a bit longer than expected.
While it's not anything anyone here was looking for, the upshot for you is less downtime as fewer people will be directly hitting our main auth servers (instead the HTML5 based creator has a new service to hit). We also did a quick dive into the HTML5 tool to improve it's handling of larger projects. It's still not quite as smooth as I'd like, but overall it should improve memory usage and allow for better handling for projects with lots of resources (actors, stages, etc), as well as editing actors with large behavior stacks.
The last couple of days was getting our GameCenter code updated. We've had some reports of multiple attempts to update leaderboards not working. Though I couldn't reproduce that exact issue, I did note that the code was using deprecated calls to GameCenter and that there were some places we could clear up the code. Sooo... that's done.
With this update I only have one more issue to look into for this RC, related to the volume of sounds when a game is backgrounded and restored.
The goals of the current RC / next engine release are:
1) All add types at once in Admob. Updated Admob SDKs (check on Android, code ready on iOS)
2) Google Play Game Services for Android. (check)
3) Correct full screen mode for Android. (check)
4) Updated code for GameCenter support. (check)
5) Fix volume issue with sound (pending).
I'll be updating the RC in the next couple of days (hopefully tonight) for the iOS related stuff (Admob, GameCenter, Removal unused of Revmob code).
If you've been using the RC, please, please let us know if you're running into any issues!
We'll, of course, be testing it ourselves, but our testing so far looks good. The more test cases we can get, the better.
Next will be on to what a lot of you are waiting for: Ad mediation
I'm going to take a swipe at integrating Appodeal first. They have an all-in-one SDK which is why I like it.
The main worry is that the downloaded SDK is rather larger and very different in size than what they state on their documentation. I don't have a timeline yet but I should have a better idea on Monday once I've had a weekend to digest everything.
For the Iron Source fans, I hoping to get to the point where I can do both, but because Iron Source's SDK requires a lot of individual SDK libraries, I think it might take longer to integrate and also blow up the final app package size so I'm going with the path of least resistance to get stuff out sooner.
Thanks everyone for their patience!
Well... that was quick. I think I'll be trying Iron Src first. As much as I want the all-in-one SDK thing to work, it's too big for our source control system.
Great stuff, thanks for the updates.
Contact me for custom work - Expert GS developer with 15 years of GS experience - Skype: armelline.support
Nice....can't wait.
yeah! Iron Src!!!
Look forward to it!
Is there an issue with Chartboost reward ads on Android. I have the reward set to 100 (coins) but when the view is completed it only adds 1 (coin)? I have Chartboost rewards working fine on Amazon version..
As such, the main motivating factor for me (recouping some of the money I've laid out over the years), is pretty much dead in the water at present - given the long-standing issues with ads in general, both from a GS and from external issues, I'd imagine a lot of GS'ers would probably want Ad Mediation incorporating first if possible? - I certainly do...
I just had to add iPhone X support to a very complex project where none of the quick and easy methods could be used. I needed to preview the project over 1000 times during this process (it wasn't, but sure felt like it, and was definitely a lot). As people presumably know, iPhone X is not one of the default resolutions in GameSalad. Luckily you can set a custom resolution, so accurate previewing of iPhone X projects can still be done. However, custom resolutions are not saved. So every time I previewed, I had to add and select the custom resolution again.
In the end I used a piece of software called "MurGaa Recorder by MurGaa.com" to record the process of selecting the drop down, picking custom, adding a resolution, entering the correct dimensions, picking "overscan" and hitting reset. This saved my sanity, though not all that much time.
@adent42 Now that X models are so common, I beg of you to add them to the device preview dropdown list, or at the very least make custom resolutions save between previews. Thanks!
Contact me for custom work - Expert GS developer with 15 years of GS experience - Skype: armelline.support
I feel your pain! Been there...done that.
A fix for this would be much appreciated.
+1 A lot of time has been wasted because of this.
Check out my games on the App Store!
Wordgraphy / Polycolor / 20 Seconds / Minimal Maze