2022-02-23 - Android RC Coming Soon ᵀᴹ

adent42adent42 Key Master, Head Chef, Executive Chef, Member, PRO Posts: 3,034

Sorry for the lack of development updates. I normally wait until release to push something, but with the dearth of updates from the team this year, I though I'd say something.

I just finished the first pass testing of RC for Android and we should have something by the end of the week (depending on how quickly our team finishes the publishing process updates required).

Here's a top-of-my head preview of what's coming:

  • All ad networks updated to the latest versions supported by IronSrc (plus a few new mediated ones I think)?
  • Fix the speed issue on Pixel 4 and other phones that run over 60fps. We're going to lock GameSalad apps to run at a max of 60fps. Since I don't have a Pixel 4 yet, I can't test it, but we'll try to get one and test it before the RC becomes a stable build.
  • Added Pollfish as an ad network (rewarded polls)
  • Added GameAnalytics support (lot to document there, so that's gonna be fun on our side).
  • You can now enable multiple Full Screen Ad and Analytics providers. The multiple Ad providers is intended to allow you to use your normal ad network and Pollfish at the same time. The multiple Analytics provider is just planning for the future. You can set a "default" ad provider for the normal use and manually call up ad providers using the Tweet Sheet behavior.
  • Untested code to allow updates of tables on a table Send. Useful for transactional things like login where you can send a table with login info and then get back another table with session info. I put in the code in such a way that if it isn't used, it won't hurt anything. So if we test it and it doesn't work, we'll worry about it in our next release.

Next I'll be checking on the updated publishing process code and ushering that along for the target release.

Looking forward to finally getting this out the door so we can get all these updates into iOS as well!

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Comments

  • zarzirzarzir Member, PRO Posts: 128

    Hi @adent42 about the speed issue, fyi there are some devices that allows to set the fps to 45, can this address that as well?

    also about the table send, is this instead of what we have now? as I'm using it for a simple check for internet connection and hope I can still use it that way.

  • adent42adent42 Key Master, Head Chef, Executive Chef, Member, PRO Posts: 3,034

    Our engine does some hiccup management by assuming the framerate never gets above 60fps. So we're issuing an android call that tells the OS our preferred framerate is 60fps. If the device runs at 45fps, there should be no change, it should only server to limit the framerate to lower than 60fps.

    As for the table send, it works like it does now. It's just, if you add a table response to the current response, it should update the table requested. If you don't include a table response, it will just return the success info and act as it does now.

  • adriangomezadriangomez Member, PRO Posts: 436

    I am very excited about this update.

  • zarzirzarzir Member, PRO Posts: 128

    Great Thanks

  • RedRoboRedRobo Member, PRO Posts: 680

    Any chance of getting preview resolution presets fixed soon, i.e. iPhoneX preset? Or at least getting the ability to save our own resolution presets for preview?

  • ArmellineArmelline Member, PRO Posts: 5,327

    This is the biggest QOL improvement to the Creator 1 I can think of, to be honest. Testing for iPhone X is so painful. And if they're being updated, 720p portrait too please. I know there's 1080p but 720p is much easier to work with.

  • adriangomezadriangomez Member, PRO Posts: 436

    I think most of these changes are on the build side not on the creator.

  • adent42adent42 Key Master, Head Chef, Executive Chef, Member, PRO Posts: 3,034

    Yes these are all on the build side, though if the table code works out, we'll also need to put out Creator and viewer builds so you can actually develop with it.

  • adent42adent42 Key Master, Head Chef, Executive Chef, Member, PRO Posts: 3,034

    Got sidetracked. Took a couple of days to take care of random duties and then got sidetracked on a collisions problem in the HTML5 creator. Finally fixed it, so that our auto-tracer works again and fixed it so that importing collision shape files from PhysicsEditor works as well.

    That's in beta but should be out by tomorrow.

    Next, I'll be working on the publishing updates again and hope to have it to our testers by Friday and out to you by late Monday, early Tuesday.

  • AHBGamesAHBGames Member, PRO Posts: 115

    Hi @adent42 , when will it be available? I´m very interested in gamenalytics 😮

  • adent42adent42 Key Master, Head Chef, Executive Chef, Member, PRO Posts: 3,034

    Not sure since it keeps slipping. Last week was SXSW and we were attending a number of events. I will say that despite the schedule, we did get to finish developer testing of publishing and fixed issues found during that.

    Unless something unexpected comes up, that means we'll likely release this week for Android. We haven't started on iOS integration of any of this yet, but hope to get that done shortly after releasing this RC.

  • adent42adent42 Key Master, Head Chef, Executive Chef, Member, PRO Posts: 3,034

    While waiting for a meeting at SXSW, I was also able to get a start on the proposal for keyboard input. I haven't gotten to the actual keyboard input part yet (I need to untangle how our code handles keyboard input for the current input behavior), but I do have the device attributes in place so I could just think through what's needed.

    This includes attributes to handle things like:

    • is a virtual keyboard is available?
    • choosing virtual keyboard type and language
    • switching keyboard capture on and off
    • a buffer to capture keyboard input text

    Even as I write this, I can think of a few other options we'll need, like a way to define the keyboard escape key (so you can do stuff like decide whether to hide the keyboard when someone hits enter or escape).

    One of the challenges of keyboard input is the range of possible use cases, so we'll proceed carefully. I really want to work on it after the iOS RC, but it all depends on design and what other bugs we have in the pipeline (as I think it's also time for a round of engine bug fixes and finally getting signing settled).

    Thanks for your patience and we look forward to getting this RC into your hands soon.

  • zarzirzarzir Member, PRO Posts: 128
  • AHBGamesAHBGames Member, PRO Posts: 115
    edited March 2022
  • adent42adent42 Key Master, Head Chef, Executive Chef, Member, PRO Posts: 3,034

    Slight delay. We found bugs, will be working them out over the weekend.

  • AHBGamesAHBGames Member, PRO Posts: 115


    Hi, when will it be available?, sorry for the insistence but I want to try the analytics :)

  • adent42adent42 Key Master, Head Chef, Executive Chef, Member, PRO Posts: 3,034

    Sorry, we have a few other projects on the burner colliding. Last week we fixed a few bugs and are QAing the build.

    In the mean time, I'm working on adding these features to iOS. Fingers crossed for this week to launch Android.

  • adent42adent42 Key Master, Head Chef, Executive Chef, Member, PRO Posts: 3,034

    We should have an iOS RC update out before then. Thanks for sharing with the community!

  • zarzirzarzir Member, PRO Posts: 128

    It wasn't me that spot it, but you are welcome anyway (:

  • HypnorabbitHypnorabbit SingaporeMember, PRO Posts: 263

    Eagerly awaiting GameAnalytics - it opens up so many possibilities!

  • AHBGamesAHBGames Member, PRO Posts: 115

    👀

  • adent42adent42 Key Master, Head Chef, Executive Chef, Member, PRO Posts: 3,034

    Analytics be complicated, yo.

    We're still testing and found some issues on analytics reporting for Consumable IAPs. I think we finally have most of the bugs worked out, except for a few pollfish issues we're looking into, but we're gonna release because it's kind of an edge case.

    We have another test run of IAP tracking tomorrow, so hopefully we'll have the RC out tomorrow afternoon / night.

    The RC will also switch from generating APKs to AABs (which will allow people building with these features to go straight to the store).

  • HypnorabbitHypnorabbit SingaporeMember, PRO Posts: 263

    So will you be able to track data points like ‘how many people press this button’ and things like that @adent42? If so that would be mighty cool. IAP tracking is cool too but I guess that’s inherent in the Apple/Google Play dashboards already which show when an IAP is made?

  • adent42adent42 Key Master, Head Chef, Executive Chef, Member, PRO Posts: 3,034

    GameAnalytics has a pretty comprehensive tracking system. I'll document it more when it comes out but here's what you can do roughly:

    • Progress events (level changes, progress through the game, etc). We automatically track all Scene changes, but you can turn that off and manually track, in case Scene change's don't match your idea of game progress.
    • IAP Events - What it sounds like. Good for comparing to your store stats.
    • Ad Events - What it sounds like. Good for checking ad performance across different ad networks.
    • Resource events - Basically to track your in-game economy, including both IAP consumables and gameplay granted consumables. Good for games that involve earning or spending in game credits. You can find out if it's too easy or too hard to earn the currency, or if you're doing a MMO/Metaverse, you can see if there's too much of some kind of consumable circulating that you need to create an event to remove.
    • Design events - Everything else, like the button click tracking example or how much time people take to complete a task, almost whatever you want.
  • HypnorabbitHypnorabbit SingaporeMember, PRO Posts: 263

    That sounds seriously comprehensive. It opens up tons of avenues for trackable events and creating some dynamic content.

  • adent42adent42 Key Master, Head Chef, Executive Chef, Member, PRO Posts: 3,034
    edited April 2022
  • patricia.bradypatricia.brady Member, PRO Posts: 49

    Tried to upload today...

    ERROR ITMS-90725: "SDK Version Issue. This app was built with the iOS 14.5 SDK. All iOS apps submitted to the App Store must be built with the iOS 15 SDK or later, included in Xcode 13 or later."


    WARNING ITMS-90901: "Missing full-screen support for the latest iPad mini display. The “Epicmaths 12May.app” bundle includes UIRequiresFullScreen=YES in the Info.plist or supports only a subset of UISupportedInterfaceOrientations, and is built with the 14.5 SDK. To take advantage of the full screen size, recompile with Xcode 13 and the SDK for iPadOS 15 or later."

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