RC 2024-10-06 - Z-Index Related Bug Fix. Updated iOS Ad libs
adent42
Key Master, Head Chef, Executive Chef, Member, PRO Posts: 3,148
To get these benefits use "Build RC". It doesn't matter which version of GameSalad Creator you publish with as long as it's a version 1.25.x. Previous RC has been promoted to Release version.
For people used to the old RC thread, I will be repeating features that are not present in the regular "Generate" build, so you know in total what you are getting with this RC. New fixes since the last RC will be in bold.
Android (Compile SDK 34, TargetSDK 34, MinSDK24)
Bug Fixes:
- Upgraded from com.google.android.play:core:1.10.3 to new broken out libraries (com.google.android.play:review:2.0.1 and com.google.android.play:asset-delivery:2.2.2)
- Fixed Chartboost and enabled support chartboost banner ads (needs publishing page update to support).
- Fixed z-Index bug where deleted actors caused game to freeze / glitch
Changes
- Google UMP 2.2.0 Integrated
- Ad Network Updates (Android / iOS, x means N/A)
- Admob 23.3.0 / 11.10.0
- Chartboost 9.7.0
- IronSource 8.3.0 / 8.4.0
- Adcolony 4.8.0
- Amazon 9.10.0 / 4.10.0
- AppLovin 12.6.1 / 13.0.0
- Bidmachine 3.0.0
- Facebook 6.18.0 / 6.15.2
- Fyber 8.2.7 / 8.3.2
- HyprMX 6.4.2 / 6.4.1
- InMobi 10.7.7 / 10.7.5
- Liftoff 1.9.1
- Maio 1.1.16 / 1.6.3
- Mintegral x / 7.7.2
- Moloco: 3.1.0 / 3.2.0
- MyTarget 5.22.1 / x
- Pangle 6.2.0.4 / 6.2.0.7
- Smaato 22.6.0 / 22.8.4
- SuperAwesome 9.4.0 / 9.4.0
- Tencent x / 4.15.00
- Unity 4.12.3
- Vungle 7.4.1
- Yandex 7.0.1 / 7.5.1
Ad networks in italics are new, but we'll need to update publishing to allow you to use them.
We've also put in code for epochTime, but have not tested it yet (as seen in the HTML5 engine here). If you were waiting on any other fixes for android, feel free to ask about them here, I might have lost track of them. (But label them something like Feature Request: Thing I Want) so I can quickly differentiate them from comments and bug reports for this release.
Something about the build configuration and tool combination forces me to make the minimum supported version 24 instead of 21. We're working on fixing that.
2024-07-19 patch update:
Pushed update to fix epochTime implementation
2024-09-22 update:
Support for Z-Index (available in Creator 2.0). Allows you to adjust the order of render within a layer. It works a bit like z-index in CSS. If you set a number higher than the number of items in the layer, it sorts to the top. We haven't done a lot of performance testing so I wouldn't suggest constantly swapping the value, but targeted sort order changes can be very useful, especially when you're doing isometric games (think brawlers, arena shooter).
Support for Chrome Custom Tab for Open URL Behavior on Android. When you choose "embedded browser" for Open URL Behavior it will use a Chrome Custom Tab. It's a separate window still, but the browser UI uses a dark color to match existing and there's a X to close the tab and go back into the game immediately.
Comments
When Uploading to Playstore with this new RC there is a prompt asking something about this permission:
And to upload a video of how my app uses this.
Playstore Link of the policy: https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/13392821
On the publishing page I have the following settings:
Banner and Interstitial Admob ads.
Should I uncheck something? What is strange is that yesterday I uploaded an update for other game, with this same permissions and nothing happened on the Playstore side.
Check out my games: https://tumblecoinstudios.com/
This is weird since I don't think I upgraded any of the ad networks / dependencies for Android in this build. DM me your publishing link so I can try to track this down.
My gut is that this may be related to the new Custom Chrome Tab stuff, but it's one of those cases where "i've slept since then" and I don't have a razor sharp memory when it comes to all these APIs.
Hi @adent42 , publishing link sent! Thanks.
Check out my games: https://tumblecoinstudios.com/
@Tumblecoin Game Studios so I finally had a chance to look at your project. I think it's caused by Google Play Asset Delivery. Google Play Asset Delivery helps you break up apps into parts so they download faster.
We've structured the build process so it treats your "gameproj" file as an asset that can be downloaded after the initial app binary is installed.
We include this library by default because if your game is over a certain size, Google will automatically do this for you. BUT it's overkill if your game is under whatever the size limit is for the Google Play store (I don't have the numbers off the top of my head).
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So for the short term, just tell them that "The foreground service is required by our use of version 2.2.2 of com.google.android.play:asset-delivery".
That should get you through for now. In the long run, we'll need to put that feature behind a flag so that it won't install if you don't need it (i.e. if your game is under 1GB or whatever the limit is.