Understanding how memory management works? My app lags

Mells

Hi,

I am testing a few prototypes and sometimes notice that they lag a little bit on my device (ios).
For example, when I touch a button the app reacts with a certain delay.
If I close a few apps from the multitasking tray, the app reacts better.
It does not seem to be related to the FPS.

So I would like to understand : where is that lag coming from?

• Is the size of my textures too big?
• Is the number of files in memory too big?
• Are the operations that I ask to the app too heavy? (box2D, etc)

As you can see, my understanding of what is treated by the CPU, GPU (if any, in a mobile device?), and what is in RAM is limited.

Ideally, I would like to be able to identify each kind of lag/error/crash.
How can I identify this type of lag, and even better track it?

ar2rsawseen

@Mells if it is with 2013.06 Gideros series, then it might be due to removing multi-threading support on touches for ios. This should be fixed on 2013.06.2

Mells

@ar2rsawseen
I am not sure it's on Gideros' side, most probably it's on mine because I haven't started optimizing my textures, understanding what is the maximum size (ko and resolution) of my images, etc...

I was just developing on desktop without memory constraints.

I didn't find any information about it in the docs, but maybe I am not looking at the right place.

SinisterSoft

Put as much of the gfx for the actual game in a single texture.

vitalitymobile

by the way, @ar2rsawseen, @SinisterSoft can we use @2x, @4x theory on gideros texture packer?
I still do not know how to apply image scales with texture packer.

atilim

@vitalitymobile yes. you can check the example "Hardware/Automatic Texture Pack Resolution".

atilim

@Mells

1. if you're using 2013.06 or 2013.06.1, can you update to 2013.06.2?
2. Can you check if your fps is stable with this code: http://www.giderosmobile.com/forum/discussion/486/how-do-i-display-fps#Item_7
3. You can see the current texture memory usage with application:getTextureMemoryUsage(). You can compare it with your device's memory.

Mells

@atilim
here is an update :
1. Using 2013.06.2 *really* improved things. I don't know what changed but it's definitely an improvement, and my game is a really simple one.

2. My fps is stable at 59~60fps

3. application:getTextureMemoryUsage() gives me "56700".
I have no idea if that sounds big or not?