Android OpenGL lag every x frame - android

I am developer of Android game.
I have create an GLSurfaceView and draw something in OnDrawFrame(GL10 gl)
like below
void OnDrawFrame(GL10 gl)
{
frame_limit_wait();
game_logic();
draw_game();
}
Everything is good, but onething is strange, when drawing n-frame(Occur at GC_EXPLICIT/paused 92ms) will cause game a bit pause, in appplication it's ok, but not in a smooth game.
Original game I was use SurfaceView and Thread update works and smooth.
If add a line below draw_game() like 'system.gc()' it seems work but I feel a bit slow.
Compare to another game engine, my game endinge is running slow.
How to resolve the latency problem ?
Edit : I have solved the issue.
Just initial native Float Buffer once, and use put and position(0) to modify the Buffer content.

The garbage collector is running and holding up your frame. I would recommend taking a close look at the code that executes in the functions frame_limit_wait(), game_logic(), and draw_game() and do everything possible to prevent initializing new objects.
The most common techniques for this include:
use fields instead of local variables
use for(int i; i < x; i++) instead of for(variable : list)
making sure no extra processing is done while drawing frames.
If that still doesn't work then you can try offloading some processing to a separate thread or consider using the NDK and writing native code. With C++ you don't have to worry about the GC at all. However both of these methods will complicate your code quite a bit.

Try running your game_logic(),draw_game() code in a separate thread so that when its waiting in frame_limit_wait() , GC can be serviced in a better way.
I mean instead of using the main thread try running your rendering/update code in seperate thread.

Related

Unity canvas scaler hiding animations in high resolution display

I instantiate the following gameObject, which contains an Animator with the mode "always animate" on, the animation goes for 340ms, after that time I destroy the gameObject.
The gameObject Inspector properties:
I instantiate it using the following code:
instancia = (Instantiate(cardAnimation, new Vector3(0, 0, 0), Quaternion.identity) as GameObject).GetComponent<Image>();
instancia.rectTransform.SetParent(transform);
StartCoroutine(KillOnAnimationEnd());
Here is the Coroutine:
private IEnumerator KillOnAnimationEnd()
{
yield return new WaitForSeconds(0.34f);
DestroyImmediate(instancia);
}
Here is how the animation looks like when simulating in Unity (PC-Windows):
But on android after I open the chest it waits 340ms with nothing happening and then show the information above, does this have something to do with the plataform or is some unity or perhaps code related issue?
NOTE: I also have another animation in another scene that is just a already instantiated gameObject in the Hierarchy with always animated on and it works on Android.
--EDIT--
So I have ran the newest version of the app in a emulator which is almost about 1080x480 and the animation showed just as the PC, also running on a 720p smartphone did the job, the only problem I'm still having is with my QuadHD resolution from Galaxy S6, everything else shows but the animation, I have even tried making the animation run without any script so it runs in a loop, but it doesn't show up in galaxy screen.
Given the news about the issue I think this might change a little bit the perspective of answers and perhaps help someone else solve the same problem in the future.
Okay, figured out the problem, its something to do with "rotation" in animations using Unity3D in 2D mode, gonna be reporting it form Unity so it is fixed.
The solution: Animate your UI only using scale/position, if used rotation it will not show on high resolution display.
I am pretty sure your WaitForSeconds(0.34f) is not working properly because there is no thing such as yield keyword in Java. I recommend you to use a invoke method instead to call your method that destroys your GameObject.

Android OpenGL gameloop outside onDrawFrame

I've got a problem with creating gameloop for my first game. I've read a lot about it but still can't figure it out. It's based on OpenGL so I've used onDrawFrame as a game loop and it works fine on my phone. Problem is that onDrawFrame is refresh time depends on hardware so it runs way too fast on some devices. So what I want is adding a separate game loop that will refresh itself at constant period of time on all smartphones. (and onDrawFrame will only take care of graphics as it should)
As for now I have:
myGameRenderer class with all openGl stuff an onDrawFrame
myGLSurfaceView that supports touch events
myGameActivity
onDrawFrame activates myGameUpdate function that controls changing positions of all objects in game depending on info from myGLSurfaceView
I've tried with creating new Runnable but it doesn't seem to work, I can't figure out how to start that runnable and where i should place it (I've tried to place it in myGameRenderer class, but it didn't seem to work, nothing was moving:
private final Runnable mUpdateDisplay = new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
update();
}};
private void update() {
//some update stuff blablabla
//some update stuff blablabla
mHandler.postDelayed(mUpdateDisplay,40); //to refresh at 25 fps
}
but I guess I don't get the idea of it - I mean I create this runnable.
I've tried to place it in onCreateSurface to start it but no effect.
So - is the generall idea ok? And how to start the loop? Where to place it? Or should I use any other way?
Ok it was simple - I was just missing r.run();
But as allways there's something. Now it works as i wanted - I mean frames doesn't depend on hardware, but everything is not as smooth as it was - and part of objects in 3d are flickering. Seems like some objects visibly are drawn faster, some later and it looks ugly.
So what am I doing wrong? Is there a better way?

how to create loading screen in libgdx?

I have a GameScreen class that renders my game.
but before starting to render the game, it needs to reading files and initializing that is time consuming.
So I need to show/render another Screen class called LoadingScreen in order to spending some time and concurrently read my files and do initializing process for my GameScreen, and after initializing completed changing the screen by calling setScreen(gameScreen).
I need to use thread for making this concurrent work, now the problem is that if I use a thread to read files and initializing; When switching to the GameScreen the openGl gives me this error:
javax.media.opengl.GLException: Error: no OpenGL buffer object appears to be bound to target 0x8892
at com.sun.opengl.impl.GLBufferSizeTracker.setBufferSize(GLBufferSizeTracker.java:118)
I am aware of not both of threads use the graphic resources simultaneously.
I have found that the problem causes with Meshes. Initializing a Mesh in initializer thread and rendering in main thread causes this error. But I don't know how to solve it.
Do you have any ideas to solve this problem?
As suggested in the comments, the AssetManager is the way to load most libGDX resources (audio, textures, etc) asynchronously while showing a splash or loading screen.
For other operations, running them in a background thread (or using one of the other Android or Java background task execution facilities) should be sufficient. To invoke libGDX routines like setScreen or others that need to be executed on the libGDX render thread, use Gdx.app.postRunnable, like this:
Gdx.app.postRunnable(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
// Do something on the main thread
myGame.setScreen(postSplashGameScreen);
}
});
Depending on the visibility of myGame and postSplashGameScreen it may be easier to construct the Runnable in a different context and then pass it over to the background thread to post when its done.
My workouround is using Actions in my loading screen method:
#Override
public void show() {
stage.addAction(Actions.sequence(Actions.delay(0.5f), action_loading_assets_and_other_stuff, Actions.delay(0.5f), action_setScreen));
}
Actions.delay(0.5f) makes the magic - game not freezing
The action delay did it for me, too. I just sequence a delayaction with 0.2f and a runnable action on the stage in the loading screens show() method. Now the loading screens render method is called a few time while while the 0.2 sec delay which draws the screen and i can proceed stuff in the runnable action.

Android real-time game - implement time unit

I'll try to explain what I mean.
I'm developing a 2d game. When I run the code below on the small screen it works more quickly than the same code on the big screen. I think it depends on an iteration of the game loop takes more time on the big screen than on the small. How can I implement time unit or something else to it doesn't depend on the iteration of the game loop?
private void createDebris(){
if(dx<=0) return;
if(stepDebris==2){
Debris debris = new Debris(gameActivity, dx-=1280*coefX/77, 800*coefY-50*coefY, coefX, coefY);
synchronized (necessaryObjects) {
necessaryObjects.add(debris);
}
stepDebris=-1;
Log.e("COUNT", (count++)+"");
}
stepDebris++;
}
P.S. Debris is visual object which is drawn on canvas. I'll appreciate your answers. Thanks.
If, stepDebris is the unit by which you move objects on the screen - then incrementing it per draw call is wrong, because it ties the rate of movement to the framerate.
What you want is something like this
stepDebris += elapsedMilliseconds * speedFactor
where elapsedMilliseconds is the time elapsed since the game started (in mS). Once you find the correct speedFactor for stepDebris - it will move at the same speed on different machines/resolutions irrespective of framerate.
Hope this helps!
You can make an 'iteration' take x milliseconds by measuring the time it takes to do the actual iteration (= y), and afterwards sleeping (x-y) millisecs.
See also step 3 of this tutorial
Android provies the Handler API, which implements timed event loops, to control the timing of computation. This article is pretty good.
You will save battery life by implementing a frame rate controller with this interface rather redrawing as fast as you can.

Preventing "flickering" when calling Drawable.draw()

I have a little experimentation app (essentially a very cut-down version of the LunarLander demo in the Android SDK), with a single SurfaceView. I have a Drawable "sprite" which I periodically draw into the SurfaceView's Canvas object in different locations, without attempting to erase the previous image. Thus:
private class MyThread extends Thread {
SurfaceHolder holder; // Initialised in ctor (acquired via getHolder())
Drawable sprite; // Initialised in ctor
Rect bounds; // Initialised in ctor
...
#Override
public void run() {
while (true) {
Canvas c = holder.lockCanvas();
synchronized (bounds) {
sprite.setBounds(bounds);
}
sprite.draw(c);
holder.unlockCanvasAndPost(c);
}
}
/**
* Periodically called from activity thread
*/
public void updatePos(int dx, int dy) {
synchronized (bounds) {
bounds.offset(dx, dy);
}
}
}
Running in the emulator, what I'm seeing is that after a few updates have occurred, several old "copies" of the image begin to flicker, i.e. appearing and disappearing. I initially assumed that perhaps I was misunderstanding the semantics of a Canvas, and that it somehow maintains "layers", and that I was thrashing it to death. However, I then discovered that I only get this effect if I try to update faster than roughly every 200 ms. So my next best theory is that this is perhaps an artifact of the emulator not being able to keep up, and tearing the display. (I don't have a physical device to test on, yet.)
Is either of these theories correct?
Note: I don't actually want to do this in practice (i.e. draw hundreds of overlaid copies of the same thing). However, I would like to understand why this is happening.
Environment:
Eclipse 3.6.1 (Helios) on Windows 7
JDK 6
Android SDK Tools r9
App is targetting Android 2.3.1
Tangential question:
My run() method is essentially a stripped-down version of how the LunarLander example works (with all the excess logic removed). I don't quite understand why this isn't going to saturate the CPU, as there seems to be nothing to prevent it running at full pelt. Can anyone clarify this?
Ok, I've butchered Lunar Lander in a similar way to you, and having seen the flickering I can tell you that what you are seeing is a simple artefact of the double-buffering mechanism that every Surface has.
When you draw anything on a Canvas attached to a Surface, you are drawing to the 'back' buffer (the invisible one). And when you unlockCanvasAndPost() you are swapping the buffers over... what you drew suddenly becomes visible as the "back" buffer becomes the "front", and vice versa. And so your next frame of drawing is done to the old "front" buffer...
The point is that you always draw to seperate buffers on alternate frames. I guess there's an implicit assumption in graphics architecture that you're always going to be writing every pixel.
Having understood this, I think the real question is why doesn't it flicker on hardware? Having worked on graphics drivers in years gone by, I can guess at the reasons but hesitate to speculate too far. Hopefully the above will be sufficient to satisfy your curiousity about this rendering artefact. :-)
You need to clear the previous position of the sprite, as well as the new position. This is what the View system does automatically. However, if you use a Surface directly and do not redraw every pixel (either with an opaque color or using a SRC blending mode) you must clear the content of the buffer yourself. Note that you can pass a dirty rectangle to lockCanvas() and it will do the union for you of the previous dirty rectangle and the one you are passing (this is the mechanism used by the UI toolkit.) It will also set the clip rect of the Canvas to be the union of these two rectangles.
As for your second question, unlockAndPost() will do a vsync, so you will never draw at more than ~60fps (most devices that I've seen have a display refresh rate set around 55Hz.)

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