I'm a total newcomer to SpriteKit and game development in general, I've been toying with SpriteKit to make a strategy game set in space.
My backend architecture use a grid system to represent the Universe, I have empty cases and cases with systems/planets/etc...
My grid is backed by GameplayKit GKGridGraph, I use an algorithm that generate a node with random properties for each node of the grid and I subclassed it to add a custom entity to it, which all the properties of this specific universe case.
To render it, I simply use SKShapeNode and SKPriteNode with various colors, shapes and textures.
I enumerate all nodes (GKGridGraphNode) in my GKGridGraph instance, and for each of those nodes I get generate the corresponding SKNode (my SKNode generations is a component of each GKGridGraphNode entity attached object), and I set them a position, and add them as a child to my main node (let's call it mapNode) which is a simple SKNode. In the end it looks like a grid.
It works well for a 30/30 grid, I have 60 FPS while scrolling my grid (custom implementation, I modify my mapNode positon as the user move his fingers).
But as soon as I try a 50/50 or a 100/100 grid, I have literally too many nodes on the screen for the scrolling to works. I know I shouldn't add every of my node on the screen, so I thought about various strategies and I wanted some input on them:
Instead of scrolling my mapNode, I could render only the nodes I see on the screen, and then add/remove nodes as the user scroll left/right/up/down. So it's not really scrolling anymore, it simulate it. I can think of it, but not really how I should implement it in practice. Is it the right solution?
Maybe I could render all my node as one big node? Is there a way to do that? But then I'll loose functions such as nodeAtPosition, which I use extensively to get the entity (custom object) associated with my nodes.
Edit: Actually, my current code is open source, here is the scene in I'm rendering: https://github.com/Dimillian/LittleOrion/blob/master/Little%20Orion/Little%20Orion/scenes/UniverseScene.swift
Is there any other smart way of doing that?
SKTileMapNode was made just for this in Xcode 8
https://www.raywenderlich.com/137216/whats-new-spritekit-ios-10-look-tile-maps
Alternatively, you would only want to load the nodes that are in and near your current view. You would need an algorithm to do this, and would be a big headache compared to tilemaps.
I suspect the algo would involve checking which nodes are in the view's .frame' and then using 'addChild' on them--concurrently, add a reference to them to an array, which you would check against nextupdate()andremoveFromParent` if they were no longer visible ..
It would get hairy trying to optimize this though. The goal would be to load only a few nodes out on each end so that way you have some buffer in moving the camera (less updates).
You could create a math function to pre-determine which nodes are where in relation to the current frame coordinates--so you don't have to iterate through the nodes--but that would require even a lot more work and headache--and it's what people developing on consoles, etc, have to do with high-end games and limited power.
I recommend skimming through a Direct3d/DirectX/OpenGL game development book, just to get an idea of what goes into everything... They aren't hard to find: walk into a bookstore and look for the thickest / heaviest book--that will be the DirectX game development book.
You will see how what we can do with 30 lines in SK requires thousands of lines and vector calculus in C++ and low-level AV frameworks. It will give you an appreciation, understanding, and perspective of game dev, which will help you in your SK journeys :)
Related
This is a very common question, and I am not asking for technical details. What I am looking for is an approach or best practice guidance for the following situation:
Imagine a jump and run game entirely made with SceneKit. The game is played by controlling a character running to the right or left side, climbing up walls and jump over obstacles. (it is a 2½-D style game where the character always runs in one direction or it's opposite. Mainly on the x-Axis)
At certain "locations" (on the scene x-axis) I need to implement some specific actions, that should occur as soon as the main character walks, jumps or runs over that specific point.
What I have done so far, is adding simple invisible SCNPlanes with static physics bodies, with the bitmask configured to detect only the contact (no collision). In the physics handler (physics delegate) I can now fetch contact of the objects the character trespasses. Currently I have a large switch-statement to fetch the names of the "Action-Walls" as I call the planes through which the character walks. So, I can trigger whatever specific action that I want to happen at that location.
It is working this way, even quite good, but I wonder if there is a way to add some better "action points" using i.e. Gameplaykit, but I only find information about agents and behaviors or pathfinding.
What I am looking for is some static point, when trespassing it, an associated action happens.
I have no clue about the possibilities of Gameplaykit. Can anyone tell me an approach using Gameplaykit or whatever Apple has in its magic box of useful tools to make this better than using action walls of SCNPlanes and the physics handler?
I am going to make simple 2D game in Defold game engine and I am new in this area. My question is, I have 2 game objects every object has sprites in it. A sprite in the first game object must be background for sprites of second object. I have designed it well but when I run (or render, I don't know how to call properly) it sometimes sprites of second game object are invisible and some times everything is OK.
The same issue if I set main backgruon image for the game. Please share your experiences with me. Thanks beforehand.
You posted the same question on the official Defold forum so I'm going to replicate the answer you got there here on SO as well. The solution is to make sure that the depth of two game objects that overlap isn't the same. If two objects have the same depth and overlap you might sometimes see one in front of the other and sometimes vice versa. The default render script allows a z-range of -1 to 1 (you can use fractional z-values to get fine grained control), but you can copy it from builtins and increase the range if you want to. Something like -10 to 10 is usually a good enough value.
I'm currently designing a game in Swift and Spritekit that calls for bacteria-like graphics for the main player. I have no idea how to approach the physics and visual effects of a node like this. If you don't know what I'm talking about, here's a visual:
So basically the player is a circle/oval that can completely alter it's shape based on the surrounding structures.
I've tried this by creating a huge array of nodes strung together to create the larger structure, however this is extremely inefficient and lags the computer when I try to scale it up to multiple players. I also want to fudge this the least amount as possible since it requires realistic (or at least expected) physics of something like this with the ability to jump, move, slide, etc.
Thanks!
I'm making a tile-based adventure game in iOS. Currently my level data is stored in a 100x100 array. I'm considering two approaches for displaying my level data. The easiest approach would be to make an SKSpriteNode for each tile. However, I'm wondering if an iOS device has enough memory for 10,000 nodes. If not I can always create and delete nodes from the level data as needed.
I know this is meant to work with Tiled, but the code in there might help you optimize what you are looking to do. I have done my best to optimize for big maps like the one you are making. The big thing to look at is more so how you are creating textures I know that has been a big killer in the past.
Swift
https://github.com/SpriteKitAlliance/SKATiledMap
Object-C
https://github.com/SpriteKitAlliance/SKAToolKit
Both are designed to load in a JSON string too so there is a chance you could still generate random maps without having to use the Tiled Editor as long as you match the expected format.
Also you may want to consider looking at how culling works in the Objective-C version as we found more recently removing nodes from the parent has really optimized performance on iOS 9.
Hopefully you find some of that helpful and if you have any questions feel free to email me.
Edit
Another option would be to look at Object Pooling. The core concept is to create only sprites you need to display and when you are done store them in a collection of sorts. When you need a new sprite you ask the collection for one and if it doesn't have one you create a new one.
For example you need a grass tile and you ask for one and it doesn't have one that has been already created that is waiting to be used so it creates one. You may do this to fill a 9 x 7 grid to fill up your screen. As you move away grass that gets moved off screen gets tossed into the collection to be used again when the new row comes in and needs grass. This works really well if all you are doing is displaying tiles. Not so great if tiles have dynamic properties that need to be updated and are unique in nature.
Here is a great link even if it is for Unity =)
https://unity3d.com/learn/tutorials/modules/beginner/live-training-archive/object-pooling
I have seen the usage of plist and png atlasses for the game i am developing. However I've notice a slight performance swiftness(speed up) keeping the 60 fps, and for a side note my app has not crash at the moment.
The thing is I noticed I have used SpriteFrameCache with plist to do CCactions and animations for my characters(sprites). However some of the characters ive been using SpriteBatchnode, but it was on accident, since I am relatively new to deep development of a game, I didnt notice this difference before, they both work, but I feel like both are the same, its just that one has an easier way of implementation than the other, i was thinking that perhaps it was developed in an earlier version....
so my question is. is there a difference between the two? will my game benefit for using SpriteFrameCache over SpriteBatchNode?
Thanks for the help.
FYI: this doesnt slow down my developing, its just a question because I know at the end when my game is finished maybe i would want to optimize performance for my game.
Batch nodes draw all child sprites in one draw call.
Sprite frames hold a reference to a texture and define a region in the texture to draw from. The cache allows you to access sprite frames by name.
Both are different concepts, they are not replacements for each other. You can use sprite frames to create sprites or sprite frame animations. In addition to that sprite batching enables you to speed up rendering of two or more sprites using the same texture.
Note that if you use a batch node with only a single child sprite this will not be any different from rendering the sprite without the batch node, since both create a single draw call so there is no positive effect in using the batch node.