Gideros Update 2015.04.18

ar2rsawseen

Lua errors now cause exceptions when not in player mode, so they would be catchable by Crash Reporting libraries
Added zlib lua bindings (https://github.com/LuaDist/lzlib)
Added UrlLoader:ignoreSslErrors() to ignore certificate related errors
Added headers table to UrlLoader COMPLETE event object with retrieved response headers if any
Changed coordinates shaders to high precision

https://github.com/gideros/gideros/releases/tag/2015.04.18

SinisterSoft

I've updated my update util with the new libs:

http://sinistersoft.com/downloads/UpdateProject.exe
http://sinistersoft.com/downloads/UpdateActivity.pdf
No change to the luaJIT patch zip.

keszegh

with the new version my app in the android player is awfully slow, especially when i have some bunch of meshes, so those may be the culprits.

SinisterSoft

I've not noticed a speed difference.

Might be the high precision shaders?

dreiko65

Hello!
is there a way to keep the dll plugins during installation?
or do we have everytime we update to add the plugins we use manually?
thanks

ar2rsawseen

by dll you mean desktop plugins?

I think all desktop plugins are now automatically added to Plugins dir upon build, aren't they?

dreiko65

yes I mean desktop plugins.

i use luajit on player and every time i update i have to copy the file luajit.dll into installation folder, delete the old lua.dll, rename the new one to lua.dll and rename the luac to luac2 under tools folder.

so i was wondering if there is any way to keep those changes before installing the update.

if there is no way its ok. just wondering!!

keszegh

@Sinistersoft, perhaps, i don't know the cause.

ar2rsawseen

@dreiko65 ah, I see
unfortunately there is no way that I would know off.

But

1) why would you care if your desktop has luajit, if you don't deploy, but only test there. I think it would be more important for end platforms to have it

2) I think that eventually we will move to luajit completely

dreiko65

@ar2rsawseen yeah like you said its not really important. thats something actually that cross my mind and i just thought i'd ask.
thanks a lot

SinisterSoft

@dreiko65 I did a patch with all the files you need for luajit - just a simple copy. It also has a replacement for luac so your code is compiled into luajit bytecode - this is much better than including your source code. You can find the patch thread on the forum.

keszegh

@ar2rsawseen, any idea why the slowdown? i hope it will be corrected, as the latest version is now uselessly slow for me. i did not yet try to export to android, but i guess it should be the same approximately as in the android player.

pie

@ar2sawseen

2) I think that eventually we will move to luajit completely

I like luajit, but it's not always better in my experience: I am working on a project where luajit slows everything down - please keep both options available

SinisterSoft

I've not had that case - maybe something isn't setup the same. Are you using the bytecode patch I posted?

dreiko65

@SinisterSoft, thanks for the reply
i ve searched the forum and found the link for the patch.
but the link doesnt work.


EDIT
it works after all! some connection problem i suppose.. patch downloaded

SinisterSoft

Please let me know if that is also slower, it's faster on everything I've tried.

dreiko65

@SinisterSoft I used your patch and it seems to work fine. will make some more tests and i ll let you know.

SinisterSoft

If that version is at least as fast as normal Lua for you then we shouldn't have any problems switching over the main version from Lua bytecode to LuaJIT bytecode.

kussakov

Guys,

I have another iOS issue. It seems to be related to the texture cache.
My app starts using "RANDOM" textures all of a sudden.
Instead of the images for the game objects it pulls out random images - buttons, icons, etc. These images are also part of the app, but not the textures I am loading.
I don't even know how to code the thing to have this effect.

With other words: Bitmap.new(Texture.new("my_image_filename.png",true)) does not pull the correct image/texture, but pulls a random texture that is already used/loaded somewhere (say in the main menu).
If I restart the level it pulls different random image... Very strange behavior. Don't know how to reproduce it in a simple project - it is random, but happens very often. The first time around it pulls the correct game object images and then random stuff.
E.g. Instead of shooting a bullet the app shoots the "sound off" image from main menu...

I do not see this behavior in the Windows player.

The attached image shows how it picked up my font textures instead of the correct textures.

Do you have any idea what might be causing this?

Thanks

Vlad

totebo

Small issue with the iOS player of this build: The Box2D debug layer now fails to show. I reverted back to an older iOS player and it shows fine.

hgy29

@totebo, seems fine on my iphone with 'Vertical Stack' example project. Can you provide a test case ?

dreiko65

@SinisterSoft
I did some more tests today. The patch after all drops my frame rate. My app runs on the Desktop player and on the android player at 60fps. After i installed the patch the framerate dropped to 54 or sometimes to even 45fps. I dont get any crashes but just the framerate drop. It reaches 60 fps sometimes but then suddently back to 54...
Now I reinstalled Gideros, reexported the app, and used luaJit plugin from GitHub, so the app runs constantly at 60fps. (sometimes it shows me 61).

I dont know what causes that fps drop so unfortunatelly I cant help you find the sollution. But i am here if you ever update it to test it.
Thanks again (and sorry for my English ) :P

ar2rsawseen

@kussakov does it happen with latest build?
If yes, can you check previous if the same happens with previous build?

SinisterSoft

@dreiko did you try it with jit:off() at the beginning - so it just runs with a faster interpreter rather than it doing compiles?

kussakov

@ar2rsawseen it happens with the previous build as well.

I did a lot of testing and research with no conclusive results:

I have a feeling that it is somehow related to the Ads interface. Specifically Admob interstitial.
It was working with the old Gideros (2014.something), the old Ads and Google framework.

Looks like something is messing up the memory, but can't be sure. It often happens after displaying of Admob interstitial.
So I have a feeling that there might be something wrong with the Ads... who knows?
I could not reproduce if the ads are disabled, but I will try harder...
I use the latest Ads plugin and the latest GoogleMobileAds.framework.
I tried 64 and 32 bit builds - same thing.
Spent 2 hours debugging the Ads plugin - looks OK to me...

What I will do next is use the old 32 bit Gideros (2014..) and the new ads and Google frameworks... If it still happens - it can't be from the latest releases, but something else...

ar2rsawseen

I really doubt AdsInterface would do such thing, they are living in two different worlds.

What I think is happening is that Intersitial ad is stealing focus from the GLSurface and that is when errors start to happen.

But currently I can't figure out which change could have caused that.

What you can try is this release:
https://github.com/gideros/gideros/releases/tag/2015.03.22

which is prior to OpenGL 2, so at least we would know if problem started with new OpenGL ES 2 shaders or not

totebo

@hgy29 about the Box2D debug layer not showing, it may be something in my code. I'll stick with an old player for now, if it becomes an issue I'll dig deeper.

kussakov

@ar2rsawseen, I will try and let you know.
I guess you are right. If it was a memory leak I would expect the game to crash at some point, but it does not - just the graphics get messed up...

It is actually easy to reproduce:
Take a game made with Gideros that has decent amount of images.
Play it on a iOS player that has Ads plugin with admob code and GoogleMobileAds framework (or build an app for iOS)
At the beginning of level call admob_var:loadAd("interstitial",ID)
At the end of level call admob_var:showAd("interstitial",ID)
Do not set ads in debug mode.

I tried with several apps - for some aps you need to play for a few minutes and see several ads, for others you can see the problem after the first or second interstitial.


Update:
I managed to reproduce it with 2015.03.22 (the player says 2015.02 by the way)
For some reason it was much harder to reproduce though. I was about to report that there is no issue with that version when it happened again.

I also tried with older version of the Ads plugin - same thing.

Now I will try to get older version of Google framework which is not a good solution, but...

SinisterSoft

I don't think the player should say 2015.02 - maybe that might be the problem - old and new libs being mixed?

kussakov

@SinisterSoft,
Yes it is a bit weird, but just for this 2015.03.22 old release @ar2rsawseen asked me to try:
- The Gideros player shows 2015.02
- When I export a project and do "strings libgideros.a | grep 2015" it returns 2015.03.22

Not sure if this is relevant: I was never able to reproduce the issue in this 2015.02 player (this does not necessary mean it is not there, but...).
I managed to reproduce it in the (2015.03.22) app itself.
While for release 2015.04.18 I can reproduce in the app and the player just the same. May be it is a coincidence...

Something unrelated:
People mention that 2015.04.18 release is slower or something...
For me is the other way around:
For some reason iOS apps with 2015.04.18 use about 30% less CPU than 2015.03.22. Not sure why...

kussakov

@totebo, DebugDraw was not working for me either. @tkhnoman said he multiplies the X and Y coordinates(See Gideros Update 2015.04.12 discussion)

Since I am trying the old release:
Debug draw works fine in 2015.03.22.