Corona Labs is closing

Kevin_RosiMosi · May 2020

Howdy, I'm a developer who uses Corona/Solar and found this thread. I think the adaption layer is a really interesting idea. So I'd be able to feed all my LUA code into it, and a Gideros build would be spit out with the same performance as a native Gideros build?

I can imagine the adaption layer would be fairly easy for some of the basic calls like images, sounds, transitions, etc, but once you get into special plugins it would get more complex. For example, the behavior of IAPs, ad networks, etc would behave very differently engine to engine.

I will fully admit when Corona announced they were closing, my business almost moved to a new engine, but the cost and time to port our entire library and was too much. We are more confident now with the funding Solar has achieved, but the idea of having an "escape pod" to a new engine is a nice idea. Especially since one of the biggest issues we're facing is if Apple requires Metal in the newest iOS, and it sounds like Gideros already has that.

oleg · May 2020

Kevin_RosiMosi said:
Howdy, I'm a developer who uses Corona/Solar and found this thread. I think the adaption layer is a really interesting idea. So I'd be able to feed all my LUA code into it, and a Gideros build would be spit out with the same performance as a native Gideros build?

I can imagine the adaption layer would be fairly easy for some of the basic calls like images, sounds, transitions, etc, but once you get into special plugins it would get more complex. For example, the behavior of IAPs, ad networks, etc would behave very differently engine to engine.

I will fully admit when Corona announced they were closing, my business almost moved to a new engine, but the cost and time to port our entire library and was too much. We are more confident now with the funding Solar has achieved, but the idea of having an "escape pod" to a new engine is a nice idea. Especially since one of the biggest issues we're facing is if Apple requires Metal in the newest iOS, and it sounds like Gideros already has that.

Api game engines are very similar, maybe it's better to do not an adaptive layer, and lua code converter from one engine to another?
In this case, if something does not work correctly, you can fix it manually.

keszegh · May 2020

@Kevin_RosiMosi , if somebody does decide to change engine from Solar2D for any reason in the future, then the easiest transition would be to some other lua engine and maybe Gideros is closest among them api and feature-wise (moai is dead, love2d has a different philosophy, i don't know what other lua options are there).

also, i still think if worst case you need to translate plugin-related code manually when moving to gideros, that's still much less code-rewrite than having to rewrite everything, so a translate layer is useful even if the plugins cannot be translated easily as of now.

keszegh · May 2020

btw, welcome @Kevin_RosiMosi

hgy29 · May 2020

A translation layer will add a bit of overhead, but it is hard to determine if it is acceptable or not. I guess it depends heavily on the game logic and cpu requirements. I believe GPU requirements would be on par with Solar2D.

If there is a demand for such a conversion layer, I will try to improve mine by feeding it with more and more Corona code... until it seems solid enough to make a list of what is missing...

antix · May 2020

Am I missing something here? solar2d seems to just be some fork of Corona. Maybe Gideros should just try to be... Gideros, and leave other frameworks to themselves.

If the aim is to get more users, then I've already previously stated what I think needs to happen with Gideros for that to happen

SinisterSoft · May 2020

@antix - it's really to make Gideros an attractive alternative if something goes wrong with Solar2D's open source plans.

There are also quite a few Corona libraries written in Lua that with the translation layer they would benefit Gideros.

@Kevin_RosiMosi - If you have some links to sample code to test with the translation layer then that may be helpful for @hgy29 to see what is missing? The other thing is that parts of the Gideros flavour of Lua have been enhanced - you will find a lot of things Corona people have wanted for years. See the Gideros Lua Enhancements here: https://wiki.giderosmobile.com/index.php/Lua_API

oleg · May 2020

SinisterSoft said:
@antix - it's really to make Gideros an attractive alternative if something goes wrong with Solar2D's open source plans.

To make gideros attractive you need to make it paid, and then post a free version on pirate forums

SinisterSoft · May 2020

vitalitymobile · May 2020

@oleg

Kevin_RosiMosi · May 2020

Thanks for the responses everyone.

@hgy29 It's hard to know if the translation layer would be used or not. In a scenario where Solar stagnates and can't keep up to date then a straightfoward path to port to Gideros using this layer would mean a TON of users would move to Gideros. When we did research on moving our apps to Unity it came in as a 1-2 year project costing $100k. If we could instead move to Gideros in a matter of weeks/months then that'd be a no brainer. That being said, it's possible or even likely that Solar keeps up to date and even grows. In that case your layer might not ever be used. I can't tell you whether to work on it or not, but in a worst case scenario where Solar dies off then you could capture tons of developers with the layer.

@SinisterSoft We can't provide our code, but Corona ships with a bunch of example apps. Those would be a great start and cover 90% of use cases I bet.

SinisterSoft · May 2020

@Kevin_RosiMosi What would be really useful and good to know is (when @hgy29 releases the translation layer) if you could download Gideros and see if the translation layer has any issues with your games - even if you don't actually move to Gideros.

That way any issues could be resolved in real-world examples (eg, glitches, is it slower, faster, etc).

Kevin_RosiMosi · May 2020

@SinisterSoft Sure, we'd be happy to be a tester of the layer. I don't seem to get notifications here on new posts, but email us at help@rosimosi.com when it's in a state to be tested and we'll put some time into it.

SinisterSoft · May 2020

Thanks.

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