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http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/4...alaxlag.th.jpg
The only way you can create paralax (for layers) causes delays in the game, making it slow in the mobile! (lag in game)
Tested:
Nokia 6120c
CPU Class:ARM11
CPU MHz:369 Mhz
JVM Type:JIT
Resolution:240x320
Sony-ericsson w380i
CPU Class:ARM9
CPU MHz:117 Mhz
JVM Type:AOT
Resolution:176x220
Tested games:All in 256 colors - frame rate 50 - machine-independent speed ON
Frame rate is different on each mobile phones.
I made once a game for mobile with MMF2 and it ran extremely slow on my phone. One of my friend tested it on his phone, and he couldn't play it because it was too fast...
So I don't know if there's a solution for this: many things can cause delay in mobile games, also parallax layers as we saw here.
The mojos adventure game in nokia 2660 (old phone - 128x160) has paralax and less than 100kb (.jar size), and it doesn't gets slow, if I use a spread quick backdrop it doesn't gets slow, it only gets slow when I use layers (with or without paralax) and independently of the mobile hardware the slow is the same; it doesn't get slower or less slow.
Mojos adventure aminated GIF
http://img685.imageshack.us/img685/5...deomojo.th.gif
I'll recommend against using any type of frame scrolling in Java Mobile as most phones simply cannot handle it.
I previously tried to get Adam's Street Wise to run on a mobile, but had to give up as the scrolling was happening at snail speed.
The short answer is. Don't use scrolling, and especially don't use scrolling with paralax. Sorry
You are mistaken! As you can see in the example that I've done, in a game that only has actives I've made a paralax and it runs perfectly. The problem is the lack of an extension that creates paralax in the java mobile. What I'm actually questioning is that the runtime presents problems with layers!
http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/5...xactive.th.png
Perfect parallax with actives (Java móbile resolutions 176x220 and 240x320)
Example
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=N0MNS50K
Your example doesn't work for me. Gives an Error 36.
You might have found some phone that it works on. I'm simply saying on the majority of phones it won't work as most phones simply cannot handle it.
Take a look at this thread where it's discussed. Francois says it's the processor.
http://www.clickteam.com/epicenter/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=19051&Number=1350 95#Post135095
If you are hitting speed issues at this point, I'm almost certain you are experiencing the limitations of the Mobile build.
Hi guys,
Everyone here is correct from their own point of view. But you're each making points the other person doesn't really seem to care about. ;)
Fernandolt, you can have parallax scrolling if you're willing to:
1) experiment to find a custom parallaxing system that works at a framerate you find acceptible. (as your example proves is possible)
2) Accept the fact that if you absolutely must have layered scrolling in you're game you won't be able to release it for as many phones. (for many of us, this is not a big deal.. we want to release a cool game for phones that can handle fairly modern 2d video games with scrolling and lots of moving oobjects.)
3) Accept the fact the you will never get as good of a framerate for your games on mobile if you try using the built in layers system. As you proved yourself, things will run much faster if you use tricks to create the illusion of layered scrolling. It's just the way the layer system is programmed. It's very convenient to use while makinggames, but its not optimized for cel-phones and likely never will be.
Burfelt, There are TONS of phones now that can easily handle layered srolling. Someday, most phones on the market will be able to handle it...its just a matter of time (sure it may be many years). Many of us want to make games for phones that can handle games, for peolpe who bought "better" phones that they chose to play games on as well as for calls. We might not be able to sell as many coppies of our game to celphone users, but we're not worried about that.
It seems to me, what Fernandolt was saying is that it seems to him that the layers system runs slower than it should. that perhaps it could be reprogrammed to run faster. He pointed out that on the SAME PHONE he has seen games run nicely with layered scrolling, but when he tried to reproduce it with MMF2's layers feature,it ran poorly.
The simple fact is that the games Fernandolt sees running so smoothly on his same phone were programed specifically for the phone, using lots of tricks to be as optimized as possible. Its likely impossible to match those games performance with games made with MMF2, which is designed to export to tons of platforms, but not optimized for any of them. Our best bet is to come up with clever tricks to simulate layered scrollng annd hopefully someday have special extensions made SPECIFICALLY for optimized mobile game making (like layered srolling and creating flipped versions of animations at load time.
"It seems to me, what Fernandolt was saying is that it seems to him that the layers system runs slower than it should. that perhaps it could be reprogrammed to run faster. He pointed out that on the SAME PHONE he has seen games run nicely with layered scrolling, but when he tried to reproduce it with MMF2's layers feature,it ran poorly."
Exactly!
Im glad I understood you properly, Fernandolt. :) Do you see my point that the layers featurewas designed predominantly for PC's, and for ease of use. It's not optimized for mobile devices
and probably never will be.
You are on the right track. For now, prove that it can be done using actives.. figure out the best tricsk you can...hopefully it will inspire the creation of extensons that will someday make it easier to make paralax scrolling on more mobile devices with MMF2.
If low processor does not run paralax, how explain the fact that old mobile games have paralax and run well ???? (example Castle Of Magic 128x128, Mojos Adventure 128x160)
Parallax is possible in low processor! (run well)
"...hopefully it will inspire the creation of extensons that will someday make it easier to make paralax scrolling on more mobile devices with MMF2."
That's my intention. :D
Well I'm not really that knowledgeable on the subject, but those games work because they aren't programmed in MMF2. The way MMF2 handles layers with the runtime is why you're having problems. Those other games were coded from the ground up.Quote:
Originally Posted by fernandolt
Edit - Unless you mean those games you listed were built with an older version of the java mobile runtime in MMF2?
In older days we didn't have a layers and we had a paralax. So maybe go this way?
Take a look.
http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/5...xactive.th.png
Parallax with actives (Java mobile mmf2 resolutions 176x220 and 240x320)
Run well in low processor! ( nokia 5000 - Processor ARM7 - 50MHz )
http://www.jbenchmark.com/phonedetails.jsp?benchmark=sum&D=Nokia%205000&test group=null
Example
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=N0MNS50K
In games with resolution 128x128 there are drawn less pixels in one frame than in 240x320. So it's less "processor consuming".Quote:
Originally Posted by fernandolt
Some mobile phones have similar processing power, but different screen sizes.
So parallax scrolling for 128x128 is in most cases faster than for 240x320.
That's a good point. Some phones have very powerful processors but due to larger resolution, it's really difficult to implement scrolling (with a lot of active objects) in MMF2 J2ME runtime.Quote:
Originally Posted by qenio
For example, the Nokia N97 has a 434 Mhz processor and 360x640 pixels screen resolution. If you try to make a full screen scrolling gfx-intensive game with MMF2-J2ME, there will be severe performance issues. It's a shame that we can't build the game for lower resolution and then stretch that to full screen - this would solve many performance glitches.