Giant Memory eater?

[MechatheSlag]

Is that why layers slow the game down so much? Because background objects aren't reduced to a bitmap?

No, layers don't take any specific memory (except in HWA if they have effects, but that should not be very big).

Layers does not take any specific memory
Layers does not take any specific memory
Layers does not slow things down

[Random]

Layers does not slow things down

Noone said that layers do not slow things down. I remember using layers (in a rather SMALL frame) - one layer already more than halved the framerate (with nothing in it!) and more layers brought the game to a total crawl. You can not tell me that layers don't slow the game down. Maybe it got better with HWA. I haven't tried it since that was released.

[MechatheSlag]

I have 7 layers in my game
loads of alpha channels
and huge images

I run at 60 fps

[Looki]

There's an engine called Sonic Worlds for MMF, which uses 6 layers, and many objects and complex math (Sonic genesis-like engine) and it runs fine at 60 fps, standard and HWA.

[Random]

Must be HWA then.

[Yves]

Is that why layers slow the game down so much? Because background objects aren't reduced to a bitmap?

That depends on what you do, the size of your backdrops, their position, if they intersect with active objects, etc. Backdrop objects on layers > 1 are handled almost like active objects. If your application doesn't scroll or in some cases even if it scrolls you can uncheck the "save background" option in the layers to save display time.

Must be HWA then.

In the HWA version layers don't slow things at all as there is no background saving / restoring management.

[Random]

That's what I mean, cool, then I can finally use layers without losing all my precious performance.