Unable to reduce my app size

[mobichan]

I have an app that compiles from MMF (final xcode build type) to 46.5 MB. I have begun reducing sprite sizes (32x32 to 16x16) and replacing fullscreen backdrop objects (480x320) with smaller, tileable quick backdrop objects (80x82). I have also made the quick backdrop objects global since they exist in 4 separate frames. For some reason, the app size is still compiling to 46.5 MB.

Can anyone explain why I would see no change in app size at all. And does anyone have any tips for reducing the app size? When I compile this same code to Flash or exe, the resulting file is ~5 MB.

I am desperate to get the file size to 30MB, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Mobichan

[AyreGuitar]

You might want to try doing a clean in XCode for your project, or even better output it to a completely new project via iOS Exporter (ie new zip file) - sometimes XCode will keep stuff around to make building quicker. You might find deleting it from your device helps too (depending on how you're calculating App size)

Also, from what others on this forum have reported, I think 32x32 is the smallest size - so reducing to 16x16 probably won't gain you anything.
Generally try to work to powers of 2, ie 32, 64, 128, 256, etc so rather than 80x82 for your tileable quick backdrop use 64x64 if possible

If you're not doing it already try turning on Image Compression - this should make a difference to App size.

Hope this helps and good luck with your project!

[mobichan]

The filesize I am referring to is the .zip that MMF is exporting on my PC. I do a clean before every build in Xcode, but I will also try exporting everything under an entirely new name just to be sure. I have Image Compression enabled at the project level, but all my individual assets are set to "default" (I assumed that meant the objects will use the project's setting).

I thought I had read in Andos' guide to optimizing that the smallest image size was 8x8. Can anyone else confirm this is still true? Most of my art was 32x32 because I was manually scaling up everything for the Flash version. Now that I can scale sprites up in iOS without filtering, my plan is to reduce all my assets back to their native resolution and scale them back up at runtime. This means most of the art is meant to be 16x16. It might not seem like alot, but it adds up when you consider all the frames of animation and flipped animation frames (for facing left) in my project.

Does anyone know if having a lot of string objects causes any bloat? They all point to the same embedded font file. How about List objects with 20+ lines of text?

Cheers,

Mobichan

[Aasland]

Are you using wav or mp3 ?

[AyreGuitar]

mobichan - the 32x32 was for Quick Backdrop tiling I think, not sure about the 8x8 (but I'm sure Andos knows what he's talking about!)

I don't think the zip file that MMF generates is a good way of checking your App's size (and cleaning in XCode won't change it
Build it in XCode and look at the file size there:
Click the Project Navigator Tab at Top Left (looks like a folder) - you should see a blue icon next to the name of your App
Click the Triangle arrow to open that folder and you'll see a bunch of folders, last one should be Product
Click the Triangle arrow next to Product and it should show your app <Project Name>.app
Select the app file and it should show you the size in the main window, eg:

MyApp
Version 1.0
9.6MB
Last Modified 16/05/2012

Hope that helps!

[mobichan]

Thanks AyreGuitar for the heads up on finding the app size in xcode. I got an email from Francois that since my app uses ogg, they would get converted to wav, which might be the source of my bloat. I am going to convert them to mp3 and see if that helps. Beyond that, I am just puzzled why the zip file coming out of MMF has no size change when I remove or reduce assets. I mean, there should be at least a few kb change, right?

[mobichan]

Update: The problem was that I had been using OGG files. Converting them to mp3 reduced the app from 46.5 MB -> 6.4 MB. No need to reduce assets anymore.