Advice on Performance Issues?

[Eric Qel-Droma]

Is there any way to improve the ball frame rate on a Tegra 2 system? I'm trying to play on an Acer Iconia A500 running ICS, but the ball is hardly visible on the table, appearing (to me) to show up only every other frame or so--maybe fewer than that. I also have an Asus TF300T running ICS, which is a Tegra 3 system, and the ball movement is substantially smoother.

I was just surprised that a very good tablet from 2011 isn't up to snuff with this app, and I'm wondering if there are issues I can address or fix before simply giving up on the Iconia.

Thanks!

 

[Ryan Routon]

Unfortunately as I have pointed out in the past, not all chipsets are created equally, I have seen one device with a tegra 2 run at a solid 60 while another with a tegra 2 run at 30 (right now due to our engine restraints those are the only two options really, 30 or 60 fps). The differences lay in the drivers built by the manufacturers, size of the screen (fill rate is a huge issue on Android), and also screen type may make it look like its running faster or slower (refresh rate, etc). An amoled screen for instance seems to display fast moving objects much better than other types of screens due to its refresh rate. For example the tablet I bought (galaxy tab 10.1) runs the game at 30 but the screen type makes the ball look ghosty, something that has bothered me from day 1. For this device its the massive amount of pixels involved that slow it down.

That being said closing everything that is running in the back ground, turning off the hud, and in some extreme cases a restart seem to help. We are working on putting an advanced screen in to tweak optimizations for the near future to help people out. These would include lowering textures, not drawing the environment, and anything else I can think of that might squeeze a little more out of the GPU thread.

 

[Eric Qel-Droma]

Wow, thanks for the thorough response. I wondered about the size/resolution of the screen, as the game seems to run pretty well on my Xperia Play but not on my Iconia, and I thought the Iconia should be faster.

The "advanced screen" idea sounds great. Especially with the fragmentation on Android, something like that would be very helpful for users, I think.

In any case, I really appreciate the "official" response. While TPA hasn't been problem-free for me on most systems, I've gotten the clear impression that you guys are passionately working to make it better every day. That kind of devotion increases my enjoyment of the software and helps me "get over" little bugs knowing that you're working to stomp them out.

 

[Ryan Routon]

My pleasure Android is a difficult beast to wrap one's mind around with all of the (as you said) fragmentation. Definitely a difficult task trying to make all of the droid users out there happy We appreciate your support!!

 

[BeO]

And us Droid users really appreciate your efforts!

 

[LeeChicago Gilbert]

I had a bizzare issue with my Motorola Photon. I finally nailed it down and it STILL don't make sense. My touch screen gets goofy when it's plugged in to one specific charger. I got one in the car, one in the truck, and one at home. The one at home screws everything up (weird right?). The brand name is "Delton" don't ever buy one.

All the issues with all my games (and typing too) trace back to this charger. Weird but true......Believe it.....Or not

 

[pyroxian]

Yeah, I've heard that some devices have issues with their touchscreens when plugged into the mains chargers.