Sprite Kit, Box2D, Performance and LiveCode's Approach to Game Coding

John Craig john at splash21.com
Wed Aug 21 07:29:41 EDT 2013


(Use the arrow keys (or A,W,S,D) to control the buggy and the return key 
to switch camera angle)

On 21/08/2013 12:26, John Craig wrote:
> I'm also interested in creating games with LiveCode and looking 
> forward to box2d integration.  I've been checking out Corona and (more 
> recently) - Unity (3D), to familiarize myself with physics stuff.  It 
> makes a massive difference having a physics engine taking care of 
> collisions, gravity, etc.  I assume that box2d performance with 
> LiveCode will be on a par with other platforms using the same engine, 
> so it will really open up a lot of possibilities :D
>
> The following Unity demo only required a couple of hundred lines of 
> code, since all the physics was taken care of, so I'm really looking 
> forward to seeing what LiveCode is capable of in the coming months.
> http://youtu.be/XuA5xbsdx_M
>
> Since Unity has a web player, you can have a play around with the demo 
> here;
> http://splash21.com/Buggy/
>
>
>
> On 21/08/2013 03:13, Ender Nafi Elekçioğlu wrote:
>> Yes, I'm aware of Box2D integration and I'm very excited about it.
>> I can't wait to see the possibilities.
>>
>> But, I'm not sure how much performance boost it will give us.
>>
>> I've stumbled on an article tonight about algorithm optimizations.
>> It's kind of a case study.
>> *Spots* finds the wifi hotspots nearby showing on a map and should 
>> react user's pinch&zoom act with a 60fps speed.
>> { http://www.savoysoftware.com/blog/my-iphone-is-not-a-mac-pro/ }
>> Nikolai managed to achieve a whopping 200x performance increase by 
>> optimization.
>>
>> I tried the unoptimized code in LiveCode.
>> After seeing the results, I didn't bother to code the binary-search.
>> Here it is:
>> ----------------- Cocoa & C++ --- LiveCode
>> iPod Touch---  194ms ----------- ~2600ms
>> Mac Pro-------- 4ms ------------- ~ 210ms
>>
>> These are both unoptimized algorithms
>> but even if I'd use the binary-search in LiveCode,
>> I wonder that I could achieve 0.883ms on my iPod Touch or 0.016ms on 
>> my brand-new desktop.
>> So, an app like *Spots* can never be realized in LiveCode. Achieving 
>> a speed like 60fps seems impossible.
>> Isn't this kinda frustrating?
>>
>>
>> I can hear some of you saying:
>> "Well, get over it pal, LiveCode is a RAD tool.
>> this is the price you have to pay in exchange of ease-of-use."
>>
>> Are these features really contradicting?
>> Can't a coding platform be blazing-fast yet having an excellent IDE, 
>> built on an event-driven foundation and supporting multiple platforms?
>>
>> I'm not ungrateful, here. Just questioning…
>> After all, LiveCode's paying my rent for nearly 2 years now.
>>
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> ~ Ender Nafi
>> ~… together, we're smarter …~
>>
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>
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