From The Blog: Corona Labs annual update

Getting Started Announcements
#269

I wouldn’t know what to say, but of course you can start one. It is similar to what Micheal linked a while back. It is abstraction layer.

Here is all I know:

Angle is the one that chromium uses or use to use to run on almost anything. It is in most cases a OpenGL drop in replacement. And that is all I did in my test. It took me a few hours to compile  (compiled the wrong version first) . Then I searched in the corona code for all the OpenGL calls (basically 3 projects if I remember correctly) and I replaced them with the similar or exact angle calls. As I said before ran into some problems with linking because of a reference to a library inside a library that I couldn’t find (enter the ugly hack). Then I ran a test with my apps to see if it would work and that it could capture metal frames (so I know it was running in metal). I also downloaded the skateboard free template from PonyWolf (figured it would be more taxing than my crappy casual games). Added a counter on the top to display frame rates and ran it twice. Once from the simulator build (openGL) and once from the testapp folder build (angle) on my iphone 7. Now you know as much as I do and the extent of my testing and hacking.

#270

Wow, this looks great! I recognize the username from a couple GitHub projects, but hadn’t dug deeper into his stuff.

I did stumble across Sokol. Philip Rideout cited it as an inspiration, though I forget where. I soon got distracted by all his embeddable 8-bit computer emulators, though.  :)  (On that note, I think porting this from SDL might be a fun stream idea. A correct implementation of this sort of library involves non-file-based audio, lack of which has stymied a few ideas, so I’m thinking I’d have a go at that and keep these on hand for testing. Speaking of SDL, the audio bits do offer “rwops”, so this might even be straightforward.)

Sascha Willems is another on my radar whom I’ve yet to give much attention.

bgfx  is one of those projects I keep meaning to really explore. I’ve never been able to get a feel for it by just perusing the samples. It probably wouldn’t hurt to give multiple backends a try.

Also, no worries about time and all the rest. Ideas and information are very much appreciated. Best of luck on everything else. :) 

@ agramonte One version of it is actually in the Corona codebase. The comments suggest it was used for Windows Phone.

#271

Can we move this discussion about Vulkan, Metal, etc. to a new thread? Let’s keep this thread focused please.

Rob

#272

@Rob, we pay $55/mo for the Adobe Creative Cloud suite of products. I’d be happy to spend that same amount to help ensure a positive future for Corona SDK. I would consider paying even more, considering the amount of money keeping Corona up-to-date will save us as our apps get continually updated for the next few years. With Patreon, are you limited to whatever people are willing to pay, or can you require or suggest a monthly support amount? Is this the right place to discuss this or do you want to start another thread? Just let me know. I appreciate you all.

#273

Same here. 50 euros a month, no problem!

#274

I wonder: Is there a specific ceiling? …

How much do they need for a single year?

Does vlads and Rob need someone else’s inclusion?

#275

@w967 what do you mean “specific ceiling”? If you mean to the GitHub match? Yes, it’s something like $5,000 which, based on current pledges, is close to being hit. However the cost to continue Corona development is much higher.  

 

#276

I would suggest those studios that are big enough contributes more. I know that many of the tools out there - eg. analytics, attribution, backend services, etc easily cost over a thousand a month. I would argue that Corona is more important than most of these tools, thus should be valued more. 

#277

@akao, analytics is free, attribution is free for organic installs (appsFlyer does charge for paid installs) and most backend services have a free indie tier that is suitable for most small devs.

#278

[quote name=“Rob Miracle” post=“408330” timestamp=“1584654342”]However the cost to continue Corona development is much higher. [/quote] I think this is one of things people are trying to understand. What exactly is much higher? Are there going to be specific fundraising goals? Fundraising to an unknown number is a bit hard.

#279

There are 11 pages prior to this to wade through so excuse me if any of this is redundant:

  1. Will this site and forum disappear come May 1, 2020?
  2. Will there be some document with consise steps to build with plugins offline or will everyone have to guess from GitHub pages?
  3. Can the API docs that come with daily downloads be used with the offline builds?
#280

Every thing should be in same place, or accessible through same palaces. Simulator builds would still work etc. site and forums would remain, but current decking etc would be in new place, with links on coronalabs.com clearly visible

#281

A name change for Corona seems like an increasingly good idea, given these changes, and the pandemic taking over “corona” completely. Any thoughts on this Vlad? Could be a variation on the current name, something as simple as OCOR. Or open it up to community debate and you’ll probably get some better name ideas.

#282

@dooq While it’s not my call, I would suggest keeping the Corona name. Corona SDK has a bit of a brand (though not big, still some), once it goes open source, there is even less resource for rebranding & marketing. To the degree community spend resource, I would rather it be on the product itself. 

#283

@doog, there has been plenty of discussion on rebranding happening on our Slack channel.

There is a lot of people who don’t like the name and many people feel the rebrand from Corona SDK to Corona was a negative move, but almost everyone agrees that we are not really an SDK. There have been quite a few suggestions thrown out.  But let me provide this perspective on this.

  1. Brand confusion. Sure there is a beer named Corona. There is a 3D rendering tool named Corona. It’s the shiny part around our sun. It translates to “Crown” in many languages. But many other name choices are going to have similar brand confusion, name collisions, and reasons not to use it. For example, a name I liked was the Phoenix game engine. The whole “rise from the ashes” metaphor is fitting, but domain names are taken, there is already a failed game engine with that name. 

  2. Rebranding is hard. It’s not just a matter of a new logo and a name. You’re starting from zero.  And we have a recognized brand in the industry and overall we are, at least as a platform well received. 

  3. The CoronaVirus is unfortunate. Apple has rejected some apps with our splash screen enabled. Google Play is taking down apps with “Corona” in their name. So we need to evaluate it. The pandemic will pass and this will likely end up being a seasonal flu type event and we will get vaccines and treatments that will hopefully make it less of a mass-news event. 

So right now, we are listening to you and evaluating things. Most guidance would say no, don’t change, but we can’t be closed minded either.

Rob

#284

Keep it as Corona unless and until you’ve earned a large enough sum to rebrand it. My two cents.

#285

Thanks for the well thought-out reply. Glad you’re evaluating it on all the sides.

#286

Your thinking and approach seem sound, Rob.

Many thanks to you and Vlad for being such steady hands in this time of upheaval and transition.

Steve

#287

I started using corona around 6 months ago. I had never heard of it before, but googled around for 2d game engine because i disliked unity as 2d engine too much. I found love, but didnt like it enough and i asked from love forums for other ideas and someone said corona is good too. There was siome debate if corona still existed or what it was.

I then found that corona had not been upgraded in 2 years. I still read corona forums and learned that there were daily builds and so i decided to try it and I do like it. There are some very big issues - but that is not the point.

I searched for ”corona” and found the beer and renderer first. I thought the love forums guys meant it but then I saw the corona sdk too

When corona labs announced it would close a lot of the forums that i use and reddit was full of questions like ”what is/was corona” and stuff like ”i thought corona was dead/abandonned ware/such 2/3/5 years ago”.

am not a very active user here or not at least helpful poster. But i have a relatively fresh eyes to this matter. Out of the like 8-10 game engine/dev forums that i visit, no one really knows or cares about corona, but many seem to have gotten their start with corona, they think it is ancient. I dont wanna be mean but you people are living in your own special bubble when you say that corona is well known or respected. Outside of actual corona users the corona brand awareness is close to 0% and those who know it dont want it - the brand is diluted and is dog turd to put it nicely.

Corona has a special place in all your hearts. period. If it was as famous and as well know then why wouldnt more people use it??

If there is to be a new name then that time is best now when corona labs dies and corona sdk goes open source. There wont be any marketing budget for it - so dont bet on that - the only marketing that will be done is corona developers jams, games, etc marketing efforts. So dont say ”lets look at this later when we have more monies” because any money should go and will go to developing corona.

If the nswer is lets look at it later when we have more time and money then that is liike my mum sayin we will go to disneyland when she has the time and money - i am 27 and still waiting

There are gazillion reasons to change the name and only one to keep it - because you and only you people love it!

I hope i didnt step on any toes but these are my feelings on the matter

#288

You’re absolutely right in my book.