Sanity check on my wp8 game - severe input lag!

spacewolf · May 9, 2015, 3:38am

Hi everyone,

I have just published my new game to windows phone 8 using CoronaCards! However, I am concerned at the performance of it on my windows phone device. I have a Lumia 920. I’ve noticed that after a minute or two of play, the input lag becomes really bad. There is a significant lag between when I interact with something and when it responds (sometimes up to 2 seconds!)

Could some people with a windows phone 8 device download and play my game a few minutes and let me know how it runs on your device? I am wondering if it is specific to my phone, my device model, or all of windows phones?

Thanks in advance!

Here is the link to the game:

http://www.windowsphone.com/s?appid=d0e69851-47d2-45c2-a033-cbac9bb3c85a

Rob5 · May 10, 2015, 6:45pm

Do you have ads on the game? Like pub center and admob?

spacewolf · May 10, 2015, 7:38pm

I do have ads…

Rob5 · May 10, 2015, 7:44pm

See if you have same problem if you disable Admob and pub center. If you have multiple banners on cycle it can be 10 times worse. Admob seemed to me to keep open and never close so once launched, the problem started. I don’t think theres even a function to do that. Not saying it is your issue but its worth a try. Hope that helps

spacewolf · May 10, 2015, 8:13pm

I’ll give it a try. In the mean time would you mind running it on your device and let me know if you see the problem? Thanks!

Rob5 · May 10, 2015, 8:29pm

Yeah there is a bit of lag. I have the 925. Not too bad but more noticeable on the touch events registering so some didnt register. More noticeable after the Admob has launched as guessed. Exactly the same as when I had the same problem. Do you have a few pub centres on rotation? If you do then I would just have one. If you only have one i would remove the pub centre as you will get more revenue from admob from my experience.

I also broke it by double clicking on the green play button (after you failed once) and it starts the level creation twice. IE needs to disable the play button once pressed

spacewolf · May 10, 2015, 10:20pm

Thanks for trying that. I’ll get that bug fixed too. I’m actually using the new AdMediator control from Microsoft. You can configure which ad networks you want to run and at which percentages. Right now it is using pubcenter, smaato, mobfox, AdMob, and AdDuplex. You can also change the percentages on dev center after you’ve published the app which is very convenient. I use AdMob for interstitials exclusively though. I wonder how corona can get so laggy. My game has hardly anything going on and yet the input lag is just so bad. And I can’t imagine an adcontrol could be using a ton of resources either.

Rob5 · May 11, 2015, 7:47am

I tried smaato. I never had it working . Even with one of their technical engineers sending me tests. Then the conclusion was that it just wasn’t working lol. I’ll be surprised if you get any from smaato. I just stick to admob now. Nice and easy. I think the trouble with admob is its never released. There is no way to hide them or remove manually so I think it’s just always on. I had really bad performance with my own rotator with three pub centeres and admob. Admob is the problem but rather have that than all the others combined.

spacewolf · May 16, 2015, 4:07am

I have smaato and mobfox working. Smaato is giving me about 0.08 or 0.09 cents per thousand banner impressions so far. I don’t have enough mobfox impressions to make a good statement but so far it is about 0.13 cents per thousand banner impressions. Pubcenter is still the best ads for windows phone 8 but their fill rate is just so low

Anyway, I tried running my app without any ads at all and the input lag issue goes away. Strange how just a little ad control can affect corona’s performance so badly. I wonder if there is a workaround?

Rob5 · May 10, 2015, 6:45pm

Do you have ads on the game? Like pub center and admob?

spacewolf · May 10, 2015, 7:38pm

I do have ads…

Rob5 · May 10, 2015, 7:44pm

See if you have same problem if you disable Admob and pub center. If you have multiple banners on cycle it can be 10 times worse. Admob seemed to me to keep open and never close so once launched, the problem started. I don’t think theres even a function to do that. Not saying it is your issue but its worth a try. Hope that helps

spacewolf · May 10, 2015, 8:13pm

I’ll give it a try. In the mean time would you mind running it on your device and let me know if you see the problem? Thanks!

Rob5 · May 10, 2015, 8:29pm

Yeah there is a bit of lag. I have the 925. Not too bad but more noticeable on the touch events registering so some didnt register. More noticeable after the Admob has launched as guessed. Exactly the same as when I had the same problem. Do you have a few pub centres on rotation? If you do then I would just have one. If you only have one i would remove the pub centre as you will get more revenue from admob from my experience.

I also broke it by double clicking on the green play button (after you failed once) and it starts the level creation twice. IE needs to disable the play button once pressed

spacewolf · May 10, 2015, 10:20pm

Thanks for trying that. I’ll get that bug fixed too. I’m actually using the new AdMediator control from Microsoft. You can configure which ad networks you want to run and at which percentages. Right now it is using pubcenter, smaato, mobfox, AdMob, and AdDuplex. You can also change the percentages on dev center after you’ve published the app which is very convenient. I use AdMob for interstitials exclusively though. I wonder how corona can get so laggy. My game has hardly anything going on and yet the input lag is just so bad. And I can’t imagine an adcontrol could be using a ton of resources either.

Rob5 · May 11, 2015, 7:47am

I tried smaato. I never had it working . Even with one of their technical engineers sending me tests. Then the conclusion was that it just wasn’t working lol. I’ll be surprised if you get any from smaato. I just stick to admob now. Nice and easy. I think the trouble with admob is its never released. There is no way to hide them or remove manually so I think it’s just always on. I had really bad performance with my own rotator with three pub centeres and admob. Admob is the problem but rather have that than all the others combined.

spacewolf · May 16, 2015, 4:07am

I have smaato and mobfox working. Smaato is giving me about 0.08 or 0.09 cents per thousand banner impressions so far. I don’t have enough mobfox impressions to make a good statement but so far it is about 0.13 cents per thousand banner impressions. Pubcenter is still the best ads for windows phone 8 but their fill rate is just so low

Anyway, I tried running my app without any ads at all and the input lag issue goes away. Strange how just a little ad control can affect corona’s performance so badly. I wonder if there is a workaround?