spawning

[kumarchetan312]

hii…i way trying to understand spawning and pooling concept so i worte a simple program 

there is an error after first iteration…

:- attempt to call method ‘removeSelf’(a nil value)

what i am trying to do

:-  create two objetcs and put them in a table (t) 

:-create a variable and assign a random value from the object in it

:-make the variable visible 

:-after it crosses the screen …make the variable empty and again put a random  value in it  and so on

here is my code

local physics=require("physics") physics.start() local enemy local t={} local ball=display.newCircle(0,0,20) ball:setFillColor(1) ball.isVisible=false table.insert(t,ball) local ball1=display.newCircle(0,0,20) ball1:setFillColor(0.25,0.25,0.60) table.insert(t,ball1) ball1.isVisible=false print(#t) local function update() enemysel() end function enemysel() if(enemy==nil)then enemy=t[math.random(#t)] enemy.isVisible=true enemy.x=300+display.screenOriginX enemy.y=400+display.screenOriginY end if(enemy~=nil)then if(enemy.x\>100)then enemy.x=enemy.x-3 else enemy:removeSelf() enemy=nil end end end timer.performWithDelay(1,update,-1);

[roaminggamer]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdzG43DYWkY&feature=youtu.be

Hi.  I personally think that Pooling (Object Caching) is a waste of effort.  However some may disagree.

Having said that, you are trying to do the right thing. i.e. You want to test its effectiveness at amortizing object creation costs.

I have put together an example to help you test this.  It comes with an SSK2 and non-SSK2 version.  The prior is more useful, but you can at least get started if you don’t have SSK2.

https://github.com/roaminggamer/RG_FreeStuff/raw/master/AskEd/2017/02/pooling.zip

Note: The only thing that SSK2 provides for this example is the meters.  Other than that, the example is pure-Corona.

In the example, I provide a test that runs in four different ways:

• No Pooling + No Physics 
• Pooling + No Physics
• No Pooling + Physics
• Pooling + Physics

The test runs as follows:

• start and prep content build/destroy functions.
• Create a table to act as a proxy for the current ‘to build’ count.
• Use a transition.to() hack to start increasing that ‘to build’ count from 100 to 10,000.
  • Starts increasing count after 1 second.
  • Takes 60 seconds to increase from 100 to 10000
• Create label to show current ‘to build’ count.
• Start enterFrame Listener
  • Every frame destroy all objects.
  • Every frame create ‘to build’ number of objects using the current method (pooling or non-pooling)

Effectively, this example is trying to create and destroy:

• 60 * 100 == 6,000 objects per second initially
• 60 * 10,000 = 600,000 objects per second by the end of 61 seconds.

This slow ramp in number-of-objects-to-build-destroy lets us evaluate the point where FPS starts to degrade.

The results for me on my primary dev machine are:

• No Pooling + No Physics  - FPS starts to decline at around 60 * 1600 = 96,000 objects per second.
• Pooling + No Physics - Same
• No Pooling + Physics  - FPS starts to decline at around 60 * 580 = 34,800 objects per second.
• Pooling + Physics - FPS starts to decline at around 60 * 700 = 42,000 objects per second.

(_ Note: High-resolution versions of video are still processing.  Low-res versions make it hard to read FPS counter _)

[timhicks]

Hey @kumarchetan312 - 

I’m pretty new to Corona, so I may be completely wrong here, but I think your problem lies in the

enemy:removeSelf()

I believe that is removing the selected ball from the table not just the screen, so once you’ve removed both or if the same one gets randomly called twice in a row, the next random table item is nil and can’t be removed. If you comment out that line I think it works as you intended, except that the ball remains at it’s final location on screen. For that I simply reset it to it’s original state: 

enemy.isVisible=false enemy.x=300+display.screenOriginX

Again, I’m a noob to this stuff so sorry if I’m off base with this response, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to try

Best of luck!

[kumarchetan312]

@roaminggamer

@timhicks

thanks a lot…

[roaminggamer]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdzG43DYWkY&feature=youtu.be

Hi.  I personally think that Pooling (Object Caching) is a waste of effort.  However some may disagree.

Having said that, you are trying to do the right thing. i.e. You want to test its effectiveness at amortizing object creation costs.

I have put together an example to help you test this.  It comes with an SSK2 and non-SSK2 version.  The prior is more useful, but you can at least get started if you don’t have SSK2.

https://github.com/roaminggamer/RG_FreeStuff/raw/master/AskEd/2017/02/pooling.zip

Note: The only thing that SSK2 provides for this example is the meters.  Other than that, the example is pure-Corona.

In the example, I provide a test that runs in four different ways:

• No Pooling + No Physics 
• Pooling + No Physics
• No Pooling + Physics
• Pooling + Physics

The test runs as follows:

• start and prep content build/destroy functions.
• Create a table to act as a proxy for the current ‘to build’ count.
• Use a transition.to() hack to start increasing that ‘to build’ count from 100 to 10,000.
  • Starts increasing count after 1 second.
  • Takes 60 seconds to increase from 100 to 10000
• Create label to show current ‘to build’ count.
• Start enterFrame Listener
  • Every frame destroy all objects.
  • Every frame create ‘to build’ number of objects using the current method (pooling or non-pooling)

Effectively, this example is trying to create and destroy:

• 60 * 100 == 6,000 objects per second initially
• 60 * 10,000 = 600,000 objects per second by the end of 61 seconds.

This slow ramp in number-of-objects-to-build-destroy lets us evaluate the point where FPS starts to degrade.

The results for me on my primary dev machine are:

• No Pooling + No Physics  - FPS starts to decline at around 60 * 1600 = 96,000 objects per second.
• Pooling + No Physics - Same
• No Pooling + Physics  - FPS starts to decline at around 60 * 580 = 34,800 objects per second.
• Pooling + Physics - FPS starts to decline at around 60 * 700 = 42,000 objects per second.

(_ Note: High-resolution versions of video are still processing.  Low-res versions make it hard to read FPS counter _)

[timhicks]

Hey @kumarchetan312 - 

I’m pretty new to Corona, so I may be completely wrong here, but I think your problem lies in the

enemy:removeSelf()

I believe that is removing the selected ball from the table not just the screen, so once you’ve removed both or if the same one gets randomly called twice in a row, the next random table item is nil and can’t be removed. If you comment out that line I think it works as you intended, except that the ball remains at it’s final location on screen. For that I simply reset it to it’s original state: 

enemy.isVisible=false enemy.x=300+display.screenOriginX

Again, I’m a noob to this stuff so sorry if I’m off base with this response, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to try

Best of luck!

[kumarchetan312]

@roaminggamer

@timhicks

thanks a lot…