The FindIt puzzles have turned out pretty well, but there are still a few things I am not happy with. The things that bother me most--slow load times on the puzzle selection page and on the puzzle screen. The load time on the puzzle selection page is not horrible--usually 2 to 3 seconds. But my goal is to release an update to FindIt Premium that will include all the puzzle packs to date. If I am seeing 2-3 seconds for 10 puzzles, what will it be like at 30? This clearly needs to be improved.
Luckily, this part was easier to figure out. To get the game out the door, I used text files for the data. With some time to step back and get the game cleaned up, I changed the puzzle metadata over from flat files to SQLite and Core Data. This has had a small impact on load time--around 2 seconds. Not that significant for just 10 puzzles, but in my profiling, and I seeing a significant increase as the number of puzzles increases. So my update for this should be coming out soon.
But what about the main page load time? Again, I performed some analysis to determine what was the bottleneck. I had assumed loading the page data from files again was the problem. So I started commenting out code and testing. Sure enough, the puzzle data loaded very quickly from a single file. That wasn't it.
Next I tried changing my looping logic, changed from a dynamically allocated NSMutableArray to an array I preallocated to the correct size, and even changed my short-cutting logic to decide whether to write out a letter or not. None of these were the culprit.
But then I commented out my writing the letters to the screen with NSString drawInRect. Immediately, even my largest puzzles (85x85) loaded in a second. So I set out to find a more efficient way to write out text. As I learned more, I saw that drawInRect is really trying to do a lot for you--like using the output area of the text for alignment and clipping. I am just trying to write out a single letter, so this was all unnecessary overhead.
If you are doing something like this, try CGContextShowTextAtPoint. This is a much more high-performance function that is not trying to align the text or perform clipping--it is just writing out the letters the way you tell it to. For me, this was perfect, and much more efficient. I noticed load time on even the largest puzzles was much more efficient, around 2 seconds or so, down from as many as 5.
This is also good news since I plan to release an iPad version of FindIt. Sure, the processor is going to be faster, but I also plan to display a lot more on a page. Considering that, I wanted to be sure to have the efficiency tweaked for optimal performance.
Hopefully this helps you too! Good luck with your iPhone and iPad development!
Showing posts with label iPhone. Show all posts
Showing posts with label iPhone. Show all posts
My concerns with Quattro Wireless
I have several iPhone apps that are using Quattro Wireless as a major part of my ad serving. Quattro is a pretty good provider in that they seem to offer very competitive rates and typically have offered a pretty strong fill ratio.
That is, until lately. I have noticed my fill ratio drop significantly, reaching between 20-30% in recent weeks, and hitting an abysmal 10% average for the last 3 days. I am sure Quattro has a lot of requests, with the huge growth in iPhone apps lately, and the unprecedented downloading that has been going on. But 10%??!?!? These guys are paid to provide a service, and I was not very happy with the previous 20-30% range.
I really hope Apple buying Quattro can turn this kind of marked decline around. But I am not waiting to see what happens. Over the weekend, I converted my apps over to use the MobClix provider, which promises 100% fill rate--presumably caching ads and presenting them when a new one is not available from the provider.
I am actually pretty impressed with MobClix. I used them for one of my apps, and I am slowly starting to convert over to them for other apps as well. Their framework is small, integration was simple, and I have noticed a significant reduction in application errors from users that are running MobClix over other providers. If you get a chance, check them out. If nothing else, the promise of 100% fill rate has really caught my attention!
That is, until lately. I have noticed my fill ratio drop significantly, reaching between 20-30% in recent weeks, and hitting an abysmal 10% average for the last 3 days. I am sure Quattro has a lot of requests, with the huge growth in iPhone apps lately, and the unprecedented downloading that has been going on. But 10%??!?!? These guys are paid to provide a service, and I was not very happy with the previous 20-30% range.
I really hope Apple buying Quattro can turn this kind of marked decline around. But I am not waiting to see what happens. Over the weekend, I converted my apps over to use the MobClix provider, which promises 100% fill rate--presumably caching ads and presenting them when a new one is not available from the provider.
I am actually pretty impressed with MobClix. I used them for one of my apps, and I am slowly starting to convert over to them for other apps as well. Their framework is small, integration was simple, and I have noticed a significant reduction in application errors from users that are running MobClix over other providers. If you get a chance, check them out. If nothing else, the promise of 100% fill rate has really caught my attention!
iPhone Blogs That I Follow
I get the question now and then about the blogs that I follow to keep up with what goes on in iPhone development. It seemed like a nice thing to provide links to this since all of these resources have been helpful to me. So, in no particular order, here are some great iPhone development resources. Enjoy!
iPhone Developer/Development Blogs | Travis Dunn - Imagine my surprise when the internet failed to produce a select list of iPhone development blogs more than 10 links wide. Well, I've beaten the internet at its own game and collected the links myself, like a neurotic SERP.
A More In Depth Look At The How To Make An iPhone App Book - ... where you should have no trouble figuring out how to use those libraries on your own. You can get more information on the How To Make An iPhone App homepage by clicking here. ©2009 iPhone Development Tutorials and Programming Tips. ...
creating a calander - iPhone Dev SDK Forum - I want to create a calendar. which is can be scrolled vertically and contains dates of the next seven weeks. I am new to iphone development therefore.
iPhone Game Development With Core Animation | iPhone Development ... - I've made quite a few posts about OpenGL ES, and the available game engines on the iPhone, and I'd like to iterate that you do not need to use OpenGL ES or.
FurdLog » Messing With Developer Infrastructure Conventions - By creating games and other programs for the iPhone, software developers hoped to find millions of new customers. But they didn't expect to feel muzzled. The software development kit that Apple Inc. distributed to programmers bound them ...
WordPress for iPhone + Source Code Available! < A Fool's Wisdom - Earlier this week my Automattic colleagues and Effigent released WordPress for iPhone and iPod Touch. Now, the source is also available and Trac is set up for reporting bugs and participating in development! ...
The iPhone App Store is Pure Genius - Apple's iPhone App Store allows third-parties to release software for the iPhone (built with an API provided by Apple) to all iPhone users. They can charge what they want for the app, and delivery and payment is managed beautifully within the iPhone interface through your iTunes account. By providing the medium (iPhone) and the delivery service (App Store), Apple has created a completely self-sustaining business model that generates passive income for them and increases demand for the product with each awesome release on the App Store.
Top 15 iPhone Web Development Resources - Here is a list of links to the best available iPhone development resources such as simulators, development plugins, wikis, and other JavaScript/HTML/Safari documentation. iPhoney – A free iPhone web simulator for designers. ...
How Much Is Too Much For An iPhone App? » Webomatica ... - Just tossing this out there, since I have come down with a case of iPhone app price sensitivity.
Put AdWhirl Ads into Your iPhone App
Monetizing an iPhone app comes in many flavors these days--you don't just need to charge for your app. Today I want to give you a step-by-step guide to getting ads into your application. You will be shocked how easy it is!
When I decided to release a lite ad-supported version of my app, I searched around to find out about ad providers. Luckily, in my search, I happened upon AdWhirl. AdWhirl is not actually an ad provider--instead, they provide an interface to other ad provider networks, allowing you to add one ad API into your app, and get 8 ad providers instantly (including the ability to put in your own ads).
AdWhirl has outstanding step-by-step instructions on their site here. I was trying to incorporate Quattro Wireless into my app and was having some issues, not the least of which was the lack of cut-and-paste of example code. I was searching on example code when I found AdWhirl, which includes Quattro Wireless as a provider. And AdWhirl made it easy for me to set up my ads, so it was a no brainer. [Update--I have received word from Quattro Wireless that they do provide cut and paste code in their developer wiki. My mistake--I guess I did not look in the right place.]
But now, let's look at some code. For my sliding tile game, I used the cocos2d framework. I was worried this would make it hard to incorporate in AdWhirl, but it was no problem at all! Take the steps in the instructions document above, then do a few simple steps to incorporate AdWhirl into your app:
First, I recommend adding a few constants into a common header file:
These are the constants needed by the AdWhirl interface.
Include these variables in your scene header file:
Next, I went into my main Scene file and put the following at the end of the init method:
This code will begin prefetching data for ads. Also, you will notice I specifically placed the ads at the bottom of the view--that took some trial and error to get it to line up perfectly. isPaused is going to be the notifier to pause the game timer while an ad would be displayed if the user clicks on one during game play.
Now, your scene will need to provide a method to return your app key:
Also, add these two methods to pause and unpause the game if you have a game timer:
You will also need to add some code in your timer method to pause timing if isPaused is true. For example, I have a tick event, which I bail out of immediately if isPaused is true.
I was also getting bunch of errors until I added a special line in the dealloc, to set the ad delegate to nil before you release it. So don't forget this part!!
And that's it! Hopefully using these few code snippets, you can avoid some of the learning I went through and get ads into your apps in less than an hour.
Obviously, you also need to go through the process on the AdWhirl web site to set up the ad providers, etc, but this is pretty simple. There can be some lag time for some of the providers waiting for codes and things to be emailed to you, but it does not take much of your time to submit the requests.
I hope this is a pretty complete overview. If you have questions, please feel free to send me a note. Good luck!!
When I decided to release a lite ad-supported version of my app, I searched around to find out about ad providers. Luckily, in my search, I happened upon AdWhirl. AdWhirl is not actually an ad provider--instead, they provide an interface to other ad provider networks, allowing you to add one ad API into your app, and get 8 ad providers instantly (including the ability to put in your own ads).
AdWhirl has outstanding step-by-step instructions on their site here. I was trying to incorporate Quattro Wireless into my app and was having some issues, not the least of which was the lack of cut-and-paste of example code. I was searching on example code when I found AdWhirl, which includes Quattro Wireless as a provider. And AdWhirl made it easy for me to set up my ads, so it was a no brainer. [Update--I have received word from Quattro Wireless that they do provide cut and paste code in their developer wiki. My mistake--I guess I did not look in the right place.]
But now, let's look at some code. For my sliding tile game, I used the cocos2d framework. I was worried this would make it hard to incorporate in AdWhirl, but it was no problem at all! Take the steps in the instructions document above, then do a few simple steps to incorporate AdWhirl into your app:
First, I recommend adding a few constants into a common header file:
#define PUBLISHER_ID @"12345678901234567890"
#define SITE_ID @"MyApplication"
#define ADWHIRLAPPKEY @"1234567890abcdef1234567890"
These are the constants needed by the AdWhirl interface.
Include these variables in your scene header file:
ARRollerView *rollerView;
BOOL isPaused;
Next, I went into my main Scene file and put the following at the end of the init method:
rollerView = [ARRollerView requestRollerViewWithDelegate:self];
[ARRollerView startPreFetchingConfigurationDataWithDelegate:self];
rollerView.center = CGPointMake(160, 454);
UIView *myView = [[Director sharedDirector] openGLView];
[myView addSubview:rollerView];
isPaused = FALSE;
This code will begin prefetching data for ads. Also, you will notice I specifically placed the ads at the bottom of the view--that took some trial and error to get it to line up perfectly. isPaused is going to be the notifier to pause the game timer while an ad would be displayed if the user clicks on one during game play.
Now, your scene will need to provide a method to return your app key:
- (NSString*)adWhirlApplicationKey
{
return ADWHIRLAPPKEY; //Return your AdWhirl application key here
}
Also, add these two methods to pause and unpause the game if you have a game timer:
- (void)willDisplayWebViewCanvas {
isPaused = TRUE;
}
- (void)didDismissWebViewCanvas {
isPaused = FALSE;
}
You will also need to add some code in your timer method to pause timing if isPaused is true. For example, I have a tick event, which I bail out of immediately if isPaused is true.
I was also getting bunch of errors until I added a special line in the dealloc, to set the ad delegate to nil before you release it. So don't forget this part!!
-(void)dealloc{
if (rollerView) {
[rollerView setDelegateToNil];
[rollerView release];
}
.
.
.
And that's it! Hopefully using these few code snippets, you can avoid some of the learning I went through and get ads into your apps in less than an hour.
Obviously, you also need to go through the process on the AdWhirl web site to set up the ad providers, etc, but this is pretty simple. There can be some lag time for some of the providers waiting for codes and things to be emailed to you, but it does not take much of your time to submit the requests.
I hope this is a pretty complete overview. If you have questions, please feel free to send me a note. Good luck!!
