what happened to box2d performance?

MikeHart

Back when i used gideros exclusively, i had some projects running box2d just fine. With the newest version they run like crap on my kindle. Did something elementary changed so i need to adapt my scripts?

keszegh

do you use meshes too?
my app slowed down a lot (unplayable) since opengl es 2, but i don't use box2d, just meshes.

MikeHart

Nope, just sprites.

ar2rsawseen

as I understood from @hgy29, then there are Matrix calculations that are different now, unfortunately I don't know if it the same for box2d or not, but @hgy29 is currently on vacation, keeping optimization on Matrices in the back of his head

hgy29

Matrices changes should not affect box2d behavior, only sprite transforms (not meshes specifically). I have a few ideas to make things better, perhaps even better than before 4x4 matrix changes, by caching computations results where useful, thus saving cpu cycles.
But to be able to measure the progress made, a gideros benchmark tool would be nice. I'll write one for my needs but that could be something that could be completed to measure different aspects of gideros performance.

MikeHart

@hgy29 Here is a sample project. In the desktop player it runs ok, but on my kindle like crap.

SinisterSoft

@MikeHart I think Gideros uses a google enhanced version of Box2D called LiquidFun...

http://google.github.io/liquidfun/

The version in Gideros is 1.0.0 - but Google are now on v1.1.0 - maybe moving to the latest version might fix the speed issue?

https://github.com/google/liquidfun/releases

jdbc

I have the same issue. Box2d performance is quite better with Gideros 201404 than Gideros 201504 for example.

MikeHart

Thanks @jdbc, so I guess something has changed significantly. To bad. :-S

SinisterSoft

It might be box2d vs liquidfun? Like I mentioned Liquid fun 1.1 might be faster?

MikeHart

@SinisterSoft. It could be. But 1.0 it was fast enough at one time, right?

Anyway, it doesn't matter. My development is not relying on Gideros. I tried it after some time and it seems that right now, the physics part of Gideros is not fast enough... for ME. For my hardware.
It seems not a big thing or more users would have rallied over it.

SinisterSoft

In the earlier version of Gideros I think it was Box2D - that might have been faster - the new 1.1 version of LiquidFun though has been optimised.

totebo

Hi guys,

I can confirm a big slowdown in Box2D. On my iPad my game runs at 60fps on 2014.01 and around 29 fps on 2015.05.09.

Is this going to be addressed? It's a big issue for my game.

Niclas

totebo

A bit more information:

2014.01:

iPad 2: 60fps
iPod (5th gen): 60fps
iPad (mini retina): 60fps

2015.05.09

iPad 2: 29fps
iPod (5th gen): 50-60fps
iPad (mini retina): 55-60fps

jdbc

I have gone back to Gideros 20150412 for iOS.

This is the first 64bits compatible version that box2d works well.

Now I am testing my Air Glow Hockey for improvements in real multiplayer with Noobhub server and sell it in Chupamobile for iOS.

totebo

Thanks @jdbc, I might also revert back to 2015.04.12. Shame, though, I'd like to use the latest version.

ar2rsawseen

I think it might not be the box2d, but the actual drawing which is gone slower:

http://giderosmobile.com/forum/discussion/comment/42155#Comment_42155

totebo

You appear to be correct in my case! See my comment in that specific thread.

SinisterSoft

Yes, nothing changed with Box2D then (Liquid Fun was added earlier). Moving to Liquid fun 1.1 (currently as 1.0 with 1.1 being optimised) and fixing the drawing slowdown should result in Box2D being faster than it was before.