Mobile Perspectives » iPunt

iPunt Video: iPhone App Review

deans — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 00:09:10 +0000

touchthemapples just posted an “App Pack” review (covers 2 apps) that includes a section on the latest update to iPunt. Not that anyone would want to skip over carefully crafted content, but, if you are that type of person, the iPunt section starts at about 3:30 in the video.

The reviewer does a nice job of pointing out some of iPunt’s key features. He has also included the app in one of his contests — we’d be thrilled if some of our readers won promo codes from him! As always, we really appreciate the coverage.

If you have trouble with the embedded player, you can go straight to the video on YouTube.

The review also suggests checking out our iPunt tutorial video for more info:

Thanks again to touchthemapples for the reviews!

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Technorati Tags: iPhone, iPod Touch, Apple, mobile, iPunt, iPuck, YouTube, Video Review

Taming SoundEngine Processor Utilization

paul — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 22:26:22 +0000

If you’re using the SoundEngine example code from Apple for OpenAL sounds on iPhone, I have a tip for you. I ran into a serious processor utilization problem when using SoundEngine_LoadLoopingEffect() to load a sound effect that had a long preamble and then transitioned into a steady-state loop. At first glance, this function looks ideal for such a thing because it will allow you to load a sound to be played when the effect starts, then a sound that is looped, then a sound that is played when the effect is stopped. What I found was that, while the preamble (called the AttackBuffer in SoundEngine) is playing, SoundEngineEffect::PlaybackProc() hogs the processor. This led to serious frame rate issues in iPunt .

The cause is the following code in SoundEngineEffect::PlaybackProc()

  if (THIS->HasAttackBuffer())
  {
    ALint numBuffersProcessed = 0;
    while (numBuffersProcessed < 1)
    {
       alGetSourcei(THIS->GetEffectID(), AL_BUFFERS_PROCESSED, &numBuffersProcessed);
         AssertNoOALError("Error getting processed buffer number", end)
    }

While the attack buffer is playing, you’re in a tight polling loop waiting for it to complete. This is no problem if the preamble is really short, but for OpenGL games, it’s going to cause problems for any sound longer than a fraction of a frame.

The fix, fortunately, is simple. Sleep this thread for a few milliseconds each iteration of the polling loop in order to give the rest of your application a chance to run.

The modified code is:

  if (THIS->HasAttackBuffer())
  {
    ALint numBuffersProcessed = 0;
    while (numBuffersProcessed < 1)
    {
       alGetSourcei(THIS->GetEffectID(), AL_BUFFERS_PROCESSED, &numBuffersProcessed);
         AssertNoOALError("Error getting processed buffer number", end)
       usleep(5000);  // Sleep for 5 mS each polling loop
    }

This little change makes all the difference for this bit of code and makes it suitable for long (> 1second) preambles.

I’ve found SoundEngine to work pretty well, although I have had to make a number of modifications to it for my specific application. However, I think I’m at the point where I need to write my own OpenAL sound processing class library. I’d be interested to hear from some of you to see what you’re using for game sound.

iPunt Hits the App Store

deans — Tue, 05 May 2009 06:25:00 +0000

I really like this game! iPunt is both visually stunning and tremendously fun to play. We’re extremely proud of this app and are quite gratified to have it available on the App store (link will take you right to iTunes). iPunt is a truly unique experience that defies simple categorization. It’s not merely a game and it goes way beyond normal entertainment. You just have to give it a try!

This app really puts the graphics capabilities of the device to good use to create a completely engaging virtual space. Be sure to pan around the environment to view the gamespace from all perspectives. Everyone will enjoy this app, and we’ve got more in the pipeline.

Technorati Tags: iPhone, iPod Touch, Apple, mobile, iPuck, iPunt

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