How can I improve the "smoothness" of a 2D side-scrolling iPhone game?

Posted by MrDatabase on Game Development See other posts from Game Development or by MrDatabase
Published on 2010-08-08T04:48:03Z Indexed on 2011/02/18 15:34 UTC
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I'm working on a relatively simple 2D side-scrolling iPhone game. The controls are tilt-based. I use OpenGL ES 1.1 for the graphics. The game state is updated at a rate of 30 Hz... And the drawing is updated at a rate of 30 fps (via NSTimer). The smoothness of the drawing is ok... But not quite as smooth as a game like iFighter. What can I do to improve the smoothness of the game?

Here are the potential issues I've briefly considered:

  • I'm varying the opacity of up to 15 "small" (20x20 pixels) textures at a time... Apparently varying the opacity in this manner can degrade drawing performance

  • I'm rendering at only 30 fps (via NSTimer)... Perhaps 2D games like iFighter are rendered at a higher frame rate?

  • Perhaps the game state could be updated at a faster rate? Note the acceleration vales are updated at 100 Hz... So I could potentially update part of the game state at 100 hz

  • All of my textures are PNG24... Perhaps PNG8 would help (due to smaller size etc)

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