Optimizing Graphics Performance on iOS and Android

The main device is used during the development of Don’t Feed the Trolls is an Acer Iconia Tab A500. It’s quite powerful and I never met performance issues with it. Of course, I tested the game on many other iOS and Android devices. I was surprised to discover strong performance issues on a HTC Desire. In… Continue reading Optimizing Graphics Performance on iOS and Android

3 Simple Tips to Avoid Memory Allocations with XNA/C#

Long time without posting. I’ve spent a lot of time working on the game, contracting art, buying sound effect and music assets, designing the levels… New screenshots/video should come very soon. Anyway, back on topic: when developing from C++ to C#, I found out very strange that you can allocate memory but you cannot free… Continue reading 3 Simple Tips to Avoid Memory Allocations with XNA/C#

Yes, multi-threading in XNA/C# can be that simple!

Multi-threading is often causing problems for multiple reasons: synchronization, deadlocks, concurrent access to memory… But with my recent experience with multi-threading in XNA/C#, you can really do simple and efficient optimizations. While looking for possible performance improvements in Spring Up Harmony for Xbox 360 (PC), I have seen a simple situation really suited for multi-threading.… Continue reading Yes, multi-threading in XNA/C# can be that simple!

On-screen profiling for XNA

A few days ago, I read an article called Among Friends: How Naughty Dog Built Uncharted 2. The interesting screenshots on the third page gave me the urge to create what I call an “on-screen profiling” tool for Spring Up XNA. I talked before about profilers and how to use them to find which sections… Continue reading On-screen profiling for XNA

Measuring game performance : framerate is not everything

I am currently having a few problems with performance in Spring Up XNA. I have two features that are too expensive in processing power : the background effect and the computation of the preview trajectory of the ball. I know these features are not usable at this cost because as soon as I activate one… Continue reading Measuring game performance : framerate is not everything

NProf : A Simple, Efficient and Free XNA Profiler (3.1 and 4.0)

Update: I have many visitors coming here from search engines. So here is a quick update if you want to use NProf with XNA 4.0. When you run NProf with your game, if the UI of NProf stays empty after running your game, it’s because you are running a XNA 4.0 game. There is a… Continue reading NProf : A Simple, Efficient and Free XNA Profiler (3.1 and 4.0)