First of all, I apologise! I've been away from the click community for quite some time and I'm unfamilar with all these fancy new add-ons that Clickteam have been developing.
I was wondering if someone could help me with a few questions I had regarding the iOS exporter.
What limitations are there when using the exporter? Can you make games that can save? Are there any issues with the speed the games run at? can you play external music files (such as mp3s?)
That's okay, I have EVERY apple device. I'm bit of an apple whore. I'd love to get more information on this thing. I'm working on a little project and if I could do it all in MMF that would save me a lot of money!
I hope "every apple device" includes an apple PC of some description (and not just the iOS devices) - I am pretty sure you have to do the final compilation on a Mac.
All you need is a mac. XCode has a simulator, but it's slightly slower than the actual device and doesn't support tilt and such.
Also $100 Developer fee to apple every year.
You are limited by the speed of the device's processor.
But the iOS runtime also has additional benefits, like multi-touch, accelerometer, GPS, and the camera.
It also supports gamecenter (multiplayer included, you use apple's servers)
In-App purchases, and
iAds.
The runtime uses OpenGL from what I've read, and it is very fast. I don't have any problems with large scrolling maps at 60 fps consistent.
There are some articles on the clickteam forums about optimizing speed, but I haven't had any problems and I don't even think about it much.
For testing I have a network drive setup on my mac, and I just compile from mmf straight to it. Then I just click a run button on the mac and it compiles and runs on my device just like that!
I'd say it's worth it if you're a decent developer, or have some extra money. It's fun to play with.
Thanks for the link, Rob. It was very helpful! And thank you UrbanMonk that definately answered a few questions Do you have any apps currently in the app store I can check out?
Clickteam are doing a good job of implementing improvements to each version. Using some optimization techniques, and the updates they've made available, I've gone from having a game barely work, to run seamlessly (on an ipod touch 4). You'll probably have trouble on devices with hardware that's pre-3G specs. Of course it all depends on what you're trying to make.
The simulator is pretty much useless. It shows that your game is running, but that's about it. Using a mouse to emulate touch controls is difficult to impossible, depending on how many touches you're using.
The articles about optimization by andos are pretty good, but there is a lot more to know, just read through the ios forum. Once you register it, there's also a beta forum you'll be aloud to enter, with more information.
A light version of Clash Force is coming out tomorrow if you're interested, or you could just buy it for .99 AND download the lite version