Last AIR version to support GPU mode for desktop?

[KarlCfs]

Hello,

Does anyone know the last AIR version that supported GPU render mode for desktop?

Thanks in advance.

[Nitanwar]

HI ,

On desktop, using  RenderMode as ’gpu’ will fall back to direct mode. So you can use the latest AIR version .

[Rehnberg]

Hi Nitwar,

Unfortunately I can't use direct mode as the performance is not good enough. The game runs at a smooth 60 fps on an iPhone 4 in gpu mode but I see a lot of slow downs in direct mode for desktop on a brand new PC or Mac...

So I will need gpu mode for desktop I'm afraid. Can you tell me what version of AIR it was removed please?

[Kratika Agarwal]

Hi,

Switching back to wmode gpu is not the solution to the problem. wmode direct provides the best performance (Please see below document)

Apply tag attributes in Adobe Flash Professional

So if the performance is not good, please log a bug for wmode direct,bad  performance for your game(for windows as you say it works fine on Mobile)..

Home

Thanks

Kratika

[KarlCfs]

My games use a lot of bitmaps on the Stage and since Direct render mode doesn't hardware accelerate the Stage (just Stage3D) the performance is a lot worse than using the gpu render mode that does hardware accelerate the stage.

I don't believe a bug report will fix that since this is how direct mode is suppose to work right?

For these games gpu mode has also been proven to be faster than using Starling, were there is often a frame drop when adding large bitmaps to the screen, so remaking the games in Starling is not an option.

My best option still seems to be to use an old AIR version, so can you please let me know the last version that supported gpu mode for desktop publishing please?

[Colin Holgate]

Direct mode is only as good as GPU mode if you are using Stage3D. With GPU mode you can get 60 fps with regular display objects, though you do have to be careful about having too many unique looking images. It's not well suited to hand drawn character animation, GPU memory will fill up quickly.

In apps I make that use a lot of unique character frame animation, I do use Direct, even though I'm not using Stage3D. Direct's blitting is quite fast, especially if you're not changing too much of the screen, and for character animation that is 12 fps, or even 24 fps, it can work well enough, especially when you're using Stream audio to keep things synched.

For action games with fast moving symbols that are not changing, I would use GPU. You get 60 fps without having to deal with spritesheets.

[KarlCfs]

Thanks Colin, that is my experience as well and since my games are action based with lots of large bitmaps gpu mode is needed.

Do you know the last version of AIR were gpu mode was supported for desktop publishing?

[Guest]

I have tested several versions of AIR from version 3.2 in CS6 up to 21 in Flash CC 2015 and CS6. None of them let me pick GPU in the Flash Pro AIR UI settings.

When I initially booted up Flash CC 2015 and selected AIR for Desktop, it was version 17.0 listed in Flash and it let me select GPU as an option. After adding and removing multiple AIR versions from the Help -> Manage AIR SDK... option in the menu bar, I can now no longer see that option. I have tried multiple times of quitting and re-launching CC 2015 but it no longer gives me the option. Either I selected AIR for Android on accident and I saw it working then, or Flash CC is goofing up. After removing all manually added AIR SDKs from CC 2015, quitting and then re-launching, I am seeing AIR 17.0 and AIR 17.0.0.124 as options to chose from. Both don't let me pick GPU render mode.

I am almost wondering if there was an update made to both Flash applications that doesn't allow the GUI to give you the option to pick GPU as a rendering mode for desktop. I would find that strange though as I cannot find any documentation or change logs indicating that AIR for Desktop no longer supports GPU rendering mode (and I went through all the AIR release notes).

[KarlCfs]

Wow, that sounds very strange.

Can anyone from Adobe comment on this? Can we use an older version of AIR to support GPU render mode for desktop publishing (pc and mac)?

[swfisgood]

I could be wrong, but I don't remember rendermode gpu ever being available for desktop, at least not since mobile support was introduced

I dont want to spread misinformation, im just thinking back I never recall being done

[KarlCfs]

Hi swfisgood, thanks for your input.

It is really frustrating not getting a clear answer from the Adobe team about this. Moving to Direct mode is clearly not an option when the game is built from ground up for gpu mode using the Stage and Bitmaps (with great performance on mobile).

I really need the same performance on PC/Mac for publishing to Steam. What should I do?

[swfisgood]

that sucks. Future support is exactly why I merged over to starling. I was using gpu mode before and indeed it is really great on mobile.

I suppose u have already tried cpu render mode with your game?

[KarlCfs · Accepted solution]

I have created a feature request to be able to use GPU mode for Desktop Publishing. There are tons of apps using GPU mode on mobile and I believe many developers should want to be able to publish them to Steam with the same performance.

I would really appreciate your votes for this feature!

Feature#4145057 - GPU render mode for Desktop publishing (Steam)!

Thanks!

[Josh Tynjala]

swfisgood is correct. The renderMode GPU that is available on AIR mobile was never available on desktop.

[swfisgood]

gpu mode is depreciated I believe. So I wish you luck, but I would be quite surprised if you get this feature request granted

[Colin Holgate]

There was talk of it being deprecated a few years ago, but fortunately that never happened, at least on mobile. It's too useful, and Direct cannot do the same things that it does.

[Josh Tynjala]

I'm not sure that's correct, Colin. When they announced that renderMode gpu would be deprecated, I'm pretty sure that they said that they weren't going to actively maintain it anymore, but they also wouldn't be removing it either. Basically, use at your own risk.

[KarlCfs]

This Feature Request has in just 2 days already become the most voted for request in 2 years (since Windows Mobile support) so it seems that many developers want this as well. Hopefully they will at least consider adding it!

[Kratika Agarwal]

Hi,

Thanks for reporting the feature enhancement request.

We will look over it.

Thanks

[KarlCfs]

Thanks Kratika! I really appreciate you will look over it. Please let us know what you decide.

[dejing2016]

so now if we want to use GPU render on desktop, we have to create game basing on stage3D .

[veggieman25]

any update?