Is it worth creating mobile apps using Animate CC IDE and AS3?

[JoaoCesar]

Hi!

I'm building a template using Animate CC IDE and AS3 so the end user will be able to create his or her own app.

But when I tested the template for the first time in a real device, I noticed that only using GPU render mode my app was able to run smoothly.

So how do people develop stuff to Flash Player or AIR theses days? Is it mandatory to have a robust framework like Starling or Feathers to get a mobile app running at least at 30 fps?

And HTML5 in Animate? Is it a good alternative for my case?

I hope I explained correctly.

- I don't want a code only alternative, like using Flash Develop. I do need a graphic user interface.

- I'm afraid that the end user will not be able to run an app on his or her device properly because of performance.

- If Animate IDE is not the best alternative, what are the others?

Thanks!

[Colin Holgate]

It depends a lot on the nature of the app. If there are not too many unique bitmaps then GPU would work well, no need to use Direct and Starling.

I haven't tried GPU testing at 30 fps, but it works well at 60 fps. Presumably 30 would work well too.

[JoaoCesar]

Thanks for your answer.

I want apps for food delivery, ecommerce, coffee shops, music player and so on. Regular stuff. More flat design and gui based.

Right now, my app has only bitmaps and texts. I'm using this psd template to begin with: eCommerce Concept - 12 App Screen by Alfonso Severo - Dribbble

Do you think I should favor bitmaps or vectors?

[Colin Holgate]

Vectors would in most cases reduce the file size, but wouldn't change the amount of GPU memory the image would take. I would just use whatever looked best.

The app may well be demanding however you do it. You should test on various devices, and make it a requirement that the device is not an old slow one.

[JoaoCesar]

So there is no safe road. I'll have to take the chance.

Meanwhile, I started learning HTML5 and WebGL in Animate. I hope these technologies turn to be great alternatives.

[Colin Holgate]

WebGL can give the same performance benefit that you get with GPU rendermode, but as with GPU you would need to be careful about how many bitmaps are being used. Currently the syntax in creating WebGL is harder than HTML5 Canvas.

[Colin Holgate]

BTW, the same applies to Starling. With that you would also need to be careful with the number of bitmaps.

[JoaoCesar]

So reduce the number of bitmaps is mandatory.

A game, especially action games, I can understand because they use a lot of bitmaps, effects, animations, logic... But in an app where the screen is predominantly static, I think it's hard to accept that the default approach (IDE + AS3) finds such a hard time to run smoothly.

I'll continue testing. Depending on the results I'll get I may consider switching the template for web and desktop only.

Thanks, man!

[Colin Holgate · Accepted solution]

There are always more options by the way. One way to work, which I have done, is to use Direct rendermode and Starling to make the stuff that has to be super smooth, and use regular DisplayList for screens that may need a lot of bitmaps that would eat up GPU memory quickly. The Starling programming is harder than regular DisplayList, but you can mix the fast performance Stage3D layers with ordinary DisplayList graphics as overlays.

[JoaoCesar]

Nice! I like this approach!

I have small experience with Starling but certainly it's in one of my goals to go deeper in such an amazing framework.