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Android Is there a way to update libpng without upgrading GameMaker?

SnoutUp

Member
This is a long shot, but my question is pretty straightforward - can we get a standalone libpng patch for older GameMaker versions (I'm using 1.4.1757 now) or maybe instructions how to update it ourselves if that's even possible?

Context for devs, who are not working with Android games: a couple of months ago Google Play started adding warnings to apps with outdated libpng library and following September 17 no new or updated APK with that library will be accepted.

https://support.google.com/faqs/answer/7011127
Please migrate your app(s) to libpng v1.0.66, v.1.2.56, v.1.4.19, v1.5.26 or higher as soon as possible and increment the version number of the upgraded APK. Beginning Sep 17, 2016, Google Play will block publishing of any new apps or updates that use vulnerable versions of libpng. Your published app version will remain unaffected, however any updates to the app will be blocked unless they address this vulnerability.
Now, the GameMakler 1.4.1760, which was released few weeks ago (living dangerously!) has that fix, but there is a reason why some people are a couple of versions behind (lazy ones, working with multiple platforms and easily scared when there's a red note saying that's a big update).

After reading responses to the release thread, about some people being unable to build for Android at all and a crazy drop of performance after upgrading I honestly don't know what to do. My new game is in active development and I already run beta testing on Google Play, so I feel pretty trapped here, because I can only hope that magically stable new bug-fix version of GM will appear out of thin air in the next two days. Or if there's a way to update libpng, which was ALL I wanted.

Any ideas? Thoughts? Word on this matter from the YoYo team would be appreciated too. Maybe I missed some obvious solution, imagined the issue and am panicking for now reason. I didn't get my coffee boost today.
 

Nocturne

Friendly Tyrant
Forum Staff
Admin
I fail to see the problem here? You said it yourself... some people have had issues. Not everyone. Just update and get stuck into it and see how it goes. I mean, if you have issues you won't be in a worse place than you are now, and at least you'll be on the latest version and YYG support can help you sort stuff out. I know that a lot of people have updated and have managed to get their apps back up on Google Play no problems, so it's not like you are 100% guaranteed to fail here. You'll have to do it sooner or later, so bite the bullet and do it sooner... :)
 
So from my experience after updating, 3 things happened:
  • The cache was full of junk, which meant the compiler wouldn't work as intended
  • GM studio switched to my CPU for some reason instead of my GPU
  • Some vertex processing graphics options were reset after the update
Those 3 things caused huge performance drops, but they could be mostly fixed by manually resetting your preferred graphical parameters (oh, and clearing the cache). Now my game runs at a solid 60fps again, like before the update.
 

SnoutUp

Member
I fail to see the problem here? You said it yourself... some people have had issues. Not everyone. Just update and get stuck into it and see how it goes. I mean, if you have issues you won't be in a worse place than you are now, and at least you'll be on the latest version and YYG support can help you sort stuff out. I know that a lot of people have updated and have managed to get their apps back up on Google Play no problems, so it's not like you are 100% guaranteed to fail here. You'll have to do it sooner or later, so bite the bullet and do it sooner... :)
Was going to "bite the bullet" even after reading about crashes and failed builds, but performance problem thread (which didn't get a response from support in almost a week) is currently the main problem I have. I just spend a couple of days fighting for every frame per second I can squeeze and people reporting insane drops in Android and 1.4.1760. So, I have a choice between no game or an unplayable game..?

I prefer to not update GameMaker until it's absolutely necessary (like now, haha!), because I still have flashbacks from the forced surface system upgrade from back in the day when I was too young and innocent to understand why FPS of my Android builds halved in some of the devices.
 
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SnoutUp

Member
So from my experience after updating, 3 things happened:
  • The cache was full of junk, which meant the compiler wouldn't work as intended
  • GM studio switched to my CPU for some reason instead of my GPU
  • Some vertex processing graphics options were reset after the update
Those 3 things caused huge performance drops, but they could be mostly fixed by manually resetting your preferred graphical parameters (oh, and clearing the cache). Now my game runs at a solid 60fps again, like before the update.
Could you post these steps in the poor performance thread, because some people are going crazy there (I understand them) and would love to try something out..?
 
Could you post these steps in the poor performance thread, because some people are going crazy there (I understand them) and would love to try something out..?
Oh the thing is I'm using studio for PC games, so mostly everything i changed was in the "windows" graphical settings menu.
I have no idea if those changes would work on android apps.
People would need to try my PC steps on android I guess?
 

SnoutUp

Member
Oh the thing is I'm using studio for PC games, so mostly everything i changed was in the "windows" graphical settings menu.
I have no idea if those changes would work on android apps.
People would need to try my PC steps on android I guess?
Ah, well that might not work then. Android graphical settings are limited compared to Windows.
 
R

Richard

Guest
Try the EA, it installs separately from Stable/Beta. Back up your project put it in a sealed container and make a copy. See how it goes.
The EA may not have everything that the beta has but it has the libpng fix.
 
J

jackhigh24

Guest
Try the EA, it installs separately from Stable/Beta. Back up your project put it in a sealed container and make a copy. See how it goes.
The EA may not have everything that the beta has but it has the libpng fix.
unfortunately richard its the same bad performance on EA as well, especially bad if your using scripts, taking the code out of the script and using it direct in objects gives doubles the fps, but its still will only run a simple project at around 300 real fps compared to the same project built with older GMS like v 1567 would run it at 1600 real fps and v 1657 runs it at around 900 real fps, so the new stable and EA run it at 300 or 200 if you use scripts, so its a big problem
 

rwkay

GameMaker Staff
GameMaker Dev.
Do we have a bug report for this yet... just checked and I cannot see one... failing that a zendesk ticket that has a project that shows the problem.

I am not aware of a performance regression - I know that some have talked about it here, just not aware of an example of it happening

Russell
 
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