Thursday, December 10, 2015

Ben: SpriteKit Has Problems

  It has been a while since I really blogged about what my inner geek has been doing.  For those of you that are non-technical, this might be the one you skip.
  Our latest game uses a different way of displaying the graphics, sounds, and any type of movement, actions, etc..  The framework, SpriteKit, was provided by Apple a few years ago.  It has evolved since then into a decent way to build a 2-Dimension type game.  They have taken care of a lot of the tedious underpinnings of animation, image sharing, and working with your game objects (nodes).   They also added nice things like Path-finding (how do I get this guy from here to there following this route), gravity (the rain IS falling), body contact methods, etc..
  I like the product, but lately I ungraded my device to the latest operating system (iOS 9.2) and am now seeing cryptic messages popup everytime an image is used.  Even worse, on certain devices, like  the iphone 5, the images are getting warped or stretched.  Kind of ugly, even if you ignore all the warning messages.   I ran quite a few tests using the device simulators with various iOS versions and it seems to be related to 9.2.  There are bugs logged against this problem and I am sure it will get worked out in the future, but it does scare the developers with SpriteKit apps being developed or already in the store.
"Whats up with your App images all wonky?"
  It seems to be related to the image and the background transparency as the image gets stretched more with this kind of element.  I can't be sure, but it seems this way.  Hopefully, this problem will get enough focus to be patched out fairly quickly or there are going to be some disappointed developers and users this holiday season.

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Ben: I don't mind washing dishes


  I normally keep my posts related to software development side, but felt this confession just had to be posted.  I don't mind washing the dishes for our house.  Heck, any house.  Somewhere in my childhood I took over washing the dishes and the 'chore' has not bothered me for a long time.  It is simple to do, you can see the results immediately and it leaves a sense of satisfaction.  (Like spell-check)
  Now I am not knocking all of you who don't like washing the dishes.  It is just that from the feedback I hear from most people (my kids) it is a chore to be avoided.  Not so much for me.

Why is this?

  I suspect that I like the idea of taking on a known task for a limited time and seeing the task completed to everyone's satisfaction.  Not so much like programming, which you will always feel the need to change for approval.  Not dishes.  No Sir.  They are done.  Everyone who comes into the kitchen will not find one dirty dish.  In fact, they would have to get themselves a new clean dish to use before eating anything...

  Maybe dishes are more like programming than I first assumed.