Smartphone version lacking/lagging

[jsnielsen]

Hi,

I have Astraware Sudoku for Smartphone. More specific, I'm running it on a Qtek 8310 (WM5).

The game is laggy. Pure and simple. When you operate the game, it often lags when you operate the joystick. Often it has problems responding to joystick clicks.

How do I know this is an Astrware specific problem ? My phone doesn't behave in this way in any other game app or game.

The menus. To put it short: They blow. They're organized the wrong way, and the custom graphics thing just doesn't work.

Check functions. Not good enough. I don't want to be told that "my puzzle can't be solved logically". I'm aware that it can't, that's why I want to check the grid. I want to be told clearly, that "in this cell, there's a problem".

Now... on the other hand, you have the best grid UI, and the pencil mark function is the best I've seen so far (entering the numbers in the cells, instead of annoying dots).

So... Your game is lagging. And it's lacking. If you could somehow fix this, I would actually install it again. But for now I bought another Sudoku game that actually tells me where I do things wrong, and isn't laggy.

[Howard]

I have Astraware Sudoku for Smartphone. More specific, I'm running it on a Qtek 8310 (WM5).


We'll try and get hold of one of these - it isn't a problem on other similar class devices, so may be something specific.

The menus. To put it short: They blow. They're organized the wrong way, and the custom graphics thing just doesn't work.

They are being altered. They were created for PDAs first to be revised when we could for smartphones.


Check functions. Not good enough. I don't want to be told that "my puzzle can't be solved logically". I'm aware that it can't, that's why I want to check the grid. I want to be told clearly, that "in this cell, there's a problem".

If it is because of a basic error (like you put two of the same number in the same row), then you'll get that flagged as you enter it.

If it is something more subtle, it could be many steps away, even if it doesn't force the problem to be apparent right away.

What I *think* other games do is check against the solution grid and highlight errors. I can do that too (for internally generated puzzles) but for puzzles you've entered which aren't solvable logically, there can always potentially be the same problem.

We have some features coming (not in the next release, but in the pipeline) that will help and somewhat alleviate this.



Now... on the other hand, you have the best grid UI, and the pencil mark function is the best I've seen so far (entering the numbers in the cells, instead of annoying dots).


Thanks.

Howard.

[Kieren]

I have Astraware Sudoku for Smartphone. More specific, I'm running it on a Qtek 8310 (WM5).

The game is laggy. Pure and simple. When you operate the game, it often lags when you operate the joystick. Often it has problems responding to joystick clicks.

How do I know this is an Astrware specific problem ? My phone doesn't behave in this way in any other game app or game.


Hi jsnielsen,

Could I possibly ask if you have any of our other games on your phone, and if so, whether they also seem to suffer from this problem with the joypad? Could I also be a nuisance and ask if you can detail how the "lag" problem manifests - for example, roughly how long is the delay after you try to move the selected item? Or does it manifest as moving multiple items with only a light tap?

Unfortunately we don't currently have an 8310 here in the office, the closest we have is the SPV C600 (which is apparently based on the same hardware, the HTC Tornado), but the joypad on that device may be different to yours.

Warmest regards,
Kieren
Technical Support

[jsnielsen]

They are being altered. They were created for PDAs first to be revised when we could for smartphones.

Sounds good :)


If it is because of a basic error (like you put two of the same number in the same row), then you'll get that flagged as you enter it.

If it is something more subtle, it could be many steps away, even if it doesn't force the problem to be apparent right away.


Could you possibly try to make it more clear ? E.g. I'm red/green colorblind, so nuances of colours that flash for half a second doesn't really get to me. Maybe that's why I haven't really noticed that it indicates errors. A static message would be good, or simply more distinctive colours.

What I *think* other games do is check against the solution grid and highlight errors. I can do that too (for internally generated puzzles) but for puzzles you've entered which aren't solvable logically, there can always potentially be the same problem.

Have the Sudoku game solve it logically when it's first entered, to see if it's actually solveable. That takes care of validation for self-entered puzzles.

Then have a copy of the right solution in the background and check against that. That gives you something to check against, cell by cell, you can then easily flag whichever cell doesn't check out according to the right solution.

We have some features coming (not in the next release, but in the pipeline) that will help and somewhat alleviate this.

Cool :)

[jsnielsen]

Could I possibly ask if you have any of our other games on your phone, and if so, whether they also seem to suffer from this problem with the joypad? Could I also be a nuisance and ask if you can detail how the "lag" problem manifests - for example, roughly how long is the delay after you try to move the selected item? Or does it manifest as moving multiple items with only a light tap?


Of course you can :)

I had a trial of MotoGP (stunt motorcycle sim for smartphone). No lag at all, responds very quickly.

I have Smartphone Sudoku from kickingsoftware.com.

I have none of your other games installed though (I have bejeweled for PPC, but that kinda doesn't help much ;) ).

Other than that, I have FlexWallet 2006 (1st WebIS version), X-Bar 3, GPRS Traffic Counter, Facade 0.95beta and Papyrus 1.2 installed. Of which X-Bar 3 is the only memory resident app, and the others are not running. The problem existed before X-Bar 3 though (I only recently installed XB3).

I'll try to install some of your trials and see if the problem exists in those too. I'll report back to you tomorrow on that.

It manifests itself by the cursor not moving when I press the joystick in a direction. Then, after a half to a whole second sometimes, it moves. If I did a continuous press on the joystick in a direction, suddenly it moves x cells in that direction.

Clicks on the joystick, I often have to press and hold, until it responds. Which can also take from a half to a whole second.

I also noticed, that in time - 4-5 minutes, the problem seems to go away a bit, making the game more responsive. Then it comes back.

[jsnielsen]

Allrighty then :)

I tried out Super Slyder, Crazy Daisy and My Little Tank.

MLT garbled up the screen completely. Or, half of it anyway. Had to remove the battery to get out.

Neither Super Slyder or Crazy Daisy had lag.

If you would like me to, I'll test other games per your request. However, half the games I get listed, even under Smartphone, are PPC or Palm games only.

[Kieren]

Hi jsnielsen,

Thanks for the info on how the joypad is behaving, and for having a look at a couple of our other titles to see if they produce the same problem!

The link below will take you to the section of our website which lists only the games for your type of device. In general though, look out for the "yellow" product bars, which indicate Windows Mobile Smartphone as opposed to the blue of Palm or the green of Pocket PC.
http://www.astraware.com/wmsp

I've just noticed that when looking at the WMSP pages, the category menus down the left hand side are still referring to "all" platforms, which might explain the problems you had locating the right versions.

We are aware of the problem with My Little Tank, and are working on a fix for that problem. Sorry, I'd forgotten to mention that one when asking you to try a couple of other games out :(

The two games you mention are enough to tell me that the problem doesn't seem to be general to the way we handle controls, but could be specific to Sudoku. Equally, it could be Sudoku is more "senstive" to the cause than the other games :)

It's odd that the problem only seems to occur occasionally, coming and going over the course of several minutes, which would almost imply the source is external to the game. This aspect would imply that perhaps the cause might that either the processor or joypad input are becoming busy for some reason, and queuing the input until it is less busy. Since the game doesn't do any calculations in the background while you're moving the highlighted position around, only when you actually interact with the game board, Sudoku wouldn't seem a likely source for anything like this. Could I ask if you have any applications running which might go off and check at periodic intervals?

Warmest regards,
Kieren

[jsnielsen]

Since the game doesn't do any calculations in the background while you're moving the highlighted position around, only when you actually interact with the game board, Sudoku wouldn't seem a likely source for anything like this. Could I ask if you have any applications running which might go off and check at periodic intervals?

I don't. And it seems to happen in Sudoku only. Not every Sudoku, just yours ;)

Which is why I think it's a very likely reason that Astraware Sudoku is the source ;)