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Use this page instead:

http://www.cocos2d-iphone.org/wiki/doku.php/best_practices

Introduction

iPhone is a very nice device. Although it has very nice and powerful features, you must be careful when programming for it. So here are the cocos2d (and general) best-practices.

Details

Improving performance

• Use this guide as reference: perf_test.pdf
• Use fast director:

    // must be called before any other call to the director
    [Director useFastDirector];

• When possible try to use texture atlas:
• Use AtlasSprite instead of Sprite
• Use BitmapFontAtlas or LabelAtlas instead of Label
• Use TileMapAtlas to render tiles
• When possible, try to use 4-bit or 16-bit textures
• 16-bit textures for PNG/GIF/BMP/TIFF images (16-bit textures are the default in v0.8)

   [Texture2D setDefaultAlphaPixelFormat:kTexture2DPixelFormat_RGBA4444]; // add this line at the very beginning

• 4-bit or 2-bit textures: Try to use PVRTC textures.

   Sprite *sprite = [Sprite spriteWithFile: @"sprite.pvr"];

• Use 32-bit textures as the last resort

Reducing Memory

• Use 16-bit or 4-bit textures (see Improving performance)
• Use the TextureMgr
• TextureMgr caches all images
• Even when the image is not used anymore, it will remain in memory
• To remove it from memory do:

   // textures with retain count 1 will be removed
   // you can add this line in your scene#dealloc method
   [[TextureMgr sharedTextureMgr] removeUnusedTextures]; // since v0.8
   
   // removes a certain texture from the cache
   Texture2D *texture = [sprite texture];
   [[TextureMgr sharedTextureMgr] removeTexture: texture]]; // available in v0.7 too

   // removes all textures... only use when you receive a memory warning signal
   [[TextureMgr sharedTextureMgr] removeAllTextures];    // available in v0.7 too

Timers

• Try not to use Cocoa's NSTimers. Instead use cocos2d's own scheduler.
• If you use cocos2d scheduler, you will have:
• automatic pause/resume.
• when the Layer (Scene, Sprite, CocosNode) enters the stage the timer will be automatically activated, and when it leaves the stage it will be automatically deactivated.
• Your target/selector will be called with a delta time

/**********************************************************/
// OK OK OK OK OK
/**********************************************************/
-(id) init
{
	if( ! [super init] )
		return nil;

	// schedule timer
	[self schedule: @selector(tick:)];
	[self schedule: @selector(tick2:) interval:0.5];

	return self;
}

-(void) tick: (ccTime) dt
{
	// bla bla bla
}

-(void) tick2: (ccTime) dt
{
	// bla bla bla
}

/**********************************************************/
// BAD BAD BAD BAD
/**********************************************************/
// Why BAD ?
// You can't pause the game automagically.
-(void) onEnter
{
	[super onEnter];
	timer1 = [NSTimer scheduledTimerWithTimeInterval:1/FPS target:self selector:@selector(tick1) userInfo:nil repeats:YES];
	timer2 = [NSTimer scheduledTimerWithTimeInterval:0.5 target:self selector:@selector(tick2) userInfo:nil repeats:YES];
}
-(void) onExit
{
	[timer1 invalidate];
	[timer2 invalidate];
	[super onExit];
}
-(void) tick
{
	// bla bla bla
}

-(void) tick2
{
	// bla bla bla
}

draw vs update

• try not to update any state variable inside the draw selector.
• try not to draw anything inside a scheduled selector
• Instead update the state variables inside a scheduled selector.
• Instead draw everything inside the draw selector
• If you update state variables inside the draw selector, the pause/resume won't work as expected.
• If you draw something inside a scheduled selector, it can't be transformed
• draw is called every frame
• scheduled selectors can be called with any frame rate, but no more frequently than the application's FPS rate.

/**********************************************************/
// OK OK OK OK OK
/**********************************************************/
-(void) draw
{
	[item draw];	// OK: DRAW INSIDE DRAW
}
-(void) tick:(ccTime) dt
{
	item.position = dt * finalPosition; // OK, UPDATE STATE IN SCHEDULED SELECTOR
}

/**********************************************************/
// BAD BAD BAD BAD 1 
/**********************************************************/
-(void) draw
{
	dt = [self calculateDelta];         // DONT UPDATE STATE IN DRAW.
        item.position = dt * finalPosition; // Pause won't work

	[item draw];
}

/**********************************************************/
// BAD BAD BAD BAD 2
/**********************************************************/
-(void) tick:(ccTime) dt
{
	item.position = dt * finalPosition;
	[item draw];		// <--- DON'T DRAW IN SCHEDULED SELECTOR
                                // because transformations won't alter your image
}

Director flow control

• If possible try to use replaceScene instead of pushScene
• pushScene is very handy, but it will put the pushed scene into memory, and memory is a precious resource in the iPhone.

// TRY TO AVOID A BIG STACK OF PUSHED SCENES
-(void) mainMenu()
{
      // etc
      [[Director sharedDirector] pushScene: gameScene];
}
// stack:
//   . game  <-- running scene
//   . mainMenu

-(void) game
{
      [[Director sharedDirector] pushScene: gameOverScene];
}
// stack:
//   . gameOver  <-- running scene
//   . game
//   . mainMenu

-(void) showGameOver
{
      [[Director sharedDirector] pushScene: hiScoreScene];
}
// stack:
//   . scores  <-- running scene (4 pushed scenes... expensive)
//   . gameOver
//   . game
//   . mainMenu

Creating Nodes (Sprites, Labels, etc..)

• When possible try to create CocosNodes (Sprites, Labels, Layers, etc) or any other kind of object in the init selector and not in the draw and any other scheduled selector
• The creation of nodes is expensive, so try to have them pre-created
• On the other hand, be careful with the memory. Don't have in memory unnecessary objects.

/**********************************************************/
// OK, MOST OF THE TIME
/**********************************************************/
-(id) init
{
	// etc...

	sprite1 = [Sprite1 create];	// <-- USUALLY IT IS BETTER TO CREATE OBJECTS IN INIT

	// etc...
}

-(void) tick: (ccTime) dt
{
	// etc...
	if( someThing ) {
		[sprite1 show];		// <--- BUT IF YOU DON'T USE THEM FREQUENTLY, MEMORY IS WASTED

	}

}

/**********************************************************/
// BAD, MOST OF THE TIME
/**********************************************************/
-(void) tick: (ccTime) dt
{
	// etc...
	if( someThing ) {
		sprite = [Sprite1 create];	// <--- EXEPENSIVE
		[sprite1 show];

		//...

		[sprite1 release];	// <- AT LEAST MEMORY IS RELEASED
	}

}

Hierarchy of Layers

• Don't create a big hierarchy of layers. Try to keep them low when possible.

Actions

• It is expensive to create certain actions, since it might require a lot of mallocs(). For example: A Sequence of a Spawn with a RotateBy with a another Sequence, etc... is very expensive.
• So try to reuse actions.
• Once the action is used, save it for later if you know you will execute that type of action again. Then, instead of allocing a new action, you can just initialize it.

Buttons

• Use a Menu with a MenuItemImage and place your menu using menu.position = ccp(x,y). See the MenuTest example for more details.

how does the pause/resume works ?

• when the director receives the pause message it won't call any scheduled target/selector.
• but the draw selector will be called at a rate of 4 FPS (to reduce battery consumption)
• when the director receives the resume message, the scheduled target/selectors will be called again every frame.