Cocos2D SpriteSheet animation problem, my number of frames is much larger.

Question

Hello, I am trying to use SpriteSheet to run an animation. My frames are of 320x480 in size each, So I am able to put max 6 frames on the texture image. But my animation consists of frame number ranging from 50 to 200 sometimes, and all are of size 320x480. But this much number of frames cannot be added on the Texture image as the size is restricted to 1024x1024. Is there any other approach I can try out. Can I play one animation after the other.And won't it be hampering the performance. Please, I need suggestions. Best, Vaibhav Tekam.

Answer 1

Ugh, you're going way past what the device can handle! You'll have to reconsider what you're trying to achieve and how to achieve it. Let me explain.

Every 1024x1024 texture with 32 bit colors requires 4 MB of memory. If you want a sprite animation consisting of 60 full-screen sprites, you need 10 such textures. That makes 40 MB of memory. Or 120 MB for your upper-case scenario with 180 animation frames.

Keep in mind that the 128 MB RAM memory models of the iOS devices have about 30 MB memory available for your App, at most and under ideal conditions. You will start running into memory issues with only five 1024x1024 textures. The 256 MB devices still have only about 100 MB available for your App.

Since it's supposed to be an animation, it's also not an option to load one texture, and after every 6th image, remove that texture and load the next one. Loading a 1024x1024 texture into memory takes about 1-3 seconds depending on the device. Your App will be irresponsible during that time.