Taking advantage of SpriteKit and SceneKit
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It doesn't seem like Hyperpad takes full advantage of spriteKit and sceneKit. They provide so much more functionality than what Hyperpad appears to take advantage of (thinking 3D and 2d).
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Is this like the graphics or physics engine HyperPad uses?
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Both:
https://code.tutsplus.com/tutorials/combining-the-power-of-spritekit-and-scenekit--cms-24049Wondering if they actually use it or not though. Perhaps even Metal?
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We are using a modified version of an open source graphics engine called Cocos2D and an open source 2D physics engine called Chipmunk2D. We are not using spritekit nor scenekit.
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@Hamed I remember seeing
ages ago and wondering whether something like this would ever be possible in hyperPad in a future update. Maybe not the exact same thing, just a way to create collisions from behaviours and modify a png file... -
@Jack8680 we definitely want to do stuff like that in the future but I don't want to promise anything crazy right now.
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How hard would it be to integrate sceneKit or spriteKit with what you already have? Or is the plan to avoid this so that you could eventually make a multi-platform desktop app?
If you were to integrate even one spriteKit function successfully that could be an opening to more power for hyperpad (IOS).
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@TutorialDoctor
It's a big change. With our current resources anywhere form 6 months to a year of development. This would mean no other updates and only working on this for that time.It's not that worth it any ways. SpriteKit is based on Cocos2D. There is very little gain to go with SpriteKit other than a few smaller performance enhancements which won't be that noticeable. Cocos2D has a lot of really cool features that we don't expose in hyperPad, and this would likely be the case with SceneKit as well.
The reason being is because the hard part is figuring out a nice and simple UI that conveys these advanced graphics engine features into a usable editor that you can interact with just using your finger (or a mouse). So we'd still need to spend a lot of time researching and implementing the cool stuff after switching to SceneKit.
Cocos2D is really powerful, look into it. :). Plus if you export your project you get the XCode project which includes the Cocos2D source code so you can add things that the hyperPad editor doesn't feature yet.. Of course these would only be available for an exported project, and not for something in the hub.
Also IF we were to switch graphics engines, it's not likely for us to choose SceneKit. As you mention, the plan would be to go Cross Platform. SceneKit makes it easy to stick with the Apple Ecosystem. But it keeps us trapped in the Apple world(more so than we are now).
Ideally, we'd switch to an HTML5 engine (like Cocos2d-X) that way we can export to ALL platforms (iOS, Mac, PC, Xbox, PS4, Nintendo, Web), and do other cool stuff like play hub games right through the browser.Only way I can see us switching to SceneKit is if Apple decided to play nice with us.. Either feature us in the App Store, give us money, buy us.. Or partner in some fashion. This is unlikely so, we probably won't be going scene kit.. At least not unless some major shift in iOS happens that forces us to.
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@Murtaza Understandable. Thanks.
