Paratrooper HD

[rbredow]

Kaboom Apps has officially launched Paratrooper HD for the HP TouchPad. We're really proud of this version: the smoothest and "bestest" version of Paratrooper yet with all new high resolution graphics. Because of the way we've "scaled up" the game, you can even still compete against your friends on their Pre, Pixi or iPhone for the best high scores.

We'd love to hear your feedback and incorporate more PreCentral suggestions into the game. We think it's our best Paratrooper yet! Let us know what you think.

Sincerely,

Rob
Kaboom Apps

[rbredow]

Paratrooper HD is now on sale for $2.99 for a limited time to celebrate the launch of the TouchPad.

Thanks again for all your support here on PreCentral. Any other suggestions for the game? Favorite level perhaps? We'd like to make more levels along the lines of your favorites.

Sincerely,

Rob
Kaboom Apps

[rbredow]

We noticed 3 people have noted slow frame rates in recent Paratrooper HD reviews. Our experience has been that this is the smoothest Paratrooper yet (in fact we re-wrote the trooper animation system just for higher performance) but perhaps we need to do more testing.

Is anyone else experiencing this problem? I'm wondering if it's related to other background tasks on newly acquired TouchPads or if we have an obscure bug that seems to only affect certain users.

Thanks again for your feedback.

Sincerely,

Rob

[bb147]

I've noticed slow frame rates as well..

especially when you're clicking on the plane to drop the guys out!


for me it was smoother on the pre 2 version then the touchpad one.

[sevensoft]

Shoot me a promo code and I'll be happy to test

Seriously tho.. I have a 'soft release' day TP.. if i get a minute later maybe i'll snag it and give it a run for ya..

[rbredow]

Originally Posted by bb147

I've noticed slow frame rates as well..

especially when you're clicking on the plane to drop the guys out!

for me it was smoother on the pre 2 version then the touchpad one.

That's exactly the kind of problem others are reporting but we haven't been able to duplicate. Do you have a moment to try it with the sound turned off and see if the performance improves dramatically? The "mute" control is in the bottom right hand corner of the main menu screen.

Thanks again for writing back so quickly. Hopefully we can track this down.

Sincerely,

Rob

[rbredow]

Originally Posted by sevensoft

Shoot me a promo code and I'll be happy to test

Great idea. Here's a promo code for a free Paratrooper HD for the first 5 people to use it:
0c3f66f1-4276-4131-ae07-2875db680446

I hope you get one of the free copies. If do you, the only thing I ask is if you'd chime in here to let me know how it's working on your TouchPad and if you find the performance fairly smooth. (Of course, we'd welcome positives reviews on the store as well if we've earned it!)

Thanks-

Rob

[totoro80]

hey tried the promo code but it says that the promotion has not started yet

[rbredow]

Originally Posted by totoro80

hey tried the promo code but it says that the promotion has not started yet

Sorry about that. It appears that "tomorrow" is the soonest we can start this giveaway with Palm's system. So, if all goes as expected, these codes should start working at midnight tonight!

Rob

[totoro80]

gotcha!

thanks

[bb147]

Turning off the sound didn't help.

I think i tracked down the issue for you...

https://developer.palm.com/distribut...p?f=70&t=15776


I guess the fix is to limit your frame rates to 30 FPS, I've played quite a few PDK games that have done that as a temporary fix and it looks flawless.


Hopefully that helps, I love playing this game but the horrible lag makes the experience rather poor so I just stopped playing it in the meantime. Can't wait till you can get the update out with a fix!

[rbredow]

Originally Posted by bb147

Turning off the sound didn't help.

I think i tracked down the issue for you...

I guess the fix is to limit your frame rates to 30 FPS

Thanks so much for pointing me to that thread. I definitely think it's related to the "splash" animation overlays--unfortunately Paratrooper HD is a "web app" rather than a PDK app and already runs at 24 FPS so the 30 FPS fix isn't going to resolve it. I've chimed in on the developer thread with Palm to see what my next steps are.

Thanks again for the pointer. Now we'll hope it's something we can control or a future WebOS upgrade resolves for us (quickly!).

In the meantime, I wonder if my slightly slower playing style makes this not show up for me as often? Anyone try giving those little troopers a little space between deploying?

Sincerely,

Rob

[grometnj]

Tried the code, sais all gone ohh well. really wanted to try out this game.

-Gromet

[rbredow]

Sorry the codes are gone already! It is still on sale for 25% off today if that helps anyone who really wanted to try it out.

Look forward to hearing how the game plays for the 5 lucky promotional winners.

Sincerely,

Rob

[rburtz]

I was lucky enough to snag a code. I played for about 15 minutes last night before bed and had no issues at all, no lag or any other performance issues. I'll play with it more when I get home and post a review to the App Catalog tonight.

[TheDewWorm]

I just purchased it, but I didn't see anything about it being 25% off. This is a whole lot better than the free version (Mini) for several reasons, most importantly, of course, being that it is scaled for the TouchPad. It is fun - I am just miserable at hand-eye coordination, so maybe this game can help me improve if I play it enough!

BTW, I found no lag attributable to the game - just my own inept miscalculations for drift, etc. It is a fun game. Thanks.

[nyquistJack]

I got a code last night, played for about 15 minutes. i'll do some more testing tonight for sure.

Here is what I saw:
1) At first, the dudes who just deployed their chutes without ripcords were smooth as silk. I started thinking "looks like I don't have the problem."
2) First board with the ripcord, I saw the lag. At first I thought it was a "feature" cause the plane sort of stops, barely noticeable, but it almost gives you just a little extra reaction time.
3) However, as I played it did get worse and became a little "uncomfortable" I guess you could say

After that I rebooted the Touchpad and tried again. This time I had the lag even on the non-ripcord dudes. At that point my wife made me go to sleep

So I'll try a few more thinsg out tonight and let you know what I see.

[rbredow]

Originally Posted by TheDewWorm

BTW, I found no lag attributable to the game - just my own inept miscalculations for drift, etc. It is a fun game. Thanks.

Great to hear that not everyone is seeing the "splash" performance bug. In our own testing, we are able to get a little lag here and there, but nothing as extreme as has been noted by a couple of the reviews so we're still digging.

Thanks again for all the feedback!

Rob