primaryfeather/sparrow-framework

The Open Source Game Engine for iOS

Sparrow Framework

The Open Source Game Engine for iOS

Important: Legacy Version!

This repository contains the 1.x version of the Sparrow Framework. The latest version (v2) has moved to a new repository:

• Gamua/Sparrow-Framework

Use Sparrow Framework 1.x if you need support iOS 3 and 4. All other users should upgrade to Sparrow 2, as it builds on modern technologies like iOS 5, OpenGL ES 2, ARC, etc.

What is Sparrow?

Sparrow is a pure Objective C library targeted on making game development as easy and hassle-free as possible. Sparrow makes it possible to write fast OpenGL applications without having to touch OpenGL or pure C (but easily allowing to do so, for those who wish). It uses a tried and tested API that is easy to use and hard to misuse.

Who is Sparrow for?

Obviously, Sparrow is for iPhone and iPad developers, especially those involved in game development. You will need to have a basic understanding of Objective-C – but there’s no way around that on the iOS anyway.

If you have already worked with Adobe™ Flash/Flex technology, you will immediately befriend with Sparrow since it uses lots of similar concepts and naming schemes. That said, everything is designed to be as intuitive as possible, so any Java™ or .Net™ developer will get the hang of it quickly as well.

How to start?

• Read through the file 'BUILDING.markdown' for a quick start with Sparrow.
• Visit http://www.sparrow-framework.org

sparrow-framework's Issues

Bug in SPTween when tweening to negative value

As demonstrated here:
http://forum.sparrow-framework.org/topic/found-a-bug-in-sptween-when-trying-to-set-a-property-to-a-negative-value

SPCompiledSprite only displays a limited number of objects

According to this forum thread, compiled sprites suddenly stop to display the objects if a certain number is displayed (somewhere below 10k objects).

Find out where this limit comes from and document it, or -- if possible -- avoid that limit.

SPStage +mainStage method

Adding an [SPStage mainStage]; method would be very useful for a various situations.

SPStage.h

+ (SPStage*)mainStage;

SPStage.m

+ (SPStage*)mainStage{
    if (stages && [stages count] > 0)
        return  (SPStage*)[stages objectAtIndex:0];
    return nil;
}

Invisible objects receive touch events in certain situations

As described in this forum thread.

SPMovieClip does not update 'isPlaying' when its finished

As described in this forum thread, the isPlaying property does not return false when the movie stops playing automatically.

Furthermore, the meaning of the isComplete method should be better documented.

doubleOnPad not working properly

doubleOnPad does not work properly on our universal app with 1.3
In SPTexture on line 266,
glTexture.scale = [path contentScaleFactor];
seems to cause the issue, because when I comment it, things works flawlessly on iPad, but it breaks the iPhone retina scale.

Something like this did the trick for me :

if (!(IS_DEVICE_IPAD() && [SPStage doubleResolutionsOnPad])) {
glTexture.scale = [path contentScaleFactor];
}

Add more vector math methods to SPPoint

As described here.

Paused compressed sound restarts after interruption

More info can be found here:

http://forum.sparrow-framework.org/topic/sound-channel-bug

Proper SP_EVENT_TYPE_REMOVED_FROM_STAGE

Could you rename it to SP_EVENT_TYPE_WILL_REMOVE_FROM_STAGE, or add a second event that gets dispatched after it is completely removed from stage? I understand this will not be needed in 99% of cases, but it could prove useful.

If you choose to toss this issue, I am fine with that too. :)
See also: http://forum.sparrow-framework.org/topic/can-you-dispatch-the-remove-events-after

initWithContentsOfFile with folders broken in iOS 3.x

As described here, loading files (textures, sounds, xmls) with Sparrow does not work in iOS 3.x when the filename contains a path with a folder.

Testing on Mac

I'd love to be able to test or possibly deploy to mac, any chance of that?

SPQuad's bounds-optimization may fail in subclasses

As described here, an optimization in the bounds-method of SPQuad may lead to problems in subclasses. It should be changed.

Touch coordinates inaccurate in some device orientations

As described in this forum thread.

Bug in absolutePathToFile:withScaleFactor:

As shown here.

Font @2x

File: SPBitmapFont.m
Function: - (void)parser:(NSXMLParser_)parser didStartElement:(NSString_)elementName

@"info" and @"common" tokens need to divide mSize and mLineHeight (respectively) by mFontTexture.scale if mFontTexture != nil. Otherwise the conditional scaling in the @"page" token is skipped for atlas-based fonts.

SPTextField not visible in compiled sprite

As described in this forum thread, text fields sometimes don't show up in compiled sprites.

EXC_BAD Access

SPSound.m:45

There are too many [self release] lines. The object is already released on line 40.

Add "currentTime" property to SPTween

SPRenderTexture bug: texture binding not working

As pointed out in this forum thread, there is problem with SPRenderTexture when there is nothing else on the screen.

The reason is that SPRenderTexture uses its own SPRenderSupport object, which is not in sync with the conventional object. The architecture has to be reconsidered.

Unable to load resources in octest bundles

[Moved from forums]

Problem: The library currently isn't able to find any media resources in a unit test bundle.
How to reproduce: Create any unit test bundle that exercises loading a resource using the SenTestingKit.

**Cause:**Various spots in the library that loads resources uses a [NSBundle mainBundle] as the basis for retrieving a resource. When running a SentTestingKit unit test bundle, the tests are injected into another executable, "octest" which will actually run the tests. The mainBundle path will always be where "octest" is located, not where the intended game executable and resources are.

Add a wrapper for MonoTouch

As pointed out in this forum thread, it would be great to have a MonoTouch Wrapper for Sparrow, so that people could write games in C#.

The documentation about monotouch api wrapping can be found here.

Access to SPStage and SPSprite inside init via class methods

All photoshop blend modes.

SPView +mainView method

Orientation support for SPStage or Game

Not sure what would be the best way to go about this, but it would be nice to have orientation support built into Sparrow. Game could subclass an SPSprite, but then adding display objects to SPStage would become obsolete.

Warning when compiling with the LLVM 3.0 compiler

warning: Semantic Issue: Implicit conversion from enumeration type 'SPHAlign' to different enumeration type 'UITextAlignment'

Add color property to SPStage

As requested (and demonstrated) here:
http://forum.sparrow-framework.org/topic/changing-default-black-background

HD textures are not loaded automatically if referenced by absolute paths

If a HD resource is available, like this:

/some/path/image.png
/some/path/[email protected]

then the "@2x" file is not loaded when it is referenced by an absolute path -- it has to be loaded with a path relative to the application bundle.

This shouldn't be necessary.

The "i am a descendant of myself" Paradox

Possible bug leading to infinite display list recursion - I've just had a quick look at the Starling source code for the DisplayObject and DisplayObjectContainer classes, and I couldn't see any checks being done (when adding a child to a container) to determine if the child is being added to its own display list.

ChildA -> ChildB -> ChildC -> ChildA ...

I haven't run any tests, so I apologise if I've overlooked something, but I thought I would mention this while I was here.

[EDIT] Sorry, this should have been posted in the Starling Framework issues :(

AppScaffold Project

AppScaffold Project is unable to build and generates the following error:

Argument list too long: recursive header expansion failed at /Applications/Adobe InDesign CS5.5/Adobe InDesign CS5.5.app/Contents/MacOS/Required/Application UI.InDesignPlugin

Xcode 4.2.1
Mac OS 10.7.3

Looping tweens and movies should dispatch event on each loop

As described here, loops should dispatch an event.

SPDisplayObject setRotation can hang.

I inadvertently set the rotation on a sprite to a huge double (something in the 1.0e+9 range) and my program appeared to hang. I modified my fork like so:

• (void)setRotation:(float)value
  {
  // clamp between [-180 deg, +180 deg]
  mRotationZ = fmod(value, TWO_PI);
  mOrientationChanged = YES;
  }

Just hoping to save someone some head scratching.

Access stage from SPDisplayObject init method

Dependant on issue #1021.

Allows access to the stage even when the object doesn't have a parent or isn't connected to the stage.

SPDisplayObject.m

- (SPStage*)stage
{
    SPDisplayObject *root = self.root;
    if ([root isKindOfClass:[SPStage class]]) return (SPStage*) root;
    else return [SPStage mainStage];  /// This line is different.
}

Add support for trimmed textures

As described here, it would be great if textures could be created with an offset. That could potentially save a lot of texture memory.

SPTextField auto-size interest?

Hi Daniel,

I'm interested in adding auto-sizing support to SPTextField. Is this something you'd be interested in? If not, would you be amenable to a patch that makes SPTextField's internals protected instead of private, so that it can be subclassed? The functionality I want to add requires a new member variable, so it can't easily be added in a category.

port sparrow to android

is there any plan to port sparrow to android, like cocos2d-X

Allow to load assets in another thread

As shown in this thread discussion:

http://forum.sparrow-framework.org/topic/thread-safety-when-rendering-spimages

it would be great to have an easy way to load assets such as textures in a background thread.

Add support for Intensity + Alpha textures

As described in this forum thread.

Random method creates error in Objective-C++ application

As the and-keyword is reserved in C++, the current method name creates an error on compilation. Thus, the name of the method needs to be changed.

[SPUtils randomIntBetween:1 and:4]; // creates an error in Obj-C++

More info:
http://forum.sparrow-framework.org/topic/random-int

SPTextField does not like two line feed with Bitmap Font

Just try this :

SPTextField *textTest = [SPTextField textFieldWithWidth:500 height:100 text:@"OK\n\n" fontName:kMainFont fontSize:25 color:SP_WHITE];
[self addChild:textTest];

then self won't show up on stage...

currently using commit 84759ac

Port Sparrow to mac os x

Hello are you planning to port Sparrow-Framework to mac os x in the future?
Sory, for my bad English.

Changing the texture of a SPImage

When you create an image with a texture it sets up the quad to match the texture size. But when you change the texture the quad is not updated. And it is not even possible to change the quad manually because the setWidth and setHeight methods only change the scale (!).

Usage of NSXMLParser creates memory leak

As pointed out in this forum post, the xml parser produces a memory leak. It is used in SPBitmapFont and SPTextureAtlas.

Make Sparrow compatible with ARC

ARC = Automatic Reference Counting, introduced in iOS 5.
Currently, a struct used by the SPPoolObject does not comply with ARC.

Offer a way to choose GL_LINEAR vs. GL_NEAREST

It would be great if one could decide if a texture should be filtered or not.

SPButton with text should behave like SPTextField

Currently, when you resize an SPButton, the text is stretched. It would be better if the button behaved just like a textfield.

More info:
http://forum.sparrow-framework.org/topic/spbutton-text-stretching-problem

Resizing a SPQuad width won't work as expected

Some how the new value given to the width is reduced.

Ex:

currentQuad.width = [self distanceBetweenPoints:cQp and:tp];
NSLog(@"%f - %f",currentQuad.width,[self distanceBetweenPoints:cQp and:tp]);

At the log I'm getting:

 19.204235 - 170.735748

The weird thing is that setting a smaller height value initially, reduces the gap between this two numbers. Could be this be related to scaling?

SPBitmapFont - Minor folder reference bug

Registering a bitmap font inside a folder reference will not link the xml file attribute correctly.
See http://forum.sparrow-framework.org/topic/spbitmapfont-minor-folder-reference-bug for more detail.

Resource loading within Unit Tests not possible

When you load a resource (textures, sounds, etc.) in a unit test, Sparrow wants to load it from the wrong path.

The detailed description about the problem, and a working solution, can be found here.

It should be evaluated if the proposed solution can be added to the Sparrow core, or if there are alternatives.

SPRenderSupport: clearWithColor method not working correctly

As pointed out here,
glClearColor takes in float values between 0.0f and 1.0f (not uint 0 to 255).