Phonegap performance - let me say wow

[Phempt]

I tried to apply this plugin on my existing project and I can confirm that FPS are always at 60 and there's a lesser CPU usage.
 
This is only a workaround at the moment, so I can't reccomend to use it but could be a huge start point for high performance iOS games.

 

 

iOS8 is installed on 56% of devices at the moment (https://developer.apple.com/support/appstore/) in my humble opinion, due to a jailbreak not available.

But now, a JB was released so I think that this 56% will increase early. 
 

[oddskill]

Thank you for the Information, looks very interesting.

 

best regards

 

odd

[BdR]

Looks cool, but it's only for iPhone. There's no Android equivalent of this?

[enpu]

For Android you can use CocoonJS or Crosswalk

[Ninjadoodle]

Hi @enpu

 

Would you still recommend going with CocoonJS for iPhone or would you actually consider Phonegap now?

 

Thanks!

[enpu]

I think CocoonJS Canvas+ gives you better performance than Phonegap, and it works for both iOS and Android, so i would recommend that.

[Ninjadoodle]

Thanks @enpu! I've been playing with Cocoon JS but still trying to figure out some of the api ... can't get outgoing links to work etc.

 

The performance is very good tho

[enpu]

I haven't used Cocoon API a lot, but there is plugin for Panda so you don't have to manually load it:

https://github.com/ekelokorpi/panda.js-plugins/tree/master/cocoon

[Ninjadoodle]

Hi @enpu

 

Thank you for pointing that out! I've tried with the plugin but still the same problem. I can't seem to open a link. It just throws errors and tries to load the website elements inside CocoonJS, instead of opening a window.

 

I followed the Cocoon instructions to the dot, so I think it might be a bug on their end.

 

PS. I kinda hijacked this topic, I should probably start a new one 

[mwatt]

There are bugs and additional restrictions - things that Cocoon does not really support.  They are constantly upgrading though.  Mind you, I have never used it, I just have read stuff in the Phaser forums about it.  Myself I use Phonegap and it works fine for my simple animation needs on iPhone.  I've tested but not released on Android - definitely Phonegap is challenged on Android.  The mobile Chrome supposedly performs well but I guess that can't be counted upon to exist on most devices yet.

 

I heard Apple's new Webview has some debilitating bugs as well, but when avoided, I read that it screams, supporting the above post.  Maybe they have patched the problems.  I am not sure.  Unfortunately, you can't count on iOS8 being there either, yet.

 

Overall, the trend seems to be that Phonegap will work out well in the end, because the webviews are getting better and better.  With the importance of JavaScript growing almost daily, it is inevitable IMO.  I suspect Cocoon may end up struggling for market share, eventually.  However, they may provide some other important services which will see them through.  I don't know enough about Cocoon to really say, to be honest.

 

To echo what someone above said about the Intel XDK, I read that it is good.  I have started to play with it and I kind of like it, but have encountered a couple of annoyance-level bugs so far.  Their documentation states that that they install their own high speed webview when a Crosswalk application gets installed, which assures a more uniform and better performance across the different platforms.  The downside to this is that it increases install size.  I will probably switch to Crosswalk (Intel XDK) if I need Android in the near future.