Low memory gamers...

[RStall]

Everyone halfway knowledgeable with the way computers operate know that to play the best games require as much memory as possible. So why do we have so many people requesting the latest and greatest games with a device that only has 512 Mb of ram?? I bought the Samsung focus on day one of windows phone and it had 512mb of ram and almost 4 years later, many of you are expecting better more graphic intensive games to work on the same low memory devices??

That's why developers don't take us windows phone gamers seriously because we, as a whole, are still demanding modern games on ram requirements from 4 years ago.

We are already a smaller community, we can't demand folks to develop games on inferior devices also. That's too much bs to deal with.

 

[Visa Declined]

That's why developers don't take us windows phone gamers seriously because we, as a whole, are still demanding modern games on ram requirements from 4 years ago.

I don't think game developers have a problem taking WP users seriously, you could have used a better analogy there. But if you look at what Gameloft has to go through to make a WP game, and then go back later and optimize it for 512mb devices, that's a lot of development time. Many game houses don't believe that there's enough money to be made on Windows Phone at all.

I agree with most of your post though. I see a lot of demanding people expecting to get whatever they want here at Windows Phone Central.

 

[RStall]

I don't think game developers have a problem taking WP users seriously, you could have used a better analogy there. But if you look at what Gameloft has to go through to make a WP game, and then go back later and optimize it for 512mb devices, that's a lot of development time. Many game houses don't believe that there's enough money to be made on Windows Phone at all.

I agree with most of your post though. I see a lot of demanding people expecting to get whatever they want here at Windows Phone Central.

I don't know. These SDK kits are highly portable. Games are cross-platformed from android to ios all the time. As long as the target hardware can support it it can be done easily. Most modern games require 2gb of ram to run with no problems. Trying to port that to hardware with only 512mb of ram is damn near impossible. Remember when windows phone first came out?? We was getting like two Xbox live games a week. Now I don't think we've gotten two all year because most windows phone users seem to have phones with 512mb of ram.

 

[KickBack Studios]

So why do we have so many people requesting the latest and greatest games with a device that only has 512 Mb of ram??

Actually, 512MB of ram is plenty. The bigger problem is that a single game, isn't allowed to use more than 180MB of ram. Which is still plenty, but the restriction is a bit arbitrary. (for reference, iOS lets a single app use roughly half, so in an equivalent 512 device you can use ~256MB or ram). I'm sure there's a reason, I just don't know what it is

Also DXT compression (that windows phone uses for textures), generally uses much more ram than PVR or ETC (that iOS and android use for texture compression). But it also looks much better so it's fine.

We were expecting to have problems with Ram usage when porting Lost Echo, but in the end we didn't downgrade anything at all and we were still well below 180mb of ram, so...

 

[Lumio]

Actually, 512MB of ram is plenty. The bigger problem is that a single game, isn't allowed to use more than 180MB of ram. Which is still plenty, but the restriction is a bit arbitrary. (for reference, iOS lets a single app use roughly half, so in an equivalent 512 device you can use ~256MB or ram). I'm sure there's a reason, I just don't know what it is

Whether 180MB limitation is applicable to 1GB RAM mobiles too?

 

[KickBack Studios]

Whether 180MB limitation is applicable to 1GB RAM mobiles too?

Typically no. It's 380 MB for 1 GB. But there are exceptions:

Typically, for Windows Phone 8, a phone with 512 MB of memory is considered a lower-memory device, but this can vary depending on the device. For example, if a phone has a high-resolution camera, for app purposes it may be considered a lower-memory device.

App memory limits for Windows Phone 8

Edit: I have to say, I'm not sure what they mean by "high-resolution camera" though. For example I know the Lumia 925/920 reports that there are 380 MB available for a single app, so it's not considered a low mem device.

 

[SAM 77]

Roflmao

Your game is a bit basic compared to other titles out there.

512MB for those with no idea

 

[KickBack Studios]

Roflmao

Your game is a bit basic compared to other titles out there.

512MB for those with no idea

Care to point me to some of those games? I'm taking a look at the Windows Phone Store and I'm not seeing anything that I think should require a ton of ram.

EDIT: My whole point is this. From a hardware perspective, 512mb is just fine. I mean an XBox 360 has 512mb ram..! I also see a lot of games that require 1GB on Windows Phone, while on iOS or android they work fine on even 256mb ram devices. So the 1GB requirement is the result of :
1) The software not being there yet (the Unity engine for example, just recently greatly improved their ram usage on Windows Phone)
2) The Windows Phone having a maximum of 180MB available for an app whereas most of the competition allows more than that in similar situations (although apparently Windows Phone 8.1 changes those restrictions a bit, but I can't find anything specific in the docs).
3) The developers not bothering to make adjustments to their games.