How do these memory usage numbers sound?

expired_012expired_012 Member Posts: 1,802
edited November -1 in Working with GS (Mac)
My first retina display game so ram is higher then usual

Total memory usage a scene is around 60mb. I am testing on an iPhone 4 and it runs fine. Resolution independence is checked as well, which will lower RAM on older devices. Fps is 58-60

Should I be fine or am I in trouble?

And tips on how to bring memory usage down?

Comments

  • gyroscopegyroscope I am here.Member, Sous Chef, PRO Posts: 6,598
    Hi artonskyblue, 58-60 fps sounds fine to me. The only way to see how the framerate is affected on older devices is to try them out on them, of course. Maybe you could ask for beta-testers on specific phones?

    As for memory usage, there's been a couple of threads in the last couple of weeks about this, basically deleting screenshots from the gamefile, making sounds to mono where poss, extra compression on PNG images using a prog that I can't remember the name of ;-) etc.

    60 mb does seem a bit high but you might be just fine, depending on how this is "allocated"; i.e if you've many levels, then loading time on older machines shouldn't be at all bad.

    :-)

    ""You are in a maze of twisty passages, all alike." - Zork        temp domain http://spidergriffin.wix.com/alphaghostapps

  • expired_012expired_012 Member Posts: 1,802
    Thanks for the response.

    I don't think the screenshots have anything to do with memory though, I think it will just reduce the overall file size
  • expired_012expired_012 Member Posts: 1,802
    A big tip I just discovered:

    Using the same background continuously is better then using different backgrounds continuously. It reduced my RAM by 15MB!
  • ScootsScoots Member Posts: 507
    artonskyblue said:
    A big tip I just discovered:

    Using the same background continuously is better then using different backgrounds continuously. It reduced my RAM by 15MB!

    Because of less images I would assume or are you making one big background that the cam goes to for each scene?
  • expired_012expired_012 Member Posts: 1,802
    Im using 5 480x320 backgrounds. Using one big background that's 2400x320 would waste the same amount of memory as 5 480x320 backgrounds equal to 2400x320, thats what I heard at least.

    I knew that using the same background would lower ram a bit but I didn't think it would do it by this much. The mem. usage for images went from 20mb to 6.6mb.
  • QbAnYtOQbAnYtO Member Posts: 523
    yea having a big bg is pretty slick.. its what i do
  • ScootsScoots Member Posts: 507
    That's a remarkable difference Arton, good find.
  • gyroscopegyroscope I am here.Member, Sous Chef, PRO Posts: 6,598
    artonskyblue said:
    Thanks for the response.

    I don't think the screenshots have anything to do with memory though, I think it will just reduce the overall file size

    Yes, you're right; I misunderstood, thinking you meant reducing file size, not memory usage (even though it was there in black and white...). Make a mistake? Me? :-)

    ""You are in a maze of twisty passages, all alike." - Zork        temp domain http://spidergriffin.wix.com/alphaghostapps

  • expired_012expired_012 Member Posts: 1,802
    @gyroscope, I forgive you :)

    I'm filled with joy right now. Im actually starting to gain hope in this project
  • StormyStudioStormyStudio United KingdomMember Posts: 3,989
    Ooh interesting post.

    So in my game I'm making at the moment. If I make all my lift Walls into one larger image instead of 6 different ones spread out it should improve performance?
  • TwistedMechTwistedMech Member Posts: 408
    I have been looking at mesh usage with device memory for a corona game i am working on and it really helps if you compress your png files. For a test on one of my GS projects, I renamed the project file to .zip, converted all the png's from the images folder and compressed them by 50%. There was no real quaility difference on my iPad and I saved loads in image sizes.
  • expired_012expired_012 Member Posts: 1,802
    @stormmystudio, that would be a good thing to test, but I think I remember FMG saying that using one big background would waste just as much memory as separate backgrounds. Ill do a small test in a bit

    All im saying right now is using the same image for all your backgrounds in your scene will help memory usage a lot.
  • expired_012expired_012 Member Posts: 1,802
    Anyone have an understanding of what the "other" part of the memory usage is all about? Its taking up the most memory (20mb) and its sucks to look at it because I have no idea what to improve when just looking at the word other.
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