Ram and Graphics Heavy Games

[Owen Lowe]

So I have been talking with the people over at 2K games to make Civlization Revolution 2 stop crashing on my phone. The app is supposebly fine, but they say it is the amount of ram I have free on my phone. I have 635MB free on my phone after stopping a number of processes, but that still isn't enough. What things can I stop that won't break the phone? Is 2k actually at fault here?This is the first truly graphics heavy game that I have tried to get to run on my phone, so take that for what you will. Also, if there is a past post that already discussed this and reached a solution, feel free to just link me to that. Thank you for any insight you may have.

 

[Rukbat]

So I have been talking with the people over at 2K games to make Civlization Revolution 2 stop crashing on my phone. The app is supposebly fine, but they say it is the amount of ram I have free on my phone.

Oops. Translation: "We treat Android as if it were Windows, instead of just the opposite of Windows". The amount of RAM? I'd go along with that. If the game needs 1.5GB of RAM and you have a phone with 1GB, it won't work. But if you have a phone with 3GB, Android will kill as many other non-essential tasks as needed to free up the 1.5GB the game needs. (And kill the game if, say, an email push comes in and the email program needs the space. then, as soon as you touch the screen, the game is run again, starting at the point it was when it was killed.

That's how Android works - it doesn't want "free" RAM, it wants as much RAM in use as possible. (Read what someone involved in designing Android says - Multitasking the Android Way)

I have 635MB free on my phone after stopping a number of processes

If you read the article, you'll understand why you should never do that.

but that still isn't enough. What things can I stop that won't break the phone? Is 2k actually at fault here?This is the first truly graphics heavy game that I have tried to get to run on my phone, so take that for what you will. Also, if there is a past post that already discussed this and reached a solution, feel free to just link me to that. Thank you for any insight you may have.

What could be at fault is one of three things - either there's not enough actual physical RAM in the phone (you have 2GB - it may require a phone with 3GB) or the graphics are using too much CPU (or GPU) for the game to keep running ... OR there's a bug in the game.

"Not enough free RAM" isn't something applicable to Android. It's like saying that you can't afford something because it's raining.

 

[Owen Lowe]

I really appreciate you responding and making it so easy to understand. I imagine that it might be the CPU/GPU with the issues that I'm getting and the way that 2k is responding to me. Is there any way that I could maximize CPU/GPU or get more? I apologize if I am asking a dumb question.