As the OP of whats turned out to be a very long thread (!), I'd like to add a few thoughts.
Android is indeed a great media / networked platform but I don't think this will be enough to sustain the platform longterm - I don't want to see Android develop into just a techy's phone - I want it to appeal to the masses. Every day I am bombarded with fantastic ads for iPhone on tv where they show one game after another, all featuring smooth scrolling and high performance. I think Android users today are fairly generous in their comments in the market in that they are happy for now with low performance games, think card games, puzzle games, etc. But eventually if the status quo continues and this is the best we ever see, I think a number of users defect on to other mobile platforms. I hadn't even thought about the downsides to multi-processing - I agree Google do need to address the performance impact of this. But I think Google also needs to provide samples of how we can build high performance scrolling game engines - because I think there is a way to do it - I just haven't figured it out yet. A Lunar Lander game engine is a good start, but its hardly going to set the world alight - just look at what some people are playing on iPhone these days if you want to see how far behind we are right now. On Mar 27, 10:06 am, "Al Sutton" <a...@funkyandroid.com> wrote: > I guess it comes down to the choice of do we want high performance games on > Android or not. > > At the moment it seems clear that due to the ability of background tasks to > continue running it is next to impossible to provide predictable performance > for resource demanding games on all users devices and thus games can not > make the most out of the hardware without risking 1* ratings and being > called laggy by those running a number of background apps. > > Maybe this is where Android is trying to be different. Maybe games are not > best suited to an Android based platform because of this. I guess time and > users will be the judge of whether this is the right way to go. > > Personally I don't think it is, but hey, I'm only one voice. > > Al. > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: android-developers@googlegroups.com > > [mailto:android-develop...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Romain Guy > Sent: 27 March 2009 09:47 > To: android-developers@googlegroups.com > Subject: [android-developers] Re: Anything on Android that can do smooth > scrolling? > > No, I was not pointing back to this idea. > > And the PS3 does that because it's a *video game console.* On which you > usually do *one thing at a time.* > > On Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 2:44 AM, Al Sutton <a...@funkyandroid.com> wrote: > > > And once again we get pointed back to the idea of pausing most (if not > > all) background apps to achieve a good user experience. > > > Even the PS3 which has far better hardware than the G1 goes down this > > route as it pauses the game just to bring up an in-game menu. The only > > thing it ever tries to run in the background is the PlayTV system and > > that comes with a big warning about affecting game performance. > > > Al. > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: android-developers@googlegroups.com > > [mailto:android-develop...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Romain Guy > > Sent: 27 March 2009 09:38 > > To: android-developers@googlegroups.com > > Subject: [android-developers] Re: Anything on Android that can do > > smooth scrolling? > > > Yeah... none of them have background apps. > > > On Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 2:33 AM, Al Sutton <a...@funkyandroid.com> wrote: > > >> Ahh so that's how the PSP, DS, and iPhone do it.... Hold up, that > >> doesn't sound right... :). > > >> Al. > > >> -----Original Message----- > >> From: android-developers@googlegroups.com > >> [mailto:android-develop...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Romain Guy > >> Sent: 26 March 2009 22:12 > >> To: android-developers@googlegroups.com > >> Subject: [android-developers] Re: Anything on Android that can do > >> smooth scrolling? > > >> Have multiple cores :) > > >> On Thu, Mar 26, 2009 at 3:10 PM, Stoyan Damov > >> <stoyan.da...@gmail.com> > >> wrote: > > >>> On Thu, Mar 26, 2009 at 11:53 PM, Romain Guy <romain...@google.com> > > wrote: > > >>>> Once again it has NOTHING to do with GC, it's just another app > >>>> using the CPU. It could be for any reason, not just GC. > > >>>> I hope you get it now. > > >>> Aaaaaaaah, @#$ me. I GET it now! > > >>> Thanks Romain, and thanks again for patiently explaining this > >>> several > >> times! > > >>> So, we're back then to square 1 - how do we make Android *appear* > >>> that it runs an application exclusively. > >>> That is, what's the best way to ensure great user experience for > >>> demanding apps, such as games, without pausing all other processes. > > >>> Any ideas besides the permission thing, anyone? > > >>> Cheers > > >> -- > >> Romain Guy > >> Android framework engineer > >> romain...@android.com > > >> Note: please don't send private questions to me, as I don't have time > >> to provide private support. All such questions should be posted on > >> public forums, where I and others can see and answer them > > > -- > > Romain Guy > > Android framework engineer > > romain...@android.com > > > Note: please don't send private questions to me, as I don't have time > > to provide private support. All such questions should be posted on > > public forums, where I and others can see and answer them > > -- > Romain Guy > Android framework engineer > romain...@android.com > > Note: please don't send private questions to me, as I don't have time to > provide private support. All such questions should be posted on public > forums, where I and others can see and answer them > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Developers" group. To post to this group, send email to android-developers@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to android-developers-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
