Android Marshmallow 6.0 - Lags - Should we support it?

[RyanC]

Hi all,

I've noticed over the past month that the os version 6.0 Marshmallow is exactly that... An absolute marshmallow of an operating system when it comes to games, even on well known titles with over 10 million downloads.

The following performance issue happens on all devices I've tested on that run Marshmallow. This information is also all over the net too:

After about 30 seconds in nearly all games the game starts to lag, or looks like it's suffering from a frame rate drop.
It then does this on and off randomly every minute or so.

I would like to just rule out supporting it completely but Marshmallow has nearly a 3rd of the Android market share!

 

[Regniwekim]

How noticeable is the lag? Is it something you can overcome with more efficient code?

You really can't afford not to support nearly a third of the Android platform.

 

[RyanC]

How noticeable is the lag? Is it something you can overcome with more efficient code?

You really can't afford not to support nearly a third of the Android platform.

Extremely choppy! optimized code won't make any difference, Marshmallow does this with really well known titles. I've downgraded my G3 to Lollipop and my game now works like a dream without lag.
This is a serious consideration for me, as I really do not want users blaming my game if they have Marshmallow running on their device that's even slightly less than say 2015 models.

It's as if they programmed it on purpose to introduce intermittent fps drops for models that are not very new, so users go out and buy new phones or something.

 

[ViceVersa]

Im on Noughat right now, and Im experiencing the exact same thing. I thought it was just my code (and very well might be), but there is 0 lag when testing it on windows, and the extremely noticable lag seems to occur about 30 seconds into the game on android

 

[Kenjiro]

30% is a pretty big market share to drop.

Not a huge Android user here though. So, this is a genuine question. What is the chances that people will upgrade from lower OS's up to Marshmallow? Is this likely to become a common practise?

 

[RyanC]

Im on Noughat right now, and Im experiencing the exact same thing. I thought it was just my code (and very well might be), but there is 0 lag when testing it on windows, and the extremely noticable lag seems to occur about 30 seconds into the game on android

Test on different Android versions, and ideally the version closest to default OS for each device. I've only noticed the issue on Marshmallow, however it's possible that it happens on devices that are running higher versions of the OS than their hardware was original built for. It's all a sales thing really, way of making customers upgrade and get worse performance, then think they need a new phone.

30% is a pretty big market share to drop.

Not a huge Android user here though. So, this is a genuine question. What is the chances that people will upgrade from lower OS's up to Marshmallow? Is this likely to become a common practise?

I'd say about 50/50 as the user is always prompted once a month or so to upgrade and the messages never leave them alone.

 

[Kenjiro]

In that case wouldn't the user base on that OS increase? Or would they more likely bypass and end up on the new OS?

 

[Bingdom]

I'd say about 50/50 as the user is always prompted once a month or so to upgrade and the messages never leave them alone.

Those are security patches and it's recommended to install them. That's not an "OS upgrade" and I think that only happens marshmallow and up.

In that case wouldn't the user base on that OS increase? Or would they more likely bypass and end up on the new OS?

Android devices only get upgrades for a certain amount of time. I think Google devices gets the latest OS up to ~18 months since release (Different manufacturers have different product lifespans, I think). A phone in 2013 wouldn't get Nougat unless you install a custom ROM (or something like that, I don't look into that sort of stuff).

A few people will still be on it for quite some time.

 

[Kenjiro]

Ah ok. I'm not really up to speed with how Android does it's thing.

 

[RyanC]

This really is an issue if we want to support Marshmallow / Nougat and avoid getting bad user reviews for users with slightly dated devices. ViceVersa may I ask what model of Android device you're running Nougat on?

 

[Kenjiro]

This really is an issue if we want to support Marshmallow / Nougat and avoid getting bad user reviews for users with slightly dated devices. ViceVersa may I ask what model of Android device you're running Nougat on?

That's up to you. Big chunk of the market to cut out though, by the looks of it.

You need to consider the people who upgrade the OS later on and suddenly your game breaks for them also. That will lead to potential negative reviews that you have no control over, in that instance.

 

[RangerX]

This is interesting.
What's the order of release of those OS ?
I am completely new to this and would like to understand this clearly before making an Android game.
Per example, when I look in my Android phone I see "Android 4.2.1" so.... I don't get it.

 

[Bingdom]

Each new update increases the version number. When a new major Android update comes out, it is named after a sweet. The first letter is in alphabetical order. (Android 3 was Honeycomb) Next major Android version will start with 'O'.

Since you have Android 4.2.x, you have jelly bean.

 

[RangerX]

Oh, thank you for this graph. Its pretty explicite.
And its very important to support the newer versions of the OS since more people probably have or will have it. Its REALLY weird though that a game can run worse on a newer OS though.