Game runs good on low end android devices but runs slow on high end devices like Samsung A500G?

Hi,

While developing I am testing my 2D game on Asus Zenfone 4, Samsung GT series and other low end mobiles. The game runs smoothly.

But recently, I tested the game on Samsung A500G ( higher config than my previous mobiles) and I wondered, the game runs very slow (laggy). I have tried many options in Quality and Graphics settings but the result is same.

Is it GPU vs CPU?

Why game runs smooth on low end device but runs slow on high end device.?

 

Which one is the A500? I can't find decent specs.

If it has Adreno 305, then it's roughly on par with Zenfone 4 (and zenfone has a pretty low resolution screen, which could mean your game is fillrate bound)

 

On this spec game runs very very slow (not even playable) , but on lower end device it runs smooth

Mobile - Samsung SM-A500G
OS: Android OS, v4.4.4 (KitKat), upgradable to v5.0.2 (Lollipop)
Chipset: Qualcomm MSM8916 Snapdragon 410
CPU: Quad-core 1.2 GHz Cortex-A53
GPU: Adreno 306

 

Go to your build settings -> Player Settings -> Untick 'Auto Graphics API', make sure OpenGLES2 is added and remove OpenGLES3

Now build your apk and it should now run smooth on higher end devices

 

The whole point is Unity need to fix this, so we do not have to do this workaround. But I bet it will help..

 

Indeed they do, I'm still waiting for the Android splash screen to be fixed!

 

AFAIK, isn't it more of an issue with devices "supporting" GLES 3, but having really terrible performance and terrible drivers?

 

Great.. Thanks, it worked.

But the option look so hidden and mysterious... need to be fixed by Unity ?.

 

Not sure, then if there some official response and announcement then I would understand. But its guess work now.

 

HOLY DUCKING SHIZ

this topic ... hours wasted trying to figure out what the duck was causing such piss poor performance, and weeks ignoring doing any development on my mobile game.. only to try out this solution..

like wtf unity!!! was 10fps, now back to 60fps... time to start enabling everything again

I would never have known about this issue with gles3 being so crap for performance on newer devices.

 

fyi it looks like the Screen.SetResolution code I had, started working with gles2.0 on the device, while SetResolution did not work with gles3.0.. my device native is 1080p, while the SetResolution I was using was at 720p, so the performance gain I got was because mainly because of that I think.

 

well, I came around this and I had hope, but removing GL 3 actually made my game lose another 5 fps, so I had to re add it. So your mileage may vary :/

 

That's not a bad thing. It means Unity's support of ES 3.0 and driver quality has improved. Also if you're doing slightly complicated stuff, ES 3.0 should be faster.

 

OMG... this still works in 2021. Game runs a lot smoother on high-end devices using just OpenGLES2.

 

Removing OpenGLES3 still doesn't explain why the game runs smoothly on much older and weaker device(LG G5), and runs slower (with hiccup/shuttering) on a newer high-end device(S9+). - because both devices support OpenGLES3.

 

It does actually. Although I don't know that device, early GLES 3.0 support was super hacky and slow and mobiles had bad drivers, which were never really updated.

The real issue is:

The worse performance in newer devices is kinda worrying. Are you sure your game is the exact same in both gles2.0 and 3.0? Are there maybe stuff that change? (post FX that don't work? shaders that fallback to simpler shaders?)

 

It's exactly the same, I uploaded the game to google play and downloaded it from there into both devices. After that loaded the same scene - smooth gameplay on older LG G5, constant stuttering/hiccups on the newer Galaxy S9+.

 

The only difference I saw between GLES2 TO GLES3 is with transparency - objects with transparent texture where like very low resolution and were like smearing a little in GLES2. But that's all.

 

BTW I meant That the game runs smoother on the LG G5 with GLES3 added (and is first in the hierarchy) on both devices. Removing GLES3 only removes the hiccups on the S9+. Sorry for the confusion.