General

[MDaveUK]

96Mb is the maximum amount of memory an app/game created with the suite can use, is it me or does that seem a little bit ... small? When the devices that can run these apps have 512MB ram minimum?

How much memory does the Mono VM and its related API's use? 

It would be a shame if we can't take full advantage of the hardware, especially for the more powerful devices that will no doubt come later this year and the next.

Will we see this increase? At least for Vita? It has 512MB ram and 128MB VRAM! 

[wxtry_vita]

yeah , the memory limitation sucks. but i guess that this limit is just for beta. anyway , the pss is still in beta test.

[MartinCaine]

I can imagine the memory limit is set low to accomodate devices like the Xperia Play. You also have to be aware however that other apps will still be using memory while your own game is executing so you can't always access the full 512MB even if you were running a game written using the full SDK+devkit.

[alxpwn]

MartinCaine is right, also memory isn't everything. Imagine you need to develop for things like PSP with 32Mb/24Mb useable and still people manage to make stunning games for it, or PS3 with just 256 Mb. If developing for such devices, some things change, that is especially the handeling of resources.. It might work on a PC to stuff everything into memory, but not on a mobile device.

96Mb is a lot if you handel it right, and does not mean you can just write crap games. All you need to do is carefully work with resources, be happy you not have to watch for a tiny graphics bus or similar too.

[phattyboomsticks]

I used to play some great Amiga games with 1 MB of memory

[CBtom12]

I also think that the memory limitation isn't a dealbreaker here...

In fact it drives people to make the most of the available resources... and when resources are limited... it's actually beneficial to the quality of the code...

The reason why we struggle now-a-days browsing the Internet on 1GB RAM devices is because we aren't used to coding RAM / CPU efficiently anymore... we think "oh we got more than enough resources anyway, no need to optimize the code" - and look what happened...

You sure remember the Windows Vista start...? Or how people moaned about early Firefox versions?

The sad fact is, older machines with older operating systems do a better job than new RAM-filled systems because they are simply more efficiently coded, to fit the "harsh environment".

That's why I feel like kicking my computer when I boot Windows 7 (compared to Ubuntu Linux).

[MDaveUK]

Oh yeah, I agree that 96MB is proabably going to be fine if the Xperia Play was going to be the biggest platform for Playstation suite apps/games, but I really don't think it will be. In all honesty, I think the cap has been set a bit low because of how old the Xperia play is, in terms of smart phone old. I don't see a lot of people playing our PSS developed games and apps on the Xperia play to be honest. Still, even for that device, 96MB is small. It can handle Unity games really well, considering how old it is. And Unity will be strong competitor there, for xperia play developed games.

I see the Vita as the biggest platform for the suite, because of the nature of the device, and how long its shelf live will be.

Hence why I think, as nice as the xperia play is, I think we should have much more RAM to play around with for the Vita.

Surely the vita doesn't need 416MB ram for the OS, system libaries and Mono VM?

256MB for PSS for Vita and I'll be happy it'll be far easier to port Unity games over.

And if we have the RAM available, why not use it?

[Xenostar]

Is there anyway to see current memory usage?

Is this limit just for textures and sfx or does music eat into this as well?

[Goofear]

uhm, 96mb is too low, i'm developing a game for VITA and i need at least 200mb.

it' impossible to develop a game different from Angry Birds with this memory...

@Xenostar -> Try System.GC.

[TheRealSerapth]

I have to say, this seems like a pretty contrived limitation.  I had the predecessor to the worst PlayStation certified device ( the Xperia X10i ) and it had 384MB I believe.  I can understand a limit, but 96MB feels far too low, like a way to artifically throttle what PS Suite is capable of.  I really hope this isn't the case in the end.