Establish some hardware requirements.

[setec]

Yep. Got the .APK, downloaded it to an unbranded android tablet, 7", 256MB RAM, 2GB storage, running only OS 1.6, Kernel: 2.6.29-00236-g4f8dbbb-ditry, Build 1.8.2.

As expected, it won't install.

Message: Application not installed. Legends could not be installed on this device.

I wish I knew if it failed for just the OS version or not. Either way, going to look for a better android tablet I guess.


Another note:

Android 2.0 or later, OpenGL ES 1.1, and internet connectivity are all that's required to attempt to run it currently.

The Devs would know of course, but this website says 2.1 is minimum. Not sure if they got it from a STS press release or not.

I know there were some 2.0 versions even though 2.0 & 2.1 is Eclair. So, I should just look for a 2.1 or better to be safe?

Found a $150/$160 one here. Maybe this one sucks also.

[Futumsh]

It was 2.1 at the time the website was updated, we lowered the requirement to 2.0 in the version we opened the beta with.

[Futumsh]

1.6 will definately not run it, some of the input and graphic apis from 2.0 are used.

[jaturner]

I noticed some negative comments by users in the android market. One way to avoid people having negative impressions is by limiting what devices this is available to. I watched a friend try this out on an LG Ally and it was epic fail. Those things just don't have the guts to run this game at all.

Imho this should be available to the Droid series, galaxy s, and snapdragon or better. Exclude the Droid Eris. I wouldn't really make a big deal about it in the market description either, just change the listing so people with the right build.prop can see it.

I was just wondering how you got it to install at all on the LG Ally. My wife saw me playing it on my phone and wanted to try it out on hers (LG Ally). I couldn't find it in the market so I downloaded the apk and tried installing it with Astro File Manager and it always says:

"Out of space"
"Legends could not be viewed. Free up some space on your phone and try again."

So I uninstalled the few apps that she had on her phone and tried it again. Same error message.

I understand the experience will most likely suck if I install it, but right now I'm just curious as to why it will not install if someone else running the same phone was able to try it out.

[joshb86]

@shadywack

I'm an android developer myself and only know of limiting by minimal SDK version, screen size, and features. If there is a way to limit by hardware I'd like to know myself... If it's only possible by using the NDK then I'm not as interested.

[shadywack]

I was just wondering how you got it to install at all on the LG Ally. My wife saw me playing it on my phone and wanted to try it out on hers (LG Ally). I couldn't find it in the market so I downloaded the apk and tried installing it with Astro File Manager and it always says:

"Out of space"
"Legends could not be viewed. Free up some space on your phone and try again."

So I uninstalled the few apps that she had on her phone and tried it again. Same error message.

I understand the experience will most likely suck if I install it, but right now I'm just curious as to why it will not install if someone else running the same phone was able to try it out.

I never installed it. I just saw comments in the market from people who apparently did and got FC's and all kinds of misery. Here's what's funny to me though about Android vs iOS. A whole bunch of iOS devices are armv6 based, like ipod touch 2nd gen, and they run PL "ok". Android devices that are based on armv6 are terrible at pretty much everything they try to do, which explains why Android didn't take off until we got armv7 devices.

I dunno, Futumsh is limited in the NDK and I totally agree with his reasoning. By carving out support for some armv7 devices they'd be alienating tons of users on phones that can run it perfectly fine. Requiring 2.2 also carves out tons of phones that could run it perfectly fine but have no upgrade path and are stuck on 2.1 because of the device manufacturer.

It's kind of a difficult place to be in for this kind of app. The best they can do is see how it performs and then throw a disclaimer out there. I know that Adobe and Google have some device specific attributes they are using in their androidmanifest file, but I can't tell what that is and it isn't documented.

[kronos]

Android 2.0 or later, OpenGL ES 1.1, and internet connectivity are all that's required to attempt to run it currently.

Is there any chance, that devs will ease the requirements to OpenGL 1.0? I think that's the main problem why it doesn't run on first generation of Android phones (eg. my HTC Magic). As far as I know most of the features of 1.1 are available through extensions for 1.0, which most phones support anyway (with different limits).

Here's my OpenGL info (generated by glInfo app) for reference:

Android Device
   HTC / sapphire / HTC Magic
   2.2 / armeabi
OpenGL Version
   OpenGL ES 1.0-CM
OpenGL Vendor
   QUALCOMM, Inc.
OpenGL Renderer
   Q3Dimension MSM7500 01.02.08 0 4.0.0
OpenGL Extensions
   ARB_texture_env_combine
   ARB_texture_env_crossbar
   ARB_texture_env_dot3
   ARB_texture_mirrored_repeat
   ARB_vertex_buffer_object
   ATI_extended_texture_coordinate_data_formats
   ATI_imageon_misc
   ATI_texture_compression_atitc
   EXT_blend_equation_separate
   EXT_blend_func_separate
   EXT_blend_minmax
   EXT_blend_subtract
   EXT_stencil_wrap
   OES_byte_coordinates
   OES_compressed_paletted_texture
   OES_draw_texture
   OES_fixed_point
   OES_matrix_palette
   OES_point_size_array
   OES_point_sprite
   OES_read_format
   OES_single_precision
   OES_vertex_buffer_object
   QUALCOMM_direct_texture
   QUALCOMM_vertex_buffer_object
Limits OpenGL 1.0
   ALIASED_LINE_WIDTH_RANGE = 1,1
   ALIASED_POINT_SIZE_RANGE = 1,32
   MAX_ELEMENTS_INDICES = 65536
   MAX_ELEMENTS_VERTICES = 65536
   MAX_LIGHTS = 8
   MAX_MODELVIEW_STACK_DEPTH = 16
   MAX_PROJECTION_STACK_DEPTH = 2
   MAX_TEXTURE_SIZE = 1024
   MAX_TEXTURE_STACK_DEPTH = 2
   MAX_TEXTURE_UNITS = 2
   MAX_VIEWPORT_DIMS = 320,455
   SMOOTH_LINE_WIDTH_RANGE = 1,1
   SMOOTH_POINT_SIZE_RANGE = 1,32
   SUBPIXEL_BITS = 2
Limits OpenGL 1.1
   MAX_CLIP_PLANES = 0
Limits OpenGL 1.1 Ext
   MAX_COLOR_ATTACHMENTS_OES = 0
   MAX_CUBE_MAP_TEXTURE_SIZE = 0
   MAX_PALETTE_MATRICES_OES = 48
   MAX_RENDERBUFFER_SIZE_OES = 0
   MAX_VERTEX_UNITS_OES = 4
Display Resolution
   Pixels = 320 x 480
   DPIs = 180.62222 x 181.97015
Display Configurations
   Standard
      00: R5G6B5
      04: R5G5B5A1
      01: R5G6B5 S4
      05: R5G5B5A1 S4
      02: R5G6B5 D16
      06: R5G5B5A1 D16
      03: R5G6B5 D16 S4
      07: R5G5B5A1 D16 S4
   Non Conformant
      08: R4G4B4A4
      09: R4G4B4A4 S4
      10: R4G4B4A4 D16
      11: R4G4B4A4 D16 S4
      12: R8G8B8A8
      13: R8G8B8A8 S4
      14: R8G8B8A8 D16
      15: R8G8B8A8 D16 S4
   Slow
      16: R5G6B5 Native
      17: R5G6B5 D16 Native
      18: R8G8B8 Native
      19: R8G8B8 D16 Native
      20: R8G8B8A8 Native
      21: R8G8B8A8 D16 Native
      22: A8 Native
      23: A8 D16 Native
Compressed Texture Formats
   Reported
      8b90: PALETTE4_RGB8_OES
      8b91: PALETTE4_RGBA8_OES
      8b92: PALETTE4_R5_G6_B5_OES
      8b93: PALETTE4_RGBA4_OES
      8b94: PALETTE4_RGB5_A1_OES
      8b95: PALETTE8_RGB8_OES
      8b96: PALETTE8_RGBA8_OES
      8b97: PALETTE8_R5_G6_B5_OES
      8b98: PALETTE8_RGBA4_OES
      8b99: PALETTE8_RGB5_A1_OES
EGL Vendor & Version
   Android
   1.4 Android META-EGL
EGL Extensions
   ANDROID_get_render_buffer
   ANDROID_image_native_buffer
   ANDROID_swap_rectangle
   KHR_image
   KHR_image_base
   KHR_image_pixmap

thx
- Kronos

[permifry]

i vote for the opengl 1.0 argument as well plz