Problems with some Android games on Tegra 4 processor.

[geoyou]

My nephews have tablets with the Tegra 4 processor but certain Android games just stopped working correctly on them. For instance, both Roblox and Hungry Shark Evolution worked just fine but after the games were updated (these were forced updates, you couldn't play the games unless you updated via Play Store) they don't work right or work at all.

For example. Roblox crashed when you select "Play" with an error that it can't write to frame or something. Hungry Shark Evolution works but the shark and other creatures/characters in game are look like black shadows (no color at all).

For comparison sake, these games run just fine on the much weaker Nextbook Ares 8. Does anyone know what's going on or how to fix this?

 

[IM0001]

Being that the graphics rendering for the Tegra GPU's is different than other GPU's used by most other devices, it isn't uncommon for some apps to have issues on this and other Tegra powered devices, however it is strange that a dev would update the app and break rendering when it was previous working. Not like Tegra isn't still relevant considering the Tegra 4/K/X are all still used.

I would contact the dev for the apps and see if you can bring the issue to their attention as it previously worked. Also have you tried removing the app completely and reinstalling it just to be sure?

 

[geoyou]

Yup. Tried uninstalling, rebooting, then reinstalling. Nothing changes.

The funny thing is, another Roblox player with a Tegra 4 tablet has the exact same error. So it's definitely not just my nephews tablets. I saw the post in the Roblox forum, but there is no solution to it.

 

[IM0001]

It could also be partially due to the OS version. If you are on KitKat, some older games will work just fine, but once you upgrade to 5.1 (I don't recommend this on this tablet), then some newer games may now work, but older ones will no longer work.

Then the Tegra limit is still there, but it is less common now then it was a year or so ago. Really since Android is only now getting a little closer to feature parity between hardware with things like OpenGLES 3.1 and Vulkan with 6.0/7.0, any games built with that on should be ok on a lot more hardware in the long run. (pending the hardware supports it as well of course.)