Haven’t been able to find this one out.
How are Bitmaps stored in memory in Android? More specifically what I’m looking for is, does it store the information pixel by pixel, or does it use any sort of algorithm to reduce the number of stored pixels, like storing a single pixel and a number for how many times to repeat it in a row. I’m wondering about this because we’re having trouble fitting all the images we want into our game. If it does use some sort of algorithm, then we can do something to the original image to cut down on memory consumption, right?
Bitmaps are stored compressed, but you pretty much can’t display one without assembling the pixels at some point. Your best bet is probably to save your limited CPU heap and push your images into the GPU as compressed OpenGL ES textures.
Additional:
Have a look at Displaying Bitmaps Efficiently. Also recycle your bitmaps if it helps.