Device targeting lets you deliver different versions (e.g. resolutions, etc.) of the same asset to devices based on their hardware. For example, you may choose to deliver low resolution assets to lower end devices to improve performance, and deliver high resolution assets to higher end devices to improve graphic quality - all without incurring any increase in overall game size by only delivering the necessary assets to users' devices. This builds upon the concept of asset packs in Play Asset Delivery. As you'll see later, you have the power to define the group criteria (for now based on RAM, specific device models, available system features, and system on chip).
Device targeting configuration file
To get started with device targeting, create a device targeting configuration file. Instructions can be found in the documentation for device targeting.
Use device targeting for your asset packs
Once you have created your configuration file, you can subdivide your asset packs by device groups.
The exact steps required are different depending on whether you are building your app with the Android Gradle Plugin or with the Play Unity Plugin. Before proceeding, select your build setup:
Take the existing asset pack
directories created and post-fix the appropriate folders
(as described below) with #group_myCustomGroup1, #group_myCustomGroup2, etc.
When using the asset packs in your app, you won't need to address folders by
postfix (in other words, the postfix is automatically stripped during the build
process).
After the previous step, this might look like:
...
.../asset-pack-name/src/main/assets/level#group_myCustomGroup1/
.../asset-pack-name/src/main/assets/level#group_myCustomGroup2/
...
In this example, you would reference asset-pack-name/assets/level/
without any postfixes.
Devices in myCustomGroup1 will receive all the assets under
level#group_myCustomGroup1/, while devices in myCustomGroup2 will
receive all the assets under level#group_myCustomGroup2/.
Devices that don't belong to either myCustomGroup1 or myCustomGroup2 will
receive an empty asset-pack-name pack.
This is because devices that don't match any device group will receive the
default variant of your asset pack, which includes everything that is either
inside the level#group_other folder or not inside any directory with a
#group_suffix.