With game development you always create your assets at a higher spec than your final product. So if in the final game you're using models with 2k texture maps and 20k polys you're probably making it at like 4k and millions of polys. So scaling the assets down even further isn't that hard of a thing to do. I mean shit where I'm at now we kind of had to do something like that. The hardware specs of a project we were on dropped drastically 3/4 of the way through development. An adjustment to texture res, some key reduction, and pulling a shit ton of polys out of the models got it running. If you're code base is the same, and you're using chips from the same family just different "power" levels making a game that runs on both is going to be really easy. The 4DS version ships with assets at one level of detail, while having the engine shoot for say 720p and 30fps, and the Super Nintendo 2 version ships with assets at a higher level of detail and the engine shooting for 1080p and 60fps. You also might lower the level of accuracy on your shaders, maybe the number of NPCs gets set lower, etc. Its a lot easier than say porting which is what needs to be done now. This is literally saying use assets B or A, and changing "settings" in your engine.
The gulf isn't as big as it once was between console and mobile chips. Granted its not small either, but you have the Adreno 530 set to come out in a few months that will have more GFlops than the Wii U and about 1/3 ish the flops of the PS4 GPU, and like almost half that of the X1.
Granted its been the 2D titles but, I can play something like Guacamelee or Dragons Crown on my PS4/3, and upload the save to the cloud and continue it on my Vita. So this kind of thing isn't unheard of and I think if the Vita and PS4 had similar architecture you'd see more of it.
I don't think people realize that most studios are developing assets at way higher levels of detail then what the final product is going to be.
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