Graphics acceleration: building a list
Published by Steve Litchfield at 19:32 UTC, December 14th 2008
Can you help me? I'm preparing a feature on graphics acceleration in S60 phones and am trying to build up a list of advantages and (specifically) software that only runs well (or at all) on devices with graphics acceleration. Read on if you can help...
So, for example, the game Oval Racer runs like a dream on devices with hardware graphics acceleration (the N93, E90, N82, N95 and N95 8GB) but is down to a few frames per second on other devices. Mobitubia can play back YouTube videos ate full frame rate WHILE DOWNLOADING them in the background on accelerated devices, but fails to play them at all during download on 'normal' phones (and only at a low frame rate after downloading).
I need help though. There are only so many hours in the day. Is there a favourite game or media application that you've used which illustrates the difference between graphics acceleration and its absence? Your comments welcome and, if there's enough of them, I'll be able to build a feature article that draws the whole subject together.
Right now, only the aforementioned small set of Nokia S60 devices and Apple iPhone have graphics acceleration, as far as I know.
Steve Litchfield, AAS, 14 Dec 2008
Categories: Miscellaneous
Platforms: S60 3rd Edition
News Discussion
srw985
Pretty sure the Samsung i8510 is accellerated.
slitchfield
You're right, it is, I've just checked and Oval Racer runs at full speed on it 8-) Anyway, back to software and features.....?
Unregistered
N93i
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global race
Unregistered
The N95 used hardware acceleration for the multimedia menu. HW acceleration allowed it to apply effects to images used as the background whilst maintaining smooth scrolling. Compare this to the basic multimedia menu now used in newer Nokia devices and the difference is clear.
Unregistered
Also, the better Quake ports can't be played on phones that don't have HW acceleration.
I look forward to your article, Steve. Something to shut up those people who say 3D hardware is useless.
I look forward to your article, Steve. Something to shut up those people who say 3D hardware is useless.
Kazutoyo
Quake 1, 2 and 3 has been ported to S60. Quake 3 lack any kind of software rendering and will only run if one got the hardware for it.
The S60 phones with MBX hardware (or MBX Lite) are N82, N93, N95, N95 8GB, E90, Samsung i550, Samsung i7710 and Samsung i8510.
The Nokia phones use OMAP 2420 and the Samsung phones OMAP 2430.
The N96 got some 3D hardware too, using the STn8815 chip, but unfortunately it seems to be incompatible with OpenGL ES 1.x or something, cause S60 seems to be unable to use it properly.
EDIT: Just stumbled upon this article, it's about an app recently released for the iPhone but is related to graphic acceleration.
The S60 phones with MBX hardware (or MBX Lite) are N82, N93, N95, N95 8GB, E90, Samsung i550, Samsung i7710 and Samsung i8510.
The Nokia phones use OMAP 2420 and the Samsung phones OMAP 2430.
The N96 got some 3D hardware too, using the STn8815 chip, but unfortunately it seems to be incompatible with OpenGL ES 1.x or something, cause S60 seems to be unable to use it properly.
EDIT: Just stumbled upon this article, it's about an app recently released for the iPhone but is related to graphic acceleration.
Unregistered
Suggest you call the folks at Imagination Technologies / PowerVR. Perhaps you should go to Kings Langley and pay them a visit, try Dave Harold for more details....
The POWERVR SGX™ graphics IP core family provides a powerful and flexible solution for all forms of next-generation embedded multimedia processing, including 3D, 2D and vector graphics, advanced anti-aliasing and image processing. POWERVR SGX has been adopted by the market leaders for the next generation of SoC application processors.
POWERVR MBX™ is the de facto standard for mobile 3D, 2D and vector graphics acceleration and is being used today by the majority of leading semiconductor companies for their mobile graphics solutions. It has been deployed in over 100 products, with over 100 million units shipped.
The POWERVR SGX™ graphics IP core family provides a powerful and flexible solution for all forms of next-generation embedded multimedia processing, including 3D, 2D and vector graphics, advanced anti-aliasing and image processing. POWERVR SGX has been adopted by the market leaders for the next generation of SoC application processors.
POWERVR MBX™ is the de facto standard for mobile 3D, 2D and vector graphics acceleration and is being used today by the majority of leading semiconductor companies for their mobile graphics solutions. It has been deployed in over 100 products, with over 100 million units shipped.
slitchfield
Anyone know if the raw video recording in the cameras on these models is also aided by graphics acceleration? Or is this something encoded within the camera electronics?
Unregistered
Not necessarily by the PowerVR graphics accelerator but the camera images might benefit from the DSP and imaging and video accelerator of the OMAP2420 that those phones come with.
elaverick
Quote:
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Originally Posted by slitchfield
Anyone know if the raw video recording in the cameras on these models is also aided by graphics acceleration? Or is this something encoded within the camera electronics?
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http://www.khronos.org/registry/gles...pec.1.1.12.pdf
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This games runs extremely well with graphic acceleration like N95, but is choppy on N85.
m80116
I do think that 3D acceleration and video acceleration are two different things.
Devices like Nokia N95 should have both. OpenGL acceleration chip (for which you can run OpenGL graphics) and what I suppose to be a different thing: video acceleration chip. If you use a program like Y-Tasks Trace to track CPU Time usage you can spot that while playing .MP4 files (MPEG-4 or AVC) the CPU usage usually keeps following the flat bottom end graph line, meaning to me that the CPU has been freed from cycles then charged onto the video acceleration chip.
I don't have though any official documents tu support this, it's just my presumption based on analystic work on my device.
Devices like Nokia N95 should have both. OpenGL acceleration chip (for which you can run OpenGL graphics) and what I suppose to be a different thing: video acceleration chip. If you use a program like Y-Tasks Trace to track CPU Time usage you can spot that while playing .MP4 files (MPEG-4 or AVC) the CPU usage usually keeps following the flat bottom end graph line, meaning to me that the CPU has been freed from cycles then charged onto the video acceleration chip.
I don't have though any official documents tu support this, it's just my presumption based on analystic work on my device.
blue13x
-The System Rush evolution demo included with the N95 (not the Ngage version, the Demo)
-The Nokia E3 demo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUOqR_2sACk
-The Nokia E3 demo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUOqR_2sACk
blue13x
Also worth noting in this article that I wrote: http://www.thenokiaguide.com/my_webl...-released.html
that the System rush evolution demo DOES uses 3D hardware, while the Ngage (pay version) doesn't, as a result the DEMO version looks alot better graphics wise.
that the System rush evolution demo DOES uses 3D hardware, while the Ngage (pay version) doesn't, as a result the DEMO version looks alot better graphics wise.
fernando20
Oh I had forgotten about that E3 app, that was cool.
Shame, Nokia showed so much promise with the next gen N-Gage, always showing hardware accelerated phones on shows and stuff. Check the http://futurewatch.n-gage.com/flash.html site for more screenshots of the now lost hardware accelerated System Rush.
Shame, Nokia showed so much promise with the next gen N-Gage, always showing hardware accelerated phones on shows and stuff. Check the http://futurewatch.n-gage.com/flash.html site for more screenshots of the now lost hardware accelerated System Rush.
Caeleth
A few months back there was a polish guy, that showed off a short piece of a game port, called....
Doom3! It only consisted of one space of the Doom universe, in which a kind of robot was walking slowly up and down and something else hung in the air, at which you could take a shot.
Too bad, there wasn't any follow-up, but it looked quite impressive on my N95 8gb!
Same goes for the 3D-version of Assassin's Creed and One (ngage). They look impressive as well, although I personally think the mobile platform doesn't lend itself very well for these type of games. (the buttons are way too small for proper use). But it's an achievement nevertheless!
Doom3! It only consisted of one space of the Doom universe, in which a kind of robot was walking slowly up and down and something else hung in the air, at which you could take a shot.
Too bad, there wasn't any follow-up, but it looked quite impressive on my N95 8gb!
Same goes for the 3D-version of Assassin's Creed and One (ngage). They look impressive as well, although I personally think the mobile platform doesn't lend itself very well for these type of games. (the buttons are way too small for proper use). But it's an achievement nevertheless!
argh
Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D looks much better on a 3D accelerated device, seen here.
From the website of the developers here, it looks like it's set to come out on N-Gage soon (I think that NGI is the new N-Gage platform?) - probably when the SDK supporting accelerated 3D is released.
From the website of the developers here, it looks like it's set to come out on N-Gage soon (I think that NGI is the new N-Gage platform?) - probably when the SDK supporting accelerated 3D is released.
Unregistered
Just got a new N85 upgrading from my N95 8GB. I'm addicted to FIFA 08 and the N85's performance is noticably laggy playing this game - to the point of not being as fun. I read somewhere that N95 8gb has hardware accelration and the N85 doesn't which explains this.
slitchfield
Exactly. I'm of the impression that Nokia have made a big mistake dropping hardware graphics acceleration for their latest devices. They had a superb platform in the N93, N82, N95 etc and have produced a year's worth of devices which are effectively *downgrades* from what went before..... 8-(
bchliu
From my understanding.. apps that use 3D Acceleration
All versions of Quake
Global race
Crash Bandicoot
Demo System Rush
Panda Manda (Technobubble games)
Knights of the Dark Age (TechnoBubble games)
FIFA 07 (not sure about the later versions though)
The thing about 3D is that its not only for games - shaders and effects can be used on 2D as well. It will make the OS go from an average OS to a very pretty and good looking one.
All versions of Quake
Global race
Crash Bandicoot
Demo System Rush
Panda Manda (Technobubble games)
Knights of the Dark Age (TechnoBubble games)
FIFA 07 (not sure about the later versions though)
The thing about 3D is that its not only for games - shaders and effects can be used on 2D as well. It will make the OS go from an average OS to a very pretty and good looking one.
Unregistered
On a related note, Macworld is reporting that Microsoft released an application (Seadragon) that allows users to view Photosynth libraries on their iPhones. The developer specifically referenced the iPhone's GPU.
BS noB!
Hi,
the OMAP2 chip is really extraordinary, but the support is really poor!
The Nokia E3 demo: youtube.com/watch?v=fUOqR_2sACk
If you look for the excellent demo for your device you'll got crazy, but it's (still) very well hidden here:
forum.nokia.com/info/sw.nokia.com/id/25d65d0e-7b30-4763-85e5-b9d1dbbfe9e8/Best_Practices_for_HW_Accelerated_Graphics_Optimiz ation_v1_0_en.zip.html
in the file
forum.nokia.com/info/sw.nokia.com/id/25d65d0e-7b30-4763-85e5-b9d1dbbfe9e8/Best_Practices_for_HW_Accelerated_Graphics_Optimiz ation_v1_0_en.zip.html
Install the << Nokia_E3_demo.SIS >> and Enjoy :-))
- key 2: FPS display
- key 5: Paure & Un-Pause
- key 6: Menue
WHY Nokia why must this cool demo be buried that deep?
BS noB!
the OMAP2 chip is really extraordinary, but the support is really poor!
The Nokia E3 demo: youtube.com/watch?v=fUOqR_2sACk
If you look for the excellent demo for your device you'll got crazy, but it's (still) very well hidden here:
forum.nokia.com/info/sw.nokia.com/id/25d65d0e-7b30-4763-85e5-b9d1dbbfe9e8/Best_Practices_for_HW_Accelerated_Graphics_Optimiz ation_v1_0_en.zip.html
in the file
forum.nokia.com/info/sw.nokia.com/id/25d65d0e-7b30-4763-85e5-b9d1dbbfe9e8/Best_Practices_for_HW_Accelerated_Graphics_Optimiz ation_v1_0_en.zip.html
Install the << Nokia_E3_demo.SIS >> and Enjoy :-))
- key 2: FPS display
- key 5: Paure & Un-Pause
- key 6: Menue
WHY Nokia why must this cool demo be buried that deep?
BS noB!
m80116
After reading your article I'am quite upset at how Nokia managed to strip that game (SRE) of its wonderful graphics. Fortunately I haven't paid yet for the full version... of which I would now seek the original non n-gage release.
I thought it might be 3D accelerated becasue it runs so smooth but then it's not. Too bad Nokia.
I thought it might be 3D accelerated becasue it runs so smooth but then it's not. Too bad Nokia.