Saturday, March 1, 2003
3D Acceleration Coming To Mobile Devices
Posted by Janak Parekh in "HARDWARE" @ 11:00 AM
"Lured by the siren call of mammoth shipments for cellular handsets, graphics companies will come to the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Jose, Calif., next week to ponder technology game plans for the phone-based game market. There are choices to be made as mobile gaming drives mainstream 3-D graphics into new low-power, high-integration and real-time territory."
I find this quote particularly compelling:
"Although the first-generation 3-D videogames for handsets will render 3-D graphics in Java or software game engines, mobile-phone makers will start integrating 3-D graphics hardware acceleration in their handsets as early as next year, analysts said. Between now and then, there are decisions to be made."
I for one would drool at the prospect of true hardware-based 3D in a handheld device. The million-dollar question is, of course, how to best deal with battery life--we can't wait for near-mythic fuel cells to become reality first, and as such, the article refers to ARM-based graphics chips that are a compromise between rendering power and battery consumption.
I find this quote particularly compelling:
"Although the first-generation 3-D videogames for handsets will render 3-D graphics in Java or software game engines, mobile-phone makers will start integrating 3-D graphics hardware acceleration in their handsets as early as next year, analysts said. Between now and then, there are decisions to be made."
I for one would drool at the prospect of true hardware-based 3D in a handheld device. The million-dollar question is, of course, how to best deal with battery life--we can't wait for near-mythic fuel cells to become reality first, and as such, the article refers to ARM-based graphics chips that are a compromise between rendering power and battery consumption.
