Mobile 3D Graphics SoC: From Algorithm to Chip

8

The Future of Mobile 3D Graphics

8.1 Game and Mapping Applications Involving Networking

Key applications of mobile 3D graphics in the future will be games and mapping, just as these are already very popular in typical PCs and game consoles. Users have experienced the rich graphics scenes of many fantastic 3D games, so it is easy to imagine the demand for comparable 3D graphics quality in mobile devices, despite their small screen size. Early mobile 3D games used only a software game engine with limited graphics capabilities. Users were satisfied with just running a 3D game on a small screen. However, recently many hardware architectures have been proposed and commercialized for mobile 3D graphics applications. Today's graphics power of a premium mobile device is comparable to that of PCs and game consoles of a few years ago. By adopting HW acceleration in mobile 3D graphics, we can now extend the experience of PCs and game consoles to mobile devices.

In mapping applications such as car navigation devices, the transition from simple 2D bitmaps to complete 3D modeling is already occurring. The modeling of geographical information using 3D graphics is very useful. Roads and buildings can be located in x, y, and z coordinates. Users can see the whole of the Earth through the Google Map application, which uses texture mapping to show details of land and oceans.

These popular applications will be enhanced with the help of networking capabilities. Many people are already connected through ...