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medevo · 06-04-05, 02:31 PM

Originally Posted by jefflins

I've seen speculation that the next gen of games will support, but that sounds a bit suspicious...

What else supports the graphics chip?

This "Next Gen" of games is the era of OpenGL ES / Mobile Directx games that will start to drip out in the next 12 or so months. Both of these programming platforms closely mirror the desktop equivalents, in an attempt to encourage ports of Windows/Apple programs. While OpenGL ES isn’t new, the x50v is the only consumer level device that supports more then half the standard, so most developers are waiting for more devices to support it. Directx will be a huge boost when it is released with Windows Mobile 5.0 as it will set a minimum standard that is VGA, 3D, and powerful. I doubt companies will release products under WM5 without at least a 2D chip, as supposedly the graphics card is used to help render the operating system and not including one, while not slowing anything down that much, would make the system appear quite sluggish.

Much like the introduction of Directx 8.1, when it first came out, there was only 1 expensive card that supported shaders, but within a few months, all but the lowest end of cards included some from of shader support. It took another 6 months from when hardware support for shaders was available to when they were being integrated into most games.

IMO the cycle we are looking at is

Revolutionary Hardware(X50v/2700G, now) -> Software Support(WM5.0, third quarter) ->Widespread Hardware distribution (2700G and others, Q3-Q4)->Supporting products (Games etc, Q4-Q1 2006)

Medevo

If you want to see some 3D action sooner then that, the programming tools to create 3D OpenGL ES applications for WM2003SE are 100% free and I can point you to the correct links if you PM me.