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State of 3d Graphics on Wireless Devices

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the i-want-my-3d dept.

An anonymous reader writes "This Computer Graphics World Magazine article discusses the current and future state of 3d graphics on wireless platforms. Apparently Japan is ahead of the game with a relatively standardized 3d render engine. Seems like the main use is for 3d virtual pets and the standard sort of games one might expect. What I'm waiting for is what I believe to be the next step; the one described in, oh, so many sci-fi novels... a personality for my handheld! Imagine, if you will, a personalized avatar or something that can interact with you and perhaps assist you in your daily endevours (with a touch of attitude?).."

29 of 137 comments (clear)

  1. 3d graphics?!?! by alwsn · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How about they build reasonable networks in the US first! Half the time when I ask "Can you hear me now?" I get a "what?" in reponse.

    Keep your 3d graphics, give me a phone that works well and consitantly first.

    1. Re:3d graphics?!?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      This are two complete different areas. There is nothing wrong with phone, the problem is the service providers who doesn't want to spend enough money for building good networks.

      3D graphics on your cell phone has nothing to do with service providers.

  2. Waiting by pubjames · · Score: 4, Funny

    What I'm waiting for is what I believe to be the next step; the one described in, oh, so many sci-fi novels... a personality for my handheld!

    What, are you nuts? A personality? What about huge bouncing boobies?

  3. Great.... by Seeth42 · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Imagine, if you will, a personalized avatar or something that can interact with you and perhaps assist you in your daily endevours (with a touch of attitude?).."

    Great. Clippy for my cell phone. Wonderful idea.

    1. Re:Great.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Clippy is infinately cooler than Tux will ever be.

  4. 3D graphics on wireless... by chunkwhite86 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Forget 3D on wireless, I just want decent 3D graphics on my PC!

    I really should replace my VooDoo 1 card someday... ;-)

    --
    I'd rather be a conservative nutjob than a liberal with no nuts and no job.
  5. What they really need... by kenthorvath · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...is Virtual Valerie CE. Well, that and an attachment to my other battery operated device...

  6. I'll sit this one out... by chunkwhite86 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'll sit this techno fad out...

    Let me know when I can play UT2003 on my cell phone using a 1280x1024 virtual screen that's projected straight into my retinas. Oh yeah, and wireless broadband net access of course. ;-)

    --
    I'd rather be a conservative nutjob than a liberal with no nuts and no job.
    1. Re:I'll sit this one out... by sleekus_geekus · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I definitly agree, I see little point in paying to be a test bed for a new shoddy technology that is yet to settle down into a some what steady predicitable state. Manafacturers still don't know what to aim for in a handheld device, and the ones that attempt an all in one solution don't do so well. The problem is size, I carry a modbile phone, keys and my wallet. I like my little phone, and my wallet fits in my back pocket real sweet. I am stuck with my keys (which I hate) until an alternative (and reliable) technology presents itself. What I'm getting at is that I don't want to add yet another item to my pocket collection, and a PDA with a screen size of a small mb ph can only do so much.

      --
      C3PO - We seem to be made to suffer. It's our lot in life.
    2. Re:I'll sit this one out... by unixbob · · Score: 2, Informative

      There's 3 aspects to this though. You can already get Doom for the Nokia 7650, and Quake for the iPaq. So 3D gaming for portables is already here. I've also heard a lot of games developers saying that they are looking at bluetooth to do multiplayer games on mobiles.

      As far as wireless broadband goes, (and this is probably massive flamebait), but it does amuse me how far behind the US is compared to the rest of the world on this. Already in the UK, GPRS is enabling up to 33,6k (or even maybe 56k, I'm not totally sure) for mobile phones. Which may not sound a lot, but in my experience 56k is plenty enough bandwidth for web browsing. And on the form factor of a mobile phone it's probably enough for streaming video.

      The only technology that is currently not available is the AI Avatar. To be honest I agree with the rest of the posts on here, after initial amusement that would just get plan irritating.

      I personally think that the best mobile technology to come out recently (after bluetooth) is the video phones that have just come on sale. Right now though it seems that no single device has the 3d gaming ability, bluetooth, videophone, PDA abilities. Lots of devices have some of these (plus some other useless crap) but nothing seems to completely fit the bill. Which is pretty cool because manufacturers are trying out lots of new ideas. I think in twelve months we are going to have an absolutely rocking mobile platform as the gimmicks fall by the wayside and the good ideas converge into the mainstream. Well, in the UK anyway. :)

      --
      The Romans didn't find algebra very challenging, because X was always 10
  7. Don't hold your breath for while waiting for AI by robslimo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Until computers/processors begin to approach the complexity of the human brain, you can forget about ...a personality for my handheld! unless you're willing to settle for a souped-up 3D cousin to Clippy(tm).

    The level of present 'chatterbots' doesn't even live up to their lowly title.

    See www.chatterboxchallenge.com and cry for real AI

  8. Not a good idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'm saddened that it appears ALL the new wireless phones coming out are active matrix color screens. I personally would prefer form over fashion in this case, and would be happy with a conventional indiglo type displace.

    The benefit: greatly increased battery life. Even with the new-fangled lithium-polymer (and soon to be proton-polymer) technology, the full color display are batter wasters!

  9. Choose your personal avatar... by azzy · · Score: 4, Funny

    1) MSAvatar - Where would you like to go today?
    2) OpenSourceAvatar - You wanna go somewhere, go there yourself!!

  10. Oh wow, Avatars! by wheany · · Score: 2, Interesting

    something that can interact with you and perhaps assist you in your daily endevours (with a touch of attitude?).."

    Ever considered human contact? You know "IRL"

  11. ...done imagining by NitsujTPU · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'm done imagining that. No offence to the supporters of such a UI, but it's a lot quicker for me to look down at my watch and see the time than it is for me to look down, see a teddy bear, ask it the time, and listen for it to tell me the time and that it loves me.

  12. Uhh.. by fadeaway · · Score: 2, Funny

    Imagine, if you will, a personalized avatar or something that can interact with you and perhaps assist you in your daily endevours (with a touch of attitude?

    Is this a dream for the future, or the plot of an upcoming Disney movie..? ;)

  13. I won't be satisfied.. by Wirr · · Score: 3, Insightful

    until I get a personality like the guy in Mona Lisa Overdrive, or at least the librarian from Snowcrash.

    1. Re:I won't be satisfied.. by carlos_benj · · Score: 2, Funny

      until I get a personality...

      There you have it folks. A /. reader who admits they don't need a PDA with a personality until they get a personality of their own....

      Would that the rest of you were so candid. Not me of course....

      --

      --

      As a matter of fact, I am a lawyer. But I play an actor on TV.

  14. persacom by Photon01 · · Score: 2, Funny
    What, are you nuts? A personality? What about huge bouncing boobies?
    Which is why i cant wait for a persacom (chii from chobits)
  15. A 3D card is fine, but... by JWyner · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ...no one seems to really understand the complexity of what they're asking for. I hear this kind of talk daily, so the author is not to blame; but without even getting into philosophical issues, the idea of AI is so far beyond anything we actually understand right now, that it shouldn't really even be mentioned. Now an interesting and far more feasible idea would be a 3D GUI for our cellphones AND computers. That is both within our reach, and reasonable for increased productivity. Why limit our usage to the flat plane of the screen? There are already 3D GUIs in the works -- a good one would revolutionize computing far more than a cellphone that cracks jokes.

    --
    "Owning a computer is like having your very own TV -- with a built in radio!" - Ed Helms
  16. finally! by Connie_Lingus · · Score: 3, Funny

    new life for Microsoft Bob...

    --
    never bring a twinkie to a food fight.
  17. Avatat technology is sweet by brandido · · Score: 3, Insightful

    My sister works on the Avatar technology that is mentioned in this article (at Haptek), and I must say that it is pretty stunning in real life. I haven't seen it on the handhelds, but using it on the PC is pretty damn good looking - much higher res and more believable mouth movement for speech than I have seen anywhere else. And I must say that it is always fun to have it try and pronounce impossible words :) When I first saw it, it definitely made me flash to "Snow Crash".

    --
    First Falcon-1 to orbit, then Falcon-9. Then I can die a happy man.
  18. OpenGL is fine by Daniel+Phillips · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Apparently Japan is ahead of the game with a relatively standardized 3d render engine.

    OpenGL is perfectly suited to 3D rendering on handelds, with the caveat that software rendering for OpenGL, which is to say, Mesa, has not been seriously optimized for this purpose. This is only because there hasn't been much manpower focussed on the job, to date. What's needed is some more thinking like this.

    After all, it's just a matter of programming.

    --
    Have you got your LWN subscription yet?
  19. Choice of personalities: by OrbNobz · · Score: 2, Funny

    Would you prefer the "Max Headroom" obnoxious type, or the "Al" helpful-in-a-vague-sort-of-way type?
    Or perhaps you would appreciate the "Kitt" state-the-blatantly-obvious type.

    - OrbNobz
    This post provides tactile feedback. Put on your PowerGlove and touch it!

  20. Mobile 3D standards by Jouni · · Score: 3, Informative
    For what it's worth, there are some real standards being worked on for mobile 3D graphics. Even HI Corp who the article mentions are contributing, but everyone is welcome to participate in community review.

    The two main standards currently under development are OpenGL ES by the Khronos group and the JSR-184 headed by Nokia. If you read through the list of participating companies, you'll notice a good bit of overlap; we can expect the two APIs to play quite nicely together.

    Mobile 3D hardware will also be coming probably sooner than what most people think. Some Ericsson researchers will be giving a SIGGRAPH talk on the subject ("Graphics for the Masses: A Hardware Rasterization Architecture for Mobile Phones") even if nothing more than the title is known at this time.

    While all mobile devices will have to make their own compromises on functionality, battery life, weight and cost, almost all of them are capable of running 3D graphics when the software is carefully constructed. Many modern software rendering techniques are based on dynamically generated/compiled code, and the processes are very similar to what happens inside 3D hardware. As these libraries will also be fairly small, they will not add cost or weight to the devices themselves. 3D chips will be reserved to those more keen on playing games on the road.

    The technology is definitely coming, now all we need to do is invent the killer application. Ideas anyone?

    Jouni

    --
    Jouni Mannonen | Game Designer, Consultant
  21. More features I won't know how to use... by dWhisper · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The push on Cell Phones almost seams contradictary at times. I have a Sprint PCS vision phone, with a list of features as long as my arm, and I know how to use three of them. Maybe. It's not that I can't figure it out, it's that the phones are not condusive to such things.

    3D graphics wouldn't be so hard to do in this environment, assuming they stick with the little screens and the bad interfaces. I know that my phone can actually have some pretty cool games, but the actual buttons on the phone, or the "control stick" as well, are about as accurate as using a half-chewed pretzel on an older PDA. Especially if you have fingers larger than your average six-year old.

    I'd have to agree that it'd be nice to see work done on the networks. My phone has a habit of wandering out of it's calling coverage (a tower less than a mile away) if held sideways or at an angle (say, against your ear. But how often will that happen). The push for more features that would imply something a little larger and nicer is in opposition to a smaller package you're finding phones in. Unless they all start to look like PDA's, or better yet, Game Boys, I just see this as another feature to add $5 to my bill that I'll never use.

  22. personal assistants do not need 3D models ... by Paolomania · · Score: 2, Interesting

    ... they need models of their specific user: how the user likes to use the device, what knowledge of the device the user has, what the user is trying to do with the device presently, what emotional state the user is in, etc. A model of this type with minimalist presentation would be far superior to a pretty 3D visualization in helping the assistant do its job.

    note that by this hypothesis a personal assistant should collect plenty of data about the user before ever interdicting - as opposed to making an immediate clippy-like interruption of the user's activities. appearing only in the proper context will also positively impact how the user feels about the assitant. if the assistant's first impression is "an annoyance that interrupts me when i am trying to do something" it will likely be shut off and never get a chance ot help the user. on the otherhand, if the assitant only appears when the user definitly needs help, he will viewed as "a friend that helps me when i am stuck" and will likely be given more chances to help the user in the future.

    btw, i am a 3D animator by profession and a computer scientist by education and i still think that a fancy 3D model is not the right tool for the job.

  23. More distractions... by stickyc · · Score: 2, Funny
    Imagine, if you will, a personalized avatar or something that can interact with you and perhaps assist you in your daily endevours (with a touch of attitude?)..

    Top 10 phrases spoken by cell-phone avatars:
    10. "No, I dont know the way there, why dont you just stop and ask directions?"
    9. "You really need to clean out your pores."
    8. "Just because I'm small enough to fit in your mouth doesn't mean you have to actually show everyone."
    7. "How would I know where the charger is?"
    6. "Hooweee, when yo' mamma sees yo' bill, she gonna whup yo' ass!"
    5. "an-NUN-ci-ate!"
    4. "Elf is about to die. Hah! Get it? Bah, kids these days."
    3. "Whoa dude, that is NOT an earpiece!"
    2. "What, you think I enjoy being that close to your crotch?"

    And the Number One phrase spoken by cell-phone avatars....

    "Stop looking at me and watch the #@$@#$ road!"

  24. Coz, you know ... by torpor · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ... can interact with you and perhaps assist you in your daily endevours (with a touch of attitude?)...

    We all want this because we have no friends.

    --
    ; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --