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Chromebooks could finally become proper Linux gaming computers
A public beta to test Vulkan on Chrome OS is scheduled for Q3 2021

Kent Duke Kent Duke
Chromebooks could finally become proper Linux gaming computers

Linux for Chromebooks has come a long way since Google introduced it in Chrome OS 69 a couple of years ago. On supported devices, it opened the door to an extensive library of desktop apps for users, like video editing tools and IDEs. GPU acceleration was an important milestone that made graphic intensive Linux app usable on Chrome OS. This is thanks to Virgil 3D, a component that allows the Linux container to tap into the hardware's GPU. In exciting news shared by Luke Short from VMware, Google is working on adding Vulkan passthrough into Virgil to improve app performance.

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23

AMD partners with Samsung to bring Radeon tech to smartphone graphics

Corbin Davenport Corbin Davenport
AMD partners with Samsung to bring Radeon tech to smartphone graphics

Smartphone graphics have improved quite a bit over the past decade, but they're still a far cry from what dedicated gaming machines are capable of. The idea of a phone with the horsepower of a home game console has always been an exciting prospect, and now Samsung is partnering up with hardware manufacturer AMD to (hopefully) make it happen.

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21

Samsung wants to develop its own GPUs for mobile devices, self-driving cars, and more

Corbin Davenport Corbin Davenport
Samsung wants to develop its own GPUs for mobile devices, self-driving cars, and more

While Samsung's devices in North America have used Snapdragon processors for years, the company also develops its own Exynos processors for international models. But when it comes to graphics, Samsung still uses ARM's 'Mali' GPU family across all its phones and tablets. According to a new job listing on LinkedIn, Samsung wants to develop its own GPUs for a wide range of devices - including phones.

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93

Graphics drivers can be updated from the Play Store in Android O

Ryne Hager Ryne Hager
Graphics drivers can be updated from the Play Store in Android O

A pretty nifty new feature was talked about at last night's Android Fireside Chat. In addition to the other O features and the rest of the announcements at I/O, it was revealed that we'll soon be able to update our graphics drivers through the Play Store. This is a feature that is presumably only going to be present in O. There's no word yet on the specifics as to how that might work, or which OEMs or chipset manufacturers might be interested in taking advantage of it, but as of yesterday we know it's coming.

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ARM announces its next-generation 'Mali-Cetus' display processor

Corbin Davenport Corbin Davenport
ARM announces its next-generation 'Mali-Cetus' display processor

Most Android devices use ARM processors, usually with ARM's 'Mali' display unit to render graphics. Usually every new Mali upgrade is a small incremental improvement over the previous design, but not this time around. ARM has taken the wraps off 'Mali-Cetus,' the company's next-generation display processor.

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54

Little Briar Rose offers a Grimm adventure with gorgeous stained glass visuals

Michael Crider Michael Crider
Little Briar Rose offers a Grimm adventure with gorgeous stained glass visuals

On paper, Little Briar Rose isn't anything particularly exciting. It's a competent side-scrolling adventure title, a rookie effort from developer Elf Games, that retells the Grimm fairy tale of the same name. But the game's visuals, painstakingly crafted to look like an animated stained glass window on every frame, are downright breathtaking. In a sea of pixelated graphics and safe me-too styles, Little Briar Rose is a breath of fresh air.

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21

Play Store game reviews start showing detailed "Feature Ratings" circles for specific aspects

Rita El Khoury Rita El Khoury
Play Store game reviews start showing detailed "Feature Ratings" circles for specific aspects

Games are a little more complicated to review than apps. Maybe the story and premise are intriguing and engulfing, but the controls are horrible. Or maybe the graphics are gorgeous, but the gameplay is terribly bad. What rating do you give? You might err toward an average rating, but wouldn't it be better if there was an easy way to specify which aspects were good and which were disappointing, for the benefit of the devs as well as other users?

One Play Store interface change might solve that problem. New Feature Ratings circles have started showing up for some users, letting them see separate ratings for a game's controls, gameplay, and graphics.

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51

Super Evil Megacorp releases a beta version of Vainglory for Vulkan-enabled devices

Michael Crider Michael Crider
Super Evil Megacorp releases a beta version of Vainglory for Vulkan-enabled devices

The Vulkan graphics API is a big deal for mobile developers, since its direct GPU access allows for complex graphics to be rendered with a considerably lower hit to the processor, and thus a lower overhead on the hardware and battery life. A few devices like the SHIELD family and Samsung's 7 series already supported Vulkan several months ago, but Nougat now features full support for all updated Android 7.0 devices. Developer Super Evil Megacorp, which turned heads last year with its Vainglory mobile MOBA, now has a beta version that uses the Vulkan API.

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50

Nenamark 3 is an oddly fascinating but also hilariously terrible benchmark app

Corbin Davenport Corbin Davenport
Nenamark 3 is an oddly fascinating but also hilariously terrible benchmark app

Benchmarking applications like 3DMark and PassMark are great for scoring the graphics or computational power of a given device. Nenamark 2 was a popular choice for benchmarking graphics back in the day, and five years after Nenamark 2 launched, Nenamark 3 has arrived. It's not clear why.

I hesitate to even call Nenamark 3 a benchmarking app. It's designed like a game - the benchmark proceeds through levels, each level having up to four tests. But the benchmark ends as soon as your device can't reach a steady FPS arbitrarily determined by the Nenamark app. So instead of a useful score like an average FPS or the time it took to complete the test, my Nexus 5X gets a score of "3-0."

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118
Google Hires A Dedicated Team To Implement Support For The Vulkan Graphics API In Upcoming Versions Of Android

Google Hires A Dedicated Team To Implement Support For The Vulkan Graphics API In Upcoming Versions Of Android

Michael Crider Michael Crider

Unless you regularly develop video games or other visually-intensive programs, you probably don't know what Vulkan is. That's OK. But if you are in the habit of developing visually complex apps for Android, the news that Google plans to support the Vulkan API is a big deal indeed. And it looks like the company intends to jump into the Vulkan pool with both feet: Google has just hired an entire team of dedicated Vulkan developers and folded them into the Android team.

Here's the gist: Vulkan is a cross-platform, low-overhead graphics API created by a consortium called Khronos (get it?). The advantage of Vulkan over other standards is that it gives developers direct access to GPU hardware, allowing a game to manually manage things like GPU cores and memory.

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