
Epic developer calls iPad 2 graphics leap "astonishing" - evo_9
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/04/05/epic_game_developer_calls_ipad_2_graphics_leap_astonishing_doubts_android_can_compete.html
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rudiger
_Sweeney described conventional game consoles as seeing "a 10-20x leap in
performance every 7-8 years," compared to the 9x leap Apple claimed for the
iPad 2 in just one annual refresh._

This is true, but it's not "astonishing". Conventional game consoles usually
push the limits of graphics when they're first released. The iPad didn't push
graphics when it was first released, so Apple had a lot of room for "easy" GPU
improvement with the iPad 2. Whether we continue to see order-of-magnitude
leaps in performance depends on how much "head-room" is left in mobile GPUs,
and how improvements in conventional GPUs trickle down to mobile devices.

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kenjackson
"Epic developer" is kind of underplaying the fact that its Tim Sweeney.

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jameskilton
Epic meaning Epic Games.

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bbq
Right, and calling Tim Sweeney an Epic developer is underplaying the fact that
he founded Epic Games.

Or maybe I have no sense of humor...

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jawee
Hmm.. it must be even harder to develop for such a fragmented platform as the
personal computer, then, where there is essentially nothing guaranteed except
the OS you are writing for.

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elliottkember
I'm not a hardware guy, but it's been my understanding that this is why
drivers exist. Drivers are a nightmare, though. I don't miss dealing with
them.

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pohl
Drivers may provide you semantic uniformity over a diverse set of hardware,
but I think Sweeny sounds more interested in performance guarantees, which
they may not be able to provide, depending both on the hardware and how well
the driver has been optimized.

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extension
_Optimizations could provide "a factor of 4 driver overhead reduction," he
estimated, noting that the current software allows mobile games to look great
but restricts them from rendering "a whole lot of objects" on the screen at
once._

Anybody know why?

EDIT: I'm guessing because GLES doesn't support geometry shaders (even though
the PowerVR SGX chipset does)

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maximilianburke
There's a lot that happens behind the scenes of a modern graphics API. For
example, issuing a draw call may cause the driver to incur a flush of
accumulated state changes, patch an existing shader, or even trigger a shader
re-compile. Cutting down on what happens behind the scenes will allow
developers to issue more draw calls within the same time and put more objects
on the screen.

DirectX 9 had a similar problem of expensive draw calls but it was compounded
by drivers living in kernel-space requiring an expensive context switch when
draw calls were issued.

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sudonim
If you have an iPhone 4, and you haven't played Infinity Blade, it's a great
game and looks beautiful. I am on the verge of buying an iPad 2 for two
reasons. 1. I lost my iPad and have a bunch of software I paid for. 2.
Infinity blade on a bigger screen.

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Synaesthesia
Real Racing 2 is also amazing.

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headhuntermdk
keywords are "consistent experience"

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ck2
Apparently they have not seen the release schedule for ARM GPUs (for android).
What's coming out in 2012 is mind boggling.

Also this right now: <http://www.anandtech.com/print/4243>

(see the benchmarks at the end)

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pieter
That doesn't really make sense. Apple has the same access to GPU's as Android
manufacturers have, so there really aren't any 'Android GPU's' they should
have a look at.

Their problem with Android is that the hardware they're building for is
inconsistent, and that will remain so until some kind of policy change happens
with Android. It has nothing to do with the power of (future) hardware itself.

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ck2
Actually, Apple locks up supply channels to buy display and chipset components
exclusively. They essentially get "first pick" because of their volume. But
that might change in the near future.

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daimyoyo
Read this on an iPad 1. Couldn't tell the difference between the pictures.
Oops.

/play him off, KC

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daimyoyo
This board seriously needs to lighten up. But, message received. I'll NEVER
try to be humorous ever again. :(

