It's a hot issue in the N-Gage community: how much support should Nokia give to 3D graphics chips on phones that have them? At the moment no N-Gage games use them, but that situation may change in the near future. In a special editorial, All About N-Gage takes a look at the pros and cons of 3D chips in phones, and wonders what Nokia should do next. Will 3D chips take over phone gaming soon, or are they expensive and unnecessary on such a small screen?
Read on in the full article.
I guess this is one of the toughest issues in general with the new N-Gage platform, the fact that so many devices with varying specs will be supported, unlike with say the i-phone where utilising the 3D chip is an obvious choice where possible.
I do think the 3D chip should be used where possible(even if that means 2 versions of the same game), it will allow the platform to have some real showcase games which can prove the NGage can compete with the i-phone.
Well, the iPhone is very much like a games console, there are only two models which are practically identical, so it's very easy for developers to write for them.
The downside is that very few people will buy the iPhone compared to other phones. Even if it sells 10 million a year, that's just 1% of the phone market.
Is N-Gage competing with the iPhone, or with cheap Java phones? If it's the iPhone then it should use the 3D chip, but if it's Java phones then it probably shouldn't.
That was what I was meaning with 3D support being obvious with the iphone, the fact there are only two devices and both contain the chip there is no issue with choosing to support it.
As for whether the Ngage is competing with the iphone or java enabled phones, I don't see why it shouldn't compete with both at the same time.
I'd love to have phone games which look as good as the Futuremark app from E3. Looks amazing and runs perfectly on my N82.
As for whether the Ngage is competing with the iphone or java enabled phones, I don't see why it shouldn't compete with both at the same time.
Well... price is one reason why the situation is unclear.
The N95 8GB costs the same as the iPhone, but the 5320 is more similar to a Java phone's price. Which one of these phones best represents N-Gage?
I think we won't know until a lot more N-Gage phones have gone on sale with the app actually built into them.
I think they are going the non-3D way, since none of the recent phones feature the accelerator, take N78, 6220C, E66, E71, 5320XpressMusic, and the NICHE one - N96. Let's see what comes with the next wave.
I think they are going the non-3D way, since none of the recent phones feature the accelerator,
That's why I wrote the article, people are wondering what Nokia are up to.
I am very dissapointed by N-GAGE. Where the heck are all those promissed amazing games? All we get is just a bunch of sudoku and solitaire and simillar stuff. Nothing exceptional, nothing what could force me to get N-GAGE. And even these games are not using full 3D acceleration. Hello NOKIA WAKE UP! You need to ACT very fast if you want to take part in "next gen gaming". And BTW, did anyone try the MOPHUN games? Their are amazing. The graphics, the gameplay, the control. And there are plenty of emulators and other SISX games which are far better than this N-GAGE "next gen games". I was expecting beautifull racing games, 1/3rd person shooters, space sims, maybe strategies. Instead of that nokia is offering a bunch of ugly and boring games.
I was really looking forward to the day it comes out, but now I see it was just a waste of nokias money and space in my mobile.
I am currious what will sonyericsson come out with. I ll cross my fingers.
All we get is just a bunch of sudoku and solitaire and simillar stuff.
Erm... there is no sudoku or solitaire on N-Gage, at least not yet.
Have you actually played any N-Gage games?
I was expecting beautifull racing games,
This looks pretty beautiful to me:
http://share.ovi.com/media/allaboutngage.public/allaboutngage.10005
1/3rd person shooters
Here you go:
http://www.allaboutngage.com/reviews/item/Brothers_in_Arms1.php
maybe strategies
Yup, here's some strategy:
http://www.allaboutngage.com/games/all/Strategy/
Instead of that nokia is offering a bunch of ugly and boring games.
You didn't actually try N-Gage did you? 😉
Nothing exceptional
This is pretty exceptional IMHO, it's got looks, gameplay and depth:
http://share.ovi.com/media/allaboutngage.public/allaboutngage.10018
http://share.ovi.com/media/allaboutngage.public/allaboutngage.10017
http://share.ovi.com/media/allaboutngage.public/allaboutngage.10016
http://share.ovi.com/media/allaboutngage.public/allaboutngage.10015
the people who keep saying iphone is using 3d chip in few of there games try comparing the games to the standard SIS version of same titles.
there is hardly any differences so iphones chipset is hardly revolutionising 3d mobile games or making much of a difference .
I compared them as soon as iphone came out and the standard is'nt much different at all, i have the feeling though if nokia was to support the chip it would be 100X better b/c they are already reaching just as good standards without it.
but 1st i need to be convinced it's all worth it with the screen size.
there as been some official responses to some of the posts on feedback forum very positive stuff
http://ngage.uservoice.com/pages/general
the people who keep saying iphone is using 3d chip in few of there games try comparing the games to the standard SIS version of same titles.
there is hardly any differences so iphones chipset is hardly revolutionising 3d mobile games or making much of a difference .
I think a lot of people are so used to cheap Java games, they don't realise what all modern phones are capable of. Even Java itself can do amazing things now if the programmers and publishers bother to put the work in, but they frequently don't.
One thing that all mobile phones have in common is that none of the game developers really care. An average phone these days is as powerful as a 1999 computer. Thats powerful enough by several years to run games like elite or doom but do we ever see games approaching this level? We see, at the best, thin wraiths that give a nod in their direction. Their are certainly some games that are almost directly lifted off early computer systems. I have seen titles almost identical to c64 games on java but few people are being innovative with these devices, and the ones who are being innovative are often limited by lack of funding or imagination. More people are getting interested in mobile gaming but if developers took their customers seriously the take up rates would be far greater. Look at the development of games a few years ago, as the console stayed on the market longer the look and feel of games increased year by year. Perhaps the problem with mobile phones is that the hardware is upgrading so quickly.
I don't have a nokia but have recently tried galaxy on fire on S/E. It is an awesome looking game, beautiful graphics, but why so little depth? why such linear gameplay? My phone can play mp3s so why bleepy sound? This game uses close to a MB of memory. If this can be used to make pretty graphics then why can it not be used to create the depth of gameplay that old games on far less impressive pcs had? Developers have no imagination. I can see this situation is slightly improved on Nokias but not anywhere near enough to make me bother with upgrading my phone. We have the ability, we just don't have the will.
I don't really care much about the 3D chips right now, although I will probably make sure that my next phone got one anyway :tongue: But I won't buy a new phone until spring/summer next year. Hopefully Nokia got some nice new candybar phones with 3D chips by then (no fan of N82).
Strategy games and RPG games are what mainly interest me and they work fine with 2D (like UFO: Enemy Unknown and Final Fantasy VI (I would love to see those two on the N-Gage!)). I don't need pretty graphics to do tactical choices or get involved in a story.
However, if it's a shooter or a racing game, it obviously should be in 3D. Adventure games with lots of exploring works well with 3D too, like Lament Island. But rally games work fine in software for me, and Lament Island is very nice too. And I'm not particulary interested in playing fact-paced shooters on the phone, due the poor controls. So yeah, no big need for 3D chips for me.
As I see it, phones with software rendering today can get 3D graphics slightly better than PS1 games, while using the full potential of the MBX chip we would probably be very close to the PS2 games. I can live with PS1 level games for a while. Colin McRae 2.0 for PS1, for example, is very fun 😊
OMAP3 will be more XBOX360 level than PS2. Nokia you know what u have to do....