Hardware Capabilities of the G1

[MarvinAndroid]

Does anybody have some knowledge about the hardware in this phone? How powerful is it and what is is capable of? Does it have some kind of 3d graphics chip... or at least enough power to push some decent polygons with textures and filtering?

I'm just wondering what the phone is capable of doing. I've seen some 3d apps running on the I-Phone which where actually pretty impressive. I'm wondering if the G1 has the power to do a First person shooter type game, for example, and run at a decent framerate.

I'm curious what kind of games we might see in the future when/if Android game development picks up a bit.

 

[drustvold]

Does anybody have some knowledge about the hardware in this phone? How powerful is it and what is is capable of? Does it have some kind of 3d graphics chip... or at least enough power to push some decent polygons with textures and filtering?

I'm just wondering what the phone is capable of doing. I've seen some 3d apps running on the I-Phone which where actually pretty impressive. I'm wondering if the G1 has the power to do a First person shooter type game, for example, and run at a decent framerate.

I'm curious what kind of games we might see in the future when/if Android game development picks up a bit.

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile_G1
2. Power is pretty good for a phone
3. No dedicated graphics chip
4. In my opinion could push half-life (1) style graphics*.
5. In a year all of this will be old news.


*but would be the best it could do, more likely to see this on a later phone, but optimization for a device can be amazing. The question is, is there a market to do it.

 

[MarvinAndroid]

Thanks (again) drustvold! So we might be able to do something like a prettied up Quake 1... but not much more. I can live with that I guess. We will probably see more 2d games or simple 3d casual games. The system would probably be great for a 2d or 2.5D RPG or something like that... and with 3G they could make a massively multiplayer game like Ultima Online or something. I guess we will see what they come up with.

I give it about 1 month until somebody gets Doom and/or Quake running... every OS in history has had one or both of those. (I think I saw a video of Quake on Android already somewhere...)

 

[rushmore]

The G1 hardware would rock for games, but the issue is dealing with the "Java" layer.

The SDK should be able to result in some decent games, but game ports or emulators will be a problem unless Android's SDK opens up to some native code options.

The 7201 has built in 3D, so games should be good in that regard.

 

[MarvinAndroid]

The G1 hardware would rock for games, but the issue is dealing with the "Java" layer.

The SDK should be able to result in some decent games, but game ports or emulators will be a problem unless Android's SDK opens up to some native code options.

The 7201 has built in 3D, so games should be good in that regard.

Oh it does? I didn't realize that.

I agree though... developers wont be able to do the really cool stuff unless they are allowed to get down to the hardware somehow. That would probably mean that a high end game that completey uses the hardware would probably need to 'reboot' into the game engine and take over the whole system? If the game was really good... I wouldn't have a problem with that. I just don't know if Google and T-Mobile would like that too much.

 

[postalp]

Funny you guys mention it because someone released a "Benchmark" app in the market last night called "NeoCore".

I guess its some kind of Open GL 3d demo showing some small mechwarrior'sh battle going on, not bad. The graphics looked just a hair below PS1 graphics @ 25fps.

This gives me hope for some nice flashy games for android.

 

[MarvinAndroid]

Yeah... the Wiki says the G1 is capable of 4 million polygons/sec... which is actually pretty impressive. That is beyond PS1 capabilities... that is getting closer to PS2. Granted... that is probably without game code and AI running etc... but it sounds like this phone could easily do a decent 1st person shooter... maybe something like a Quake 2 level of graphics.


EDIT: thanks for the heads-up though... I want to check out this app (downloading now)

 

[happyface_0]

I don't like to compare, but how are the G1's 3d capabilities in comparison to the iPhone?

 

[MarvinAndroid]

postalp... when was the last time you saw a PS1 actually up and running?

I'm just saying because NeoCore is WAY better than anything the PS1 can do! I am actually pretty impressed what this little phone can do. The demo has some limited bump mapping, the polygon count in that scene was actually pretty impressive and the whole thing ran pretty smooth (20+ FPS is definitely playable). Also look at the textures in the scene... they are filtered and smoothed.. you don't see big jaggy pixels... they look pretty clean and solid. This demo pretty much proved to me that the G1 could be a decent gaming platform if it gets the support it deserves.

To answer happyface's question though... I don't think the G1 is at the same level of 3d graphics that the I-Phone can do... I haven't done much research on the I-phone, but I've looked at some screenshots of games and videos of current and future games... it must have some kind of dedicated 3d chip because it is at least as powerful as a Sony PSP...

 

[Patton]

I've contributed a 3d game for the first Android developer challenge. It looks like a enhanced version of Wolfenstein 3d. I must admit that developing and testing this game on a Android simulator was a real pain in the ass. I'm still waiting for a G1 to test this application on real hardware

 

[happyface_0]

I've contributed a 3d game for the first Android developer challenge. It looks like a enhanced version of Wolfenstein 3d. I must admit that developing and testing this game on a Android simulator was a real pain in the ass. I'm still waiting for a G1 to test this application on real hardware

If your serious about this then I think a lot of us in the forums would be more than happy to beta test this for you!

 

[Patton]

If your serious about this then I think a lot of us in the forums would be more than happy to beta test this for you!

Well, I'm still waiting for my "copy" of the G1 (ok, shoes?)

This site (made in a hurry, so sorry for crappy looks) is dedicated to my game (dev title was "The Cell"), and there you can find some screenshots of it

http://users.verat.net/~igvlada/Android/home.html

At the end of the day i could post the ReadMe file included for you to see all features, and all to-do features for Cell.

 

[MarvinAndroid]

Cool stuff Patton. Thanks for the info and good luck with the game.

 

[Wishyoudefeat]

Totally should use wsad controls and the trackball to look around and maybe click down on the trackball to shoot or somthing. that would be way awesome.

 

[Torchwood]

Go download Neocore from the market. its got the 3d and textures you were asking about, and it has a benchmarking option.

Edit:

Totally should use wsad controls and the trackball to look around and maybe click down on the trackball to shoot or somthing. that would be way awesome.

or use the camera button to shoot, i think that would be better.

 

[philje123]

FYI... the iPhone has a dedicated graphics co-processor:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone#Specifications

Phil