GPU hardware acceleration in ICS

[Electrofreak]

Okay, this looks like a good topic for debate. From the Android SDK:

Hardware-accelerated 2D drawing

All Android-powered devices running Android 4.0 are required to support hardware-accelerated 2D drawing. Developers can take advantage of this to add great UI effects while maintaining optimal performance on high-resolution screens, even on phones. For example, developers can rely on accelerated scaling, rotation, and other 2D operations, as well as accelerated UI components such as TextureView and compositing modes such as filtering, blending, and opacity.

So, does this mean that the Android UI itself is now hardware driven, or that hardware UI acceleration is simply available now to developers?

Edit: There's also a spot that mentions hardware-accelerated 2D graphics support having been ported over from 3.x.

Discuss.

 

[TWISM]

 

[Electrofreak]

Missed that section. That seems to end the argument pretty definitively. Damn. I was hoping for some good throwdowns.

Yep, and here's that Hardware Acceleration section that's mentioned: http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/graphics/hardware-accel.html

 

[computerpro3]

Wait, so hardware acceleration is actually in 4.0?

 

[kre62]

Thats cool and all but every preview of the nexus ive seen has mentioned the same old lag. So if hga cant save android whats the new excuse?

 

[Totenblume]

Uh, most of Honeycomb is hardware accelerated with only some APIs left unsupported until ICS. Why is this a surprise?

 

[TWISM]

Thats cool and all but every preview of the nexus ive seen has mentioned the same old lag. So if hga cant save android whats the new excuse?

You seem like a huge Apple fan boy, so why here to stir the pot?

 

[kre62]

You seem like a huge Apple fan boy, so why here to stir the pot?

Im a performance fanboy. The 4S happens to be the best performing phone on the market right now. Dual core proc and dual core gpu. Delicious.

 

[jeremyshaw]

You seem like a huge Apple fan boy, so why here to stir the pot?

Did you watch the unveiling live broadcast? Because it was apparent enough to the audience, not just, "something you notice only when you are using it."

However, given that it is still weeks away before launch, I'm betting it was merely just a beta build or something cooked up for demo purposes. Hell, it could even be something as simple as one of the demo applications screwing with ICS, or the phone HW being older than the release version (Since the TI SoC used is supposed to be clocked at 1.5GHz, but is underclocked to 1.2GHz [why not use the TI 1.2GHz dual core SoC otherwise?], fueling some speculation the device is overheating on the stock clocks).

 

[TWISM]

Im a performance fanboy. The 4S happens to be the best performing phone on the market right now. Dual core proc and dual core gpu. Delicious.

Agree, have one right here, but just have seen you seemingly defend them like someone was talking bad about your wife or kids....

 

[TWISM]

Did you watch the unveiling live broadcast? Because it was apparent enough to the audience, not just, "something you notice only when you are using it."

However, given that it is still weeks away before launch, I'm betting it was merely just a beta build or something cooked up for demo purposes. Hell, it could even be something as simple as one of the demo applications screwing with ICS, or the phone HW being older than the release version (Since the TI SoC used is supposed to be clocked at 1.5GHz, but is underclocked to 1.2GHz [why not use the TI 1.2GHz dual core SoC otherwise?], fueling some speculation the device is overheating on the stock clocks).

You missed the point of my post. I felt his post was just here to poke fun at android users. It just seems like a post made to get a rise out of people and start another thread that ends up locked.

 

[jeremyshaw]

Agree, have one right here, but just have seen you seemingly defend them like someone was talking bad about your wife or kids....

Why did you have to bring wife and kids into this



kk, j/k Butthurt has to happen on all sides, otherwise... you cannot start an arguement with just one person. Well.. nvm. Hell, the fact that I'm even responding to your post


EDIT:

You missed the point of my post. I felt his post was just here to poke fun at android users. It just seems like a post made to get a rise out of people and start another thread that ends up locked.

Your interpretation

 

[TWISM]

I didn't mean to start anything. I am looking at my desk and see an iPhone 4s, ipad 2, incredible 2, galaxy tab 10.1 and likely a nexus prime. I like gadgets. So mine was just an honest question, didn't mean to bring out the forces.

 

[jeremyshaw]

1: I have an opinion
2,3,4: UNLEASH THE DOGS OF W--
5: OMG fanboi
6: shaddup
7: godwins law
8: this message removed by mods
9: if you guys cannot keep your act clean, we'll threadlock + warn/ban
10: I like toilet sechs.
1:
3,4: See, you n00b idi0t
mod: thread closed
11: inb4lock

well, it happens a lot on forums Well... maybe OCN, lol. If you have an opinion, well, might as well get it out there. Stuff only gets interesting on [H] during the flaming

 

[Electrofreak]

Uh, most of Honeycomb is hardware accelerated with only some APIs left unsupported until ICS. Why is this a surprise?

Because I've been told on several numerous occasions when mentioning HGA coming in ICS that it had been pushed back to Jelly Bean, and wasn't going to be in ICS.

And this was supposedly verified information from people who "work for Google".

I didn't mention it at the time, but I've got a very good friend that works for Google in Mountain View too and being an employee for Google doesn't mean jack shit. My friend knows nothing about the Android developments because he's not involved in it in any way and Google tends to release information internally only to people who need to know it.

Finally, my friend is also a man of integrity, and has told me he will not willfully leak any information that is not public. Sure, he hops on Hangout with me now and then and waves around some of the new gadgets Google gives him to play with like Honeycomb tablets and the like, but he shows me nothing that hasn't been made official. And I respect that.

So I guess you're right, it shouldn't be a surprise. I should have questioned these "Google employees" that asserted that HGA was not being ported from Honeycomb over to ICS.

 

[Ryokurin]

They said it because full hardware acceleration has been promised before and in the end just ended up being a incremental step in that direction. We have an API and it's enabled by default, great. But does this include the main UI and launcher? because in honeycomb it didn't. And for what it's worth too, a quick search suggest thatapps that make that call won't appear in the app store for older devices. If so that's a concern too.

 

[MrMike]

They said it because full hardware acceleration has been promised before and in the end just ended up being a incremental step in that direction. We have an API and it's enabled by default, great. But does this include the main UI and launcher? because in honeycomb it didn't. And for what it's worth too, a quick search suggest thatapps that make that call won't appear in the app store for older devices. If so that's a concern too.

I don't think it really matters whether or not it includes the main launcher, because ADWLauncher Ex already has hardware acceleration. It won't be long until others follow suit.

Of course, this falls under the category of how you have to depend on 3rd parties to get the most out of an Android device yet again...

 

[T4rd]

They said it because full hardware acceleration has been promised before and in the end just ended up being a incremental step in that direction. We have an API and it's enabled by default, great. But does this include the main UI and launcher? because in honeycomb it didn't. And for what it's worth too, a quick search suggest thatapps that make that call won't appear in the app store for older devices. If so that's a concern too.

The Android Market already filters apps/.apk's by what device you're using. This allows devs to have multiple versions of their apps available on the market to facilitate all the different kinds of android devices running different versions of Android. So if a dev has updates his app to support the hardware acceleration in a way that 2.3 and below doesn't allow, then only ICS/2.4+ devices will pull the new updated version while the older OS devices will still pull the older version of the market (but he can still update and support the apps meant for the older Android versions).

I hope that's not too confusing, heh.

 

[Ryokurin]

Nope, but the point was, it's up to the developer to do it as MrMike pointed out. This isn't a big deal, just that it's going to take some time before it's of real benefit. I'm glad it's there but it's not over yet.

 

[T4rd]

Nope, but the point was, it's up to the developer to do it as MrMike pointed out. This isn't a big deal, just that it's going to take some time before it's of real benefit. I'm glad it's there but it's not over yet.

Well I could really care less if some 3rd part app devs implement it or not, that's just gravy on top. What I'm concerned about is it being implemented in the core Android UI and core apps. That's where I'll be noticing it the most and getting the most benefit from it.

 

[Tower]

Can someone provide a link to some evidence illustrating Honeycomb not providing hardware acceleration in the UI and launcher, and only in specific applications?

My understanding is that ICS offers hardware acceleration as the norm for all devices supporting an OpenGL 2.0 compliant GPU with OpenGL 2.0 compliant drivers. All applications are accelerated by default; you can elect to not accelerate specific applications (or more specifically, views within an application.)

I expect that the OS itself, including the launcher and wallpaper/live wallpaper system are all part of the underlying hardware accelerated framework.

Nope, but the point was, it's up to the developer to do it as MrMike pointed out. This isn't a big deal, just that it's going to take some time before it's of real benefit. I'm glad it's there but it's not over yet.

Well I could really care less if some 3rd part app devs implement it or not, that's just gravy on top. What I'm concerned about is it being implemented in the core Android UI and core apps. That's where I'll be noticing it the most and getting the most benefit from it.

Actually it's the inverse; hardware acceleration is enabled by default on ICS, and developers can elect to turn it off should they so desire. Hardware acceleration should be the norm, and prevalent throughout the OS and also the applications you run, unless the developer explicitly states they do not want their application and/or specific views in that application to be hardware accelerated, or they use one of the APIs that are not hardware accelerated--and even then, only that component is software accelerated, with the rest of the effects performed by your device's GPU.