Nvidia believes that mobile graphics technology is gaining on the performance level of console graphics, and showcased the first mobile games optimised for its upcoming Tegra 3 SoC in an event held yesterday in Seattle.
At the event hosted by HTC, NVIDIA's Mike Rayfield talked about the evolution in mobile graphics powered by the increasing demand for mobile computing and gaming. NVIDIA 's response is the upcoming Tegra 3 system On Chip (SoC), which features a 4-PLUS-1 architecture, PRISM display technology and DirectTouch touch architecture in order to improve the mobile experience while extending battery life.
Nvidia Tegra 3 SoC is based on four Cortex-A9 cores with Neon accelerators (1.4GHz single-core or 1.30GHz quad-core mode) and another power-optimized Cortex-A9 core clocked up to 500MHz. It also features a GeForce graphics processing unit with twelve stream processors and will support Blu-ray disc video playback and stereo-3D graphics output. Nvidia cclaims that the Tegra 3 is 50% - 200% faster than Tegra 2, depending on the application.
Since the introduction of the smartphone, mobile graphics technology has advanced considerably and Nvidia believes that it will close the performance gap with console graphics by 2014-2015.
Rayfield also showed the audience a few surprises on the new Tegra 3 powered HTC One X smartphone. Near the end of his talk, he was joined by Phosphor Games Studios? Chip Sineni and Brett Seyler, of Kerosene Games, to provide a sneak peek at new unreleased mobile games optimized for Tegra 3 quad-core CPU - Dark Meadow: The Pact and Bounty Arms THD.
Dark Meadow: The Pact by Phosphor Games offers a visual upgrade for Tegra 3 devices compared to the current version on iOS. The game features high-resolution textures and real-time lighting effects. It maximizes Unreal Engine 3 to deliver a first-person action/adventure game, where players fight to escape a dark fairytale world filled with fantastical creatures bent on destroying them.
Bounty Arms THD features bounty hunters on mercenary missions. It includes a mix of characters, humor, classic brawler mechanics and platform exploration with RPG-style leveling of armor and weaponry. The game features full dynamic lighting, lots of mobile-optimized shaders, particle effects, animation blending and enemy attack waves boosted by Tegra 3. From Open-Reset and Luma Arcade, Bounty Arms THD will be published by Kerosene Games.
The games are coming soon to Google Play and will be featured on the free NVIDIA TegraZone app.
