Android NDK r3 To Improve 3D Gaming

• Rob Jackson
• 15 years ago

Don’t lie – you love you some 3D games. Android has an undeniably HUGE future when it comes to gaming and even though plenty of 2D games rock the house, it’s clear that insanely rich, graphically beautiful animation can be accomplished on the high tech phones we’re carrying around. Yesterday’s launch of Android NDK (Native Development Kit) r3 should facilitate the creation of 3D games and improved graphics:

Applications targeting Android 2.0 (API level 5) or higher can now directly access OpenGL ES 2.0 features. This brings the ability to control graphics rendering through vertex and fragment shader programs, using the GLSL shading language.

This is a feature developers already enjoyed on the iPhone, one less reason for them to be a one-trick pony and come on over to enjoy some Android love on the Market. The team also made some minor improvements such as bug fixes and name simplification.

As minor as “name simplification” seems, I think it shows the Android team:

• Is listening to constructive criticism in an effort to improve the platform
• Is showing attention to detail

It could have been overlooked and people probably wouldn’t have cared too much, but every little bit counts. Gotta love it if you ask me.

[Image via Exchange3D.com]