The GapiDraw platform: high-performance cross-platform graphics on mobile devices

ABSTRACT

The GapiDraw platform supports the creation of high-performance graphical applications across a variety of handheld hardware configurations, including Palm, Symbian and Windows Mobile devices. Handheld computers makes it possible to create applications and services not possible with stationary computers, thus there is a need for a high performance development platform for rapid prototyping on mobile devices. Unlike desktop computers there has not yet evolved a single standard for graphics on handheld devices. Typically, handheld computers only provide direct frame buffer access, and there are major differences in implementation details across different hardware configurations, making it difficult to use mobile devices for prototyping. Using GapiDraw, developers can re-use the same code across a variety of devices and do not have to focus on device-specific implementation details. GapiDraw is actively used as an enabler platform in numerous research labs, and has also been used in over one hundred commercial games. We give an overview of the platform, and highlight some new mobile application concepts made possible through the use of GapiDraw.

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INDEX TERMS

Keywords:
graphics API, graphics framework, graphics middleware, handheld computers, mobile games, mobile phones, prototyping