Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

With the popularity of smart phones, mobile games have become the main way of daily leisure and entertainment for more and more consumers. According to data from the China Business Industry Research Institute, China's mobile game market reached 263.9 billion yuan in 2021, accounting for 83.75% of the overall online game market. Mobile games are also becoming the main trend of online game development.

With the vigorous development of the mobile game industry, the technology of mobile games is also evolving. One of the most intuitive reflection is in the picture, from the early plastic painting style to now more and more realistic picture, every improvement in picture quality is believed to be deeply imprinted in the memory of the players. In fact, the fundamental driving force behind this comes from the iterative upgrading of the smartphone SoC mobile platform, especially GPU performance and technology, such as hardware-level mobile ray tracing, which is currently the most concerned, which is a big weapon to take the picture quality of mobile games to a new level.

When it comes to hardware-level mobile light chase, I believe many friends will think of the second generation Snapdragon 8 mobile platform released by Qualcomm on November 16. As the standard chip platform for flagship mobile phones in 2023, the second generation Snapdragon 8 introduced hardware-level mobile light pursuit technology for the first time. It is conceivable that with the development of technology, the picture quality of the mobile games we play will be upgraded to a realistic level next year. Today, CTOnews.com might as well take a look at the hardware-level mobile light chase of the second generation Snapdragon 8, and Qualcomm's efforts to improve the mobile gaming experience over the years.

The second generation Snapdragon 8 hardware-level mobile light chase, these details can not be ignored when it comes to light chase, I believe we all know, this is an important technology used to improve the real effect of light and shadow in the game screen. Its main idea is to use calculation to simulate the trajectory and effect of "every" light, such as light reflection, refraction, scattering and dispersion, so as to achieve infinitely close to the real picture light and shadow effect. However, in reality, the amount of light is innumerable, and we can only simulate the amount of light as much as possible, so to accomplish this, we naturally need a very strong computing power, and there are no special hardware acceleration components. It's definitely not going to work.

In the new Adreno GPU of the second generation Snapdragon 8, Qualcomm has added a special mobile ray tracing acceleration unit, which is responsible for processing light tracing effects. Based on the hardware-accelerated light pursuit performance, the second generation Snapdragon 8 can handle tens of billions of light intersections per second, although this is still far from the actual number of light intersections, but it is enough to render lifelike delicate light and shadow effects.

Because the calculated particle size can hardly reach the real number of rays and other reasons, the directly calculated light and shadow effect will inevitably have noise. Qualcomm adds a Snapdragon shadow noise canceller to the light tracking unit of Adreno GPU to solve the noise problem. This is specifically developed and optimized for Adreno GPU and is four times faster than other current end-game-level solutions.

You can watch the effect of the shadow noise reducer through the picture. After processing, the original sand-like shadow no longer exists, and the effect does become softer and more natural.

The improvement brought by the hardware-level mobile light pursuit for the game screen is mainly reflected in three aspects, one is the soft shadow, that is, the high-fidelity penumbra rendering, the second is the reflection of light, which can accurately present the reflection of the object on the smooth object surface, and the third is ambient light occlusion, that is, the light and shadow effect of the surrounding environment has become delicate and real.

You can take a look at the dynamic picture comparison demonstrated in the following scene. After turning on the light pursuit, the flowing light and shadow illuminated by the torch in the monster's hand appears lifelike, and the ambient light in the picture is closer to the real look and feel, more delicate and lifelike. In the absence of light pursuit, the light and shadow of the game screen is very stiff, and there are no shadows in some places.

At present, for the landing of the second generation Snapdragon 8 hardware-level mobile light on specific games, nothing attracts more attention than the cooperation between Qualcomm and NetEase's "upstream cold" mobile games. The two sides have carried out in-depth joint research and development in the aspects of picture quality optimization and power consumption control, and will take the lead in the mobile light pursuit effect in the "upstream cold" mobile game at the beginning of 2023 to present a perfect picture light and shadow effect.

From the demonstration Demo currently created by the "upstream cold" mobile game, we can also see how amazing the game screen will be. Bamboo forest, night sky and chivalrous players can really show their reflection on the water surface, and the ripples are shadowy. At first glance, they have almost lost the effect of the game.

Of course, in addition to the "upstream cold" mobile games, Qualcomm also works with more manufacturers to promote hardware-level light to chase the landing in mobile games. For example, their cooperation with iQOO and Tianyuan mobile games is committed to taking the lead in realizing the mobile light chase in the "oracle", as well as the mobile light chase solution physical light engine jointly developed by Qualcomm and OPPO, which will also drive more games to achieve the picture effect of hardware-level mobile light additional holding.

The way to improve the picture quality of mobile games, these light and shadow technologies are the hardware-level mobile light chase behind the scenes, and the improvement that mobile games can bring to mobile games is really astonishing. At the same time, people can not help but sigh the progress made in the picture quality of mobile games over the years. In fact, not only the light chase, over the years we have seen the progress made by mobile games on the screen, it can be said that Qualcomm can be seen at every step.

Speaking of which, we have to mention Qualcomm's Snapdragon Elite Gaming solution specifically designed to enhance the mobile gaming experience.

When Qualcomm first integrated the Snapdragon Elite Gaming solution on the Snapdragon 855 mobile platform in 2018, Qualcomm had already introduced a technology similar to Lighttrack-based physical rendering (PBR). This is a collection of a series of rendering technologies, which aims to use physical algorithms to simulate the real world more realistically, the most important of which is to use lighting calculation closer to the theory of real physics to achieve more realistic lighting effects. in order to greatly improve the image quality of the game.

To put it simply, the physics-based rendering technology can achieve more realistic lighting effect and texture by optimizing the light reflection mechanism of the model surface and following the law of conservation of light energy.

Take a look at the OPPO Reno Ace, which supported the first generation of Snapdragon Elite Gaming, when it ran "the Legend of Nimia: the Mountains of Light":

In the highest picture quality, you can see the characters reborn in the setting sun in the wilderness, the golden sun shining on the rocks, trees and grass, it is amazing that the light and shadow effect at that time has been so real. Behind this, there is merit based on physical rendering (PBR) technology.

For example, the second generation Snapdragon Elite Gaming solution also introduces end-game-level forward rendering technology. This technology can deeply optimize the picture quality of the game from the aspects of depth of field, multi-dynamic light source, motion blur, plane reflection and so on, so as to bring more real and immersive picture quality.

For example, the editor uses the Blackshark game 3, which supports the second generation of Snapdragon Elite Gaming, to run the game "Game for Peace" as an example. Black Shark Game Mobile 3 can also render a very exquisite and real picture when running "Game for Peace". The editor is more impressed by the rendering effect of the smoke particles in the game, such as the black smoke emitted by the burning car below. in the game screen appears to be very delicate, a strong sense of reality, no map rendering feeling.

Let's talk about a more recent example, such as the fourth-generation Snapdragon Elite Gaming on the first Snapdragon 8, there is also a technology to improve the light and shadow effect of the game screen: stereoscopic rendering. This technology can greatly improve the performance of smoke effects in the game. In many games, smoke is an important part of light and shadow effects, and advances in these particle graphics will enable the game to achieve a whole new level of fidelity.

The first generation of Snapdragon 8 realized end-tour-level stereoscopic rendering with the help of Adreno GPU, supporting the creation of realistic smoke effects, which can float and flow in the environment. Players will obviously have an immersive feeling when they play some smoky scenes on the first generation of Snapdragon 8 mobile phones.

In short, although you may not have heard of these technologies, they are indeed the heroes behind the Snapdragon mobile platform, quietly promoting the continuous evolution of the screen effects of mobile games.

An innovation you don't know, to build a comprehensive mobile experience, in fact, in addition to the game-related details described by CTOnews.com above, Snapdragon Mobile platform has many other technological innovations that may not be known, but actually serve the user experience. For example, AI, for example, on the previous generation Snapdragon 8 AI platform, Qualcomm incorporated AI technology into modems and RF systems, bringing AI antenna tuning technology, which can detect the position of the user's hand when holding the terminal, enhance the antenna tuning ability, and achieve faster data transmission, better network coverage and longer battery life. If you use 5G mobile phones every day, you may unwittingly find that the mobile phone signal is becoming more and more stable, and 5G traffic is often used, and the mobile phone power does not seem to decline too much, which is actually controlled by AI antenna tuning technology in silence.

‎ and AI play a more important role in mobile phone images. For example, people may think that the effect of mobile phone photography is getting stronger and stronger now, especially at night, not only the brightness of the picture is high, but also the purity of the picture is very high, with almost no noise, and the performance of highlight suppression and dark details in the picture is something we could not have imagined many years ago. Behind this, it actually has a very close relationship with the multi-frame synthesis algorithm that AI participated in, such as the "super multi-frame engine" integrated by the first generation Snapdragon 8 on 18-bit Spectra ISP, which can capture 30 images at the same time and combine them into one photo. So that the photos taken in low light conditions have super sharpness, super rich colors and super brightness. You may not have heard of this technology, but it really contributes to our night photo experience.

And in terms of audio experience, Qualcomm's Snapdragon Sound Snapdragon listening solution also has a number of technologies that are quietly improving our true wireless Bluetooth headset listening experience. For example, in the sound quality that many friends pay more attention to, the sound quality of Bluetooth headphones has made great progress, and it is not inferior to many professional wired headphones, which is why more and more users are getting used to using real wireless headphones. Today, we can hear more and more immersive high-quality music from real wireless headphones, thanks to the support of Snapdragon Mobile platform for CD-level quality lossless wireless music, like the first generation Snapdragon 8, which can support CD-quality lossless audio up to 16-bit 44.1kHz through Bluetooth, thus meeting consumers' demand for lossless audio playback. And it also supports the Qualcomm aptX Lossless feature, which can retain all the original content of the audio, thus completely presenting the music like the master band.

Call is also one of the scenarios where we often use Bluetooth headphones, while Snapdragon Sound achieves ultra-wideband 32kHz voice call quality through Qualcomm aptX Voice technology, resulting in richer and clearer calls.

In conclusion, the above examples are numerous. Snapdragon Mobile platform constantly strengthens our mobile experience through one technological innovation after another, whether it is games, video, audio, connection, AI, or security, etc., Snapdragon Mobile platform covers all aspects of mobile life.

As Christopher Patrick, senior vice president and general manager of mobile phone business of Qualcomm, said at the opening of the second generation Snapdragon 8 press conference:

Consumers' expectations and demand for smartphones are increasing. By investing and innovating leading technologies, we achieve the improvement and progress of the entire system and related software of the platform to meet the needs of consumers and exceed their expectations. We are at an important juncture in leading the development of processors, and it is also a critical moment for Snapdragon to make the next leap in the field of networked computing.

Reviewing these technological innovations that meet the needs of consumers, Snapdragon Mobile platform has been able to lead the industry almost every time, and this high-profile hardware-level mobile light pursuit may be just another achievement on this leading path. Qualcomm is still trudging in pursuit of the ultimate mobile experience.

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