With the rapid growth in the computing power of smartphones, today's mobile games are becoming more comparable to traditional AAA gaming titles on PCs and consoles. However, game developers need the software, tools, and technologies to build these amazing immersive gaming experiences within the power, performance, and area (PPA) limitations of mobile devices. This is what Arm’s work with Tencent Games building the next-gen mobile renderer is all about.
Being able to continuously improve mobile gaming experiences is important, as the games industry is experiencing a shift in focus towards being ‘mobile-first’. Based on revenues alone, mobile is the largest gaming segment and will remain soon. According to the market intelligence agency Newzoo, mobile is set to account for more than 48 percent of the global games market in 2020, estimated to reach $77.2 billion in revenues. Both console and PC gaming continue to grow at a rate of around four percent annually. However, mobile gaming is likely to grow at an even faster pace over the next few years.
Building the next-gen mobile renderer with Tencent Games
Tencent Games is a global leader in mobile game development and publishing. It currently offers more than 140 self-developed and licensed games across 200 countries and regions, including some of the most popular titles that are played by millions of users worldwide. Despite the huge success of its games, Tencent Games is continually pushing the boundaries of mobile gaming through even better user experiences.
To achieve better visual quality, performance, and power-saving with the limited hardware resources on mobile, Arm, and Tencent Games have been working closely to push the limit of cutting-edge technologies in rendering. Alongside the technological advancements of the renderer, the highly mature and fast-growing Arm gaming ecosystem ensures that these solutions support and benefit mobile devices, developers and, ultimately, the end consumer.
To date, the next-gen mobile renderer has successfully demonstrated three unique features and advances.
First, the highly optimized deferred shading pipeline supports complex scene rendering with hundreds of movable lights. It also supports post-processing features, such as Bloom, Volumetric Lighting, and FXAA / SMAA, to achieve the highest possible visual quality on Arm Mali GPUs.
Highly optimized deferred shading pipeline
Second, the renderer fully unleashes the full potential of Mali GPUs. It has key support features, such as Vulkan Subpass Merge, that achieve a 30 percent bandwidth saving on mainstream platforms. The renderer also reduces the average device temperature by 3-5 degrees Celsius at runtime, allowing for longer and unfettered play sessions. Finally, it is capable of continually running at a higher FPS with the highest-quality setting.
Memory bandwidth usage with next-gen mobile renderer features
Finally, the built-in profiler queries hardware counters in real-time through integrating the HWCPipe ("Hardware Counter Pipeline") library from Arm. This informs developers about the live status of many hardware modules in an easy-to-read manner.
Built-in profile queries in real-time
The partnership with Tencent Games on the next-gen mobile renderer is a great example of our Total Compute strategy in action. Through Total Compute, Arm is moving beyond optimizing individual IP and taking a system-level solution view of the entire SoC. Focusing on the use-cases and experiences on next-generation devices and putting these at the heart of our designs.
There are three core pillars of Total Compute – compute performance, developer access and security. Developer access is most applicable to our work with Tencent Games. This pillar of Total Compute unleashes improved accessibility and increased performance across Arm’s software and tools. This delivers more performance by default for every developer within their own developer environment. The end goal is higher performing, more immersive, and more secure immersive gaming experiences on devices, and an easier app development process.
In the context of the work on the next-gen mobile renderer, we have worked with Tencent Games to optimize existing mobile renderers. This has been achieved through leveraging the architectural advantages of Mali GPUs, as well as profiling and debugging libraries for Arm systems. This leads to a brand-new and improved developer experience for the process of developing and fine-tuning mobile games.
The latest Arm Mali-G78 GPU, which was launched as part of the 2020 Mobile IP suite, will support future optimization work. The GPU is designed to enable high quality gaming experiences on 2021 mobile devices, with its new features squeezing as much performance out of mobile games as possible.
Arm Mali-G78 GPU
Naturally, Arm is delighted with the new next-generation mobile renderer and what it has managed to achieve. It is a great example of how Arm can combine our high-performance Mali GPU technology and supporting software and tools, with a game development company’s development expertise.
Tencent Games is equally happy. As Willim Cui, the VP of Tencent Games, said in the news announcement:
“Both parties have the common vision to cooperate in providing the ultimate experience for mobile gamers. Tencent Games is delighted to have such in-depth cooperation with Arm on game engine technology by unleashing the potential of Arm processor designs, attempting to improve the mobile gaming experience, and bring mobile rendering to the next level for game developers."
This was a message supported by Paul Williamson, VP & GM of the Client Line of Business at Arm:
“We live in a truly mobile world where increased compute capabilities are enabling console-like gaming on the go. This next-generation mobile renderer combines Arm’s high-performance Mali GPU technology with Tencent Games’ development expertise, equipping developers with the tools needed to build the mobile games of the future.”
Both Tencent Games and Arm are committed to accelerating the development and application of cutting-edge technologies for the advancement of mobile game engines. This is something that Arm wants to promote throughout the mobile gaming ecosystem. Ultimately, this means enabling game developers so they can create more exciting mobile gaming experiences for the billions of gamers worldwide.
More detailed information about the next-gen mobile renderer and its positive results, the partnership between Arm and Tencent Games, and how this ties into Total Compute can be found in a Whitepaper on Developer.Arm.com.
Download the Whitepaper
I think that it would a truly great cooperation.