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Third release of Android NDK supports OpenGL ES 2.0, for 3D games

08 March 2010 by Paul Fang



The third release of the Android Native Development Kit (NDK) is now available for download from the official Android developer site.  According to a blog post by Android developer David Turner, applications focused on Android 2.0 or higher now gain the ability to directly access OpenGL ES 2.0 features, which brings the capability to “control graphics rendering through vertex and fragment shader programs, using the GLSL shading language”.

The current iPhone platform already supports OpenGL ES, which brings a new level of visual realism to 3D gaming on mobile devices.  Supporting OpenGL could facilitate for programmers who’ve already created games using the technology move more effortlessly to Android while maintaining high graphics performance.

We’d love to see some visually fantastic 3D games debut on the Android platform; this particular decision will greatly aid developers in that particular quest.

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  1. This is Really Really Really nice Graphics
  2. dumb question, what's the difference between an sdk and an ndk?
  3. Quote:
    Originally Posted by constellanation View Post
    dumb question, what's the difference between an sdk and an ndk?
    NDK = native developer kit, lets you integrate c/c++ code into otherwise java android apps. Android already supports OpenGL 1.0 and partial 1.1, this just adds 2.0 support for 2.0+ devices.
  4. thanks! i'm going to guess that's a good thing, since i'm not sure what that means exactly...
    I guess if i was a developer of some sorts that would make a lot more sense.
  5. Quote:
    Originally Posted by constellanation View Post
    thanks! i'm going to guess that's a good thing, since i'm not sure what that means exactly...
    I guess if i was a developer of some sorts that would make a lot more sense.
    Basically, it lets a developer call out directly to C dll's/etc. It's excellent for games or anything that needs the performance C/C++ offers.

    For instance, I can write my own audio driver and call out to it, instead of using the SDK's limited audio classes. It allows me the benefit of doing whatever I wanted, without the restriction of certain elements.

    In Java terms, it's basically JNI/JNA
  6. whats the game in the screen shot?
  7. exzeus arcade



    Sent from my Nexus One using Tapatalk
  8. check this out for more info and gameplay footage http://androidcommunity.com/coming-soon-to-an-android-near-you-hyperdevboxs-exzeus-20100201/



    Sent from my Nexus One using Tapatalk
  9. Quote:
    Originally Posted by djunio View Post
    check this out for more info and gameplay footage http://androidcommunity.com/coming-s...zeus-20100201/



    Sent from my Nexus One using Tapatalk
    thanks dj for the link
  10. thanks for the explanations nerdrow and scythe, now I'm thinking that this is indeed a good thing.

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