New Game and Graphics SDK Ported to the Palm OS

Posted By: Ryan Wednesday, March 24, 2004 8:12:10 PM

GapiDraw, a well known graphics SDK for Pocket PC, has been updated to support Palm OS devices. The release could bring a large library of quality games to the Palm OS.

Over 140 games and applicationss have been developed using GapiDraw so far, including games like Fire Power: Onrush (pictured) from ManaiSoft, EverQuest 3 & Tower Mogul.

The GapiDraw SDK works with desktop PCs, smartphones and handhelds using the same code base. The programming library enables developers to write once and compile for any supported device or platform. GapiDraw's move to support the Palm Powered devices should result in more quality games being ported to the Palm OS.

GapiDraw is individually optimized for each system platform, providing features such as hardware blitter support, surfaces with variable transparency, bitmapped fonts, rotozoom, real-time tint and colorization effects, and much more.

The Palm release of GapiDraw requires Palm OS 5 and above and supports full-screen 320x480 applications and is written in native ARM code and ARM assembler.

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Sdk rocks!

Hal2000 @ 3/24/2004 9:38:21 PM #
Woo Hoo. (first Post) Woo de friggin do.(doing first post dance now) Yippee! Getting tired... must.. continue woo hoo dance...can't... play ..with...palm..., in cradle charging!

Zodiac2/T616
1.128 gigs under the hood.
RE: Sdk rocks!
acaltabiano @ 3/24/2004 11:41:39 PM #
Well, that is the best first post yet, methinks.

Good. Nice to see palm getting some good games and whatnot heading their direction. I feel they are better for actual business/organization tasks as it is, but the eye candy draw of things like this will really convince those on the fence of the abilities of the system.

RE: Sdk rocks!
RhinoSteve @ 3/25/2004 1:04:17 AM #
I wonder how this is going to collide with the "use our Fathammer engine or we don't promote you" mindset that TapWave has toward the thrid party games?
RE: Sdk rocks!
sford @ 3/25/2004 2:16:37 AM #
I agree: best first post post thus far!

Oh, and, this news is pretty cool, too. :)

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RE: Sdk rocks!
Token User @ 3/25/2004 8:20:11 AM #
I wonder how this is going to collide with the "use our Fathammer engine or we don't promote you" mindset that TapWave has toward the thrid party games?

I am guessing that on TapWave, they will need to have the "GapiDraw" engine optimised for "FatHammer" optimised for "ARM".

It would be nice to see GapiDraw optimised for the graphics chipset on the Zodiac though. Nothing stopping that from happening. Zodiac might not promote the apps, but they have no control over what you might install.

~ "Don't be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed." - DV ~

RE: Sdk rocks!
a3 @ 3/25/2004 8:39:52 AM #
What if Tapwave is the one behind all of this? I mean, why not if they are the ones that could gain more from a move like this...

____________________________________________________
Current fan of a 320x480 tablet shaped PDA with built in BT+Wifi for less than US$500

PalmOS 6

tompi @ 3/28/2004 5:38:38 PM #
Once PalmOS 6 comes out, this cottage industry of special-purpose handheld libraries will likely go away--instead, people will be porting standard libraries to it. That is, provided that Palm does a reasonable job on POS6. If they don't, then it doesn't matter anyway.

RE: PalmOS 6
sbl @ 3/30/2004 4:50:14 AM #
Hi all,

I'm the lead developer of GapiDraw... :)

[quote]It would be nice to see GapiDraw optimised for the graphics chipset on the Zodiac though. Nothing stopping that from happening. Zodiac might not promote the apps, but they have no control over what you might install.[/quote]

We will provide support for Zodiac hardware in GapiDraw!

[quote]Once PalmOS 6 comes out, this cottage industry of special-purpose handheld libraries will likely go away--instead, people will be porting standard libraries to it.[/quote]

Standard libraries such as what? SDL? We run circles around SDL in performance... Palm OS6 will initially have no more support for hardware acceleration than Palm OS5... OpenGL ES will probably come shortly for Palm OS6, but it's no real competition for us - we strive to be fastest at 2D gaming, which actually complements the current 3D engines on the Tapwave quite well.

GapiDraw [[url]www.gapidraw.com[/url]]
The Graphics SDK for Stationary PCs, Smartphones and Handheld Computers

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