Palm behind the ball on game development
An application developer has complained Palm’s recently released tools for developing apps for the Pre handset don’t give enough access for producing quality games. Ironically the complaints come as it emerged that Palm is looking for an engineer to produce frameworks for game development on the device.
App developer Craig Hunter, whose past work includes a ‘green meter’ for vehicles which runs on the iPhone, says he was disappointed when he looked at Palm’s software development kit, which was unveiled for public use last week.
Hunter’s biggest concern is that the kit doesn’t allow developers to access the Pre’s graphics hardware through the embedded OpenGL system. OpenGL is a graphics system which is effectively an open source rival to the Direct3D system used in Microsoft computers and devices. Hunter notes that not only is this access vital for serious games, but that it can be needed for smooth animations in even simple applications.
His other objection is that while third-party applications can use data from the Pre’s accelerometer (a movement sensor used for controls through tilting and shaking), this data is limited to four changes of position per second. Hunter argues that this pretty much limits apps to responding to whether the phone is vertical or horizontal, and that a minimum of 20 measurements per second is necessary for most apps. That’s because with anything slower than this, the movement detection will noticeable lag behind the graphics.
It may well be that Palm has already recognized the effects of these limitations. A few weeks ago it engaged a recruitment agency to find “top-notch graphics engineers to create development tools for the Palm webOS.” (The job posting, spotted by Slashgear, doesn’t appear on Palm’s own recruitment page.) The role will require the engineers to “Design, implement, debug, and optimize frameworks for game development.“
Related Posts:
