Graphics processor

[MannyZ28]

The Pre had a lower GPU then Evo. A more colorful screen, but not a better GPU. Then the CPU makes the Pre a paper weight. Show me a 3d game for the Pre, that there is an Android version of it, that plays better on the Pre.

I can tell you right now that Dungeon Hunter, yet another Gameloft game that was ported from the iPhone to the Pre and then to Android, looks better on the Pre than on the Evo. The framerate is a little faster on the Pre, but it is still very playable on the Evo, however, the textures look quite a bit better on the Pre, also, the lighting effects look better on the Pre as well. When you run around the dungeons on the Evo, it looks like someone installed an electrical lighting system in that dungeon, compared to the Pre version where you get more of a real dungeon feel.

Asphalt 5 is another game that runs better on the Pre. While the slightly updated version runs better now than it did before on the Evo, it's just a tad bit slower and has occasional pauses that you won't find on the Pre version. Of course, to play any Gameloft game on at least a Sprint Palm Pre, you better do a lengthy reboot if you want to avoid a "Too many cards" error. It's very enjoyable to just start one game after the other on the Evo without having to reboot between each one. And of course the big screen of the Evo also makes for a better experience, because if you have big thumbs, you will cover up almost half of the Pres screen when playing.

Need for Speed Shift looks smooth on this demo running on a Nexus One:
YouTube - Need for Speed Shift for Android

Not sure when we actually get to buy this game. I am tempted to get it because it does look like the hands down winner for any mobile racing game.

Lastly, check out this article, it brings up some interesting insights.


Hummingbird vs. Snapdragon: The 1 GHz Smartphone Showdown | AlienBabelTech

If you like your eyes, I highly recommend copying and pasting this into Word or Wordpad, the black background with white letters will kill your eyes.

Oh, and I bought Heavy Gunner 3d. Very fun game and runs good on the Evo!

 

[MannyZ28]

I just want to be able to play that Angry Birds game that is coming to android. If I can play that on either the Evo or Epic, I will be a happy man.

I am excited for this one too! I played it on an iphone 4 yesterday and while the graphics look smooth and clean (especially on the "retina" display) they don't seem too challenging.

Check out this video of the Android version if you haven't seen it yet:

YouTube - Angry Birds on Android

It's running on a Droid, unfortunately, but I am sure the Evo can handle it.

 

[Yourdogsdead]

I am excited for this one too! I played it on an iphone 4 yesterday and while the graphics look smooth and clean (especially on the "retina" display) they don't seem too challenging.

Check out this video of the Android version if you haven't seen it yet:

YouTube - Angry Birds on Android

It's running on a Droid, unfortunately, but I am sure the Evo can handle it.

It reminds me of Worms, that was a great game. I look forward to trying this one.

 

[MannyZ28]

I was actually surprised at many games I could get:

-Exzeus Arcade
-Hungry Shark (funfun)
-Let's Golf (gameloft, beware)
-Raging Thunder II
-Slimeball Speedway
-Tiki Towers
-Caligo Chaser


There are obviously others. Those are pretty good graphics wise. I don't like old school games, but there exist some.

Tiki Towers is great fun....did you have problems with the left side of the screen flickering? It is evident as soon as you start the game during that little intro sequence. It seems to fix itself during the building phase of the game until you scroll all the way to the right. That kind of ruins the game a bit, hopefully they will fix that.

 

[RayStinkle]

I was disappointed about snapdragon graphics too, but that YouTube video posted actually looked pretty good on the nexus. Plus remember gameloft made 10 iPhone ports to android of high quality 3d games.

 

[MannyZ28]

The 30 fps cap of the Evo is a non issue as far as games on Android go in general. The current generation of phones all have to deal with one major issue and that is fill rate. Due to the high resolution, a lot of pixels have to be drawn each time the screen is refreshed so the real challenge is the fill rate. All developers aim for 30 fps, you can't do much more with the current crop of phones. You can look at this 1 hour long video from Google IO where this is discussed in detail.

YouTube - Google I/O 2010 - Writing real-time games for Android redux

 

[epbb]

I could never get into "serious" gaming on phones. I guess I don't really see the challenge in tapping the screen like crazy with one or two fingers. Plus I always feel like a junior high kid when I'm playing these types of games in public lol. Which means I'd have to play it at home, where I have a PS3 for games.

I do like games like Trap (which I'm really addicted to right now) which has very basic, atari like graphics. I like games that wouldn't work on PS3s. Games that use the touchscreen well like Tap Tap Revenge or use the accelerometer like Labyrinth. These games at least require some level of "skill". It's not just seeing how fast you can tap the screen. lol

 

[MannyZ28]

I wish they would make more Lucas Arts style adventure games were you interact with the characters by touching on objects on the screen and composing actions out of a given list of available words to piece together an action you want your character to perform. Games like Maniac Mansion and Sam & Max should work great on the current generation of large screen phones!

 

[Eric1987]

Would a PS1 emulator even work? I couldnt imagine it being able to play any decent looking games if it has a hard time with mobile games.

 

[marko358]

I totally agree with you....No one should expect anything crazy from a phone. It doesn't matter if another phone has it or not. It's a phone people, not a handheld console.

Some people don't like to carry multiple devices with them and if there's a phone that can do both then that one is a winner.

 

[Kedar]

Tiki Towers is great fun....did you have problems with the left side of the screen flickering? It is evident as soon as you start the game during that little intro sequence. It seems to fix itself during the building phase of the game until you scroll all the way to the right. That kind of ruins the game a bit, hopefully they will fix that.

I don't think I have that problem. Lol sorry.
Mine works fine.


It just bitters me as a former pre owner. The pre would get new gameloft games every week. If you have seen these trailers, then for the light 3d gamer you know you won't have to buy a psp and $20 games.

 

[MannyZ28]

I don't think I have that problem. Lol sorry.
Mine works fine.


It just bitters me as a former pre owner. The pre would get new gameloft games every week. If you have seen these trailers, then for the light 3d gamer you know you won't have to buy a psp and $20 games.

Hmm...time for a reboot.

 

[MannyZ28]

I don't think I have that problem. Lol sorry.
Mine works fine.


It just bitters me as a former pre owner. The pre would get new gameloft games every week. If you have seen these trailers, then for the light 3d gamer you know you won't have to buy a psp and $20 games.

Are you sure you don't have that problem, because a lot of people on the market are complaining about it.

 

[eagle63]

Is the problem that the Adreno is that inferior to the PowerVR, or is the bigger problem the fact that companies like Gameloft are simply porting their iPhone-optimized games to other platforms (Android, Palm) and NOT re-coding the game to take advantage of a different GPU? In other words, the Pre benefits from the fact that they use the same chipset (or chipset family) as the iPhone, therefore Gameloft and EA's games are already optimized. But for those of us using Snapdragon chipsets, those same games don't play as well simply because there were written/optimized for different hardware?

Due to the popularity of the iPhone, using the same chipset was probably a pretty shrewd move by Palm as it made porting easy and required no re-optimization by Gameloft.

 

[Kedar]

Are you sure you don't have that problem, because a lot of people on the market are complaining about it.

Yeah, it runs nicely on mine. I wish I could show you a video. Maybe it has to do with the 0002/0003 build. I have 0002.

 

[Kevin OQuinn]

Is the problem that the Adreno is that inferior to the PowerVR, or is the bigger problem the fact that companies like Gameloft are simply porting their iPhone-optimized games to other platforms (Android, Palm) and NOT re-coding the game to take advantage of a different GPU? In other words, the Pre benefits from the fact that they use the same chipset (or chipset family) as the iPhone, therefore Gameloft and EA's games are already optimized. But for those of us using Snapdragon chipsets, those same games don't play as well simply because there were written/optimized for different hardware?

Due to the popularity of the iPhone, using the same chipset was probably a pretty shrewd move by Palm as it made porting easy and required no re-optimization by Gameloft.

I wouldn't call it shrewd. I would call it smart. If they coulda got the PDK out sooner then maybe they (palm) woulda had more higher quality apps. When the pre was announced it's proc/gpu combo was cutting edge. Now it's dated and people think it's slow because palm is still on version 1 of webOS and hasn't optimized like apple has.

 

[storino03]

A game I recently discovered in the Market is called Colorix. looks and plays really nicely on the evo.

Also, here's a link I started on the Gameloft support forums:

Why no good Android support? No dedicated forum either?

 

[eagle63]

I wouldn't call it shrewd. I would call it smart. If they coulda got the PDK out sooner then maybe they (palm) woulda had more higher quality apps. When the pre was announced it's proc/gpu combo was cutting edge. Now it's dated and people think it's slow because palm is still on version 1 of webOS and hasn't optimized like apple has.

Shrewd means smart or clever

 

[MannyZ28]

Yeah, it runs nicely on mine. I wish I could show you a video. Maybe it has to do with the 0002/0003 build. I have 0002.

I don't think the hardware version of the phone has anything to do with it, there are a lot of people complaining that run it on N1s and Desires.

Do you have the full version or just a demo?

Nevermind, I just bought the full version and it runs perfect. The Dev should really fix the demo, makes a bad impression.

 

[npark]

Would a PS1 emulator even work? I couldnt imagine it being able to play any decent looking games if it has a hard time with mobile games.

No one in this thread is suggesting that gaming on an Evo is such a horrible experience you'll go home and slap your mother because it was so painful.

There are games that will play better on a Pre. There are other games that are more optimized for the Evo and therefore play rather nicely. Other phones, like the Samsung Epic might do a better job.

Before you go passing judgement and stating that the Evo can't "play any decent looking games" perhaps you should grab one, play a game demo, and decide for yourself.