As the popularity of mobile games increases, smartphone technology is also developing. One of the factors is the innovation of Ray Tracing technology which is able to offer the sensation of playing PC and console games with brilliant graphics on smartphone devices.
The Galaxy S23 Series smartphones that were released last year offer GPUs with capable performance, while also presenting Ray Tracing which has attracted the attention of gamers around the world. The development process is not instant. Since 2010, Samsung has focused on breaking down the boundaries between console, desktop, and mobile by expanding the performance and reach of graphics APIs (application programming interfaces).
Also read: Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Review: The Best Android Flagship of 2023
Partnering with key industry players, Samsung has taken the lead in standardizing its latest technologies as common APIs. Thus, more companies can easily apply the latest technology to more games and expand the relevant ecosystem.
In 2016, Samsung standardized the next-generation graphics API called Vulkan which was released by Khronos Group and successfully commercialized through the Galaxy S7. Then worked on advanced GPU development with Epic Games and Unity to optimize Android game performance since 2015, before Vulkan was integrated into Galaxy devices.
In line with the recent rising trend in cross-platform gaming, Samsung is quickly applying its desktop GPU technology to mobile GPUs. With consumers increasingly demanding console-quality graphics on their mobile devices, Samsung is offering Ray Tracing technology on mobile gaming machines.
Apa itu Ray Tracing?
Ray Tracing is the latest rendering method that realizes graphic effects in real time by tracing light rays. The Galaxy S23 Series GPU is equipped with dedicated hardware to accelerate ray tracing simulations similar to desktop GPUs, rendering shadows and light reflections in mobile games in a much more realistic way.
Jungwoo Kim of Samsung Electronics' System Platform Development R&D Group MX Business is in charge of managing the GPU development for the Galaxy S23 Series. He describes Ray Tracing technology as the best graphic rendering method.
“Ray Tracing is a complex simulation that traces how the eye's optic nerve receives light rays after they are reflected, refracted or diffracted by an object. “This is very similar to how light is actually processed,” Kim said.
Meanwhile, Joonyong Park from Samsung Electronics' System Platform R&D Group MX Business added that previous rasterization techniques were limited, resulting in awkward and inaccurate expressions. Park is in charge of managing GPU technical support as well as internal and external collaboration on the Galaxy S23 Series.
According to him, when it comes to shadow effects, for example, the previous method projects an object onto a scene by first creating a shadow map and then adjusting it onto the object again. “In contrast, Ray Tracing simulates the actual effects of how shadows are formed, which appear accurately and realistically on the screen – so users can enjoy more natural-looking graphics,” he said.
Multi-Player Collaboration Drives Mobile Performance
The developers worked closely with Samsung R&D Institute Ukraine (SRUKR) and various partner companies, including Epic Games, the developer of Unreal Engine, to prepare the best graphics
Kim explained that the demo content introduced at Galaxy Unpacked 2023 was the result of teamwork. This is an area that has been worked on in collaboration with game engine developers and game developers. “We continue to make various efforts for efficient rendering. As a result, we were able to overcome the challenges by reducing the amount of computation while maintaining the same level of quality,” said Kim.
Park also told the story of developing demo content at Epic Games headquarters in North Carolina, USA. The team managed to render a demo game where a chicken character appears using the Vulkan API for the first time. “As soon as the chicken character appeared for the first time after fixing the error, everyone from Epic Games, SRUKR, and colleagues from the MX R&D team cheered,” he said.
Galaxy S23 Series Opens a New Paradigm of Mobile Gaming
So, what does the future of commercialized Ray Tracing technology look like? Park believes that the way we create and consume graphic content will change in a way that is in line with Ray Tracing. “In this process, we hope that mobile devices with portability and high-performance hardware on par with consoles will contribute to this change,” he said.
Ray Tracing technology is just starting to make its way into mobile devices. Since Samsung has been researching and preparing this technology for a long time, the company claims to be leading the industry and rapidly expanding this technology. “Our next goal is to find the optimal method to apply Ray Tracing on various mobile devices and provide an amazing gaming experience for users,” Kim said.
The challenge is that mobile games that support Ray Tracing are not yet available on the market, but if any game companies show interest in the new mobile GPU technology, Samsung will welcome it. When asked about the future of mobile gaming performance, Park replied that they “working very hard to apply Ray Tracing technology to more mobile games.”
Disclaimer: Artikel ini merupakan kolaborasi dengan Samsung Electronics Indonesia
