The advent of smartphones can be said to have subverted the way people are entertained. From the popular "Angry Birds" and "Fruit Ninja" in the early days of the touchscreen era, to today's "Honor of Kings", "Genshin Impact", "Against the Cold" and other competitive high-quality games, mobile games are no longer just a pastime to pass the time, but also a new way of life that shortens the distance between people and faces more people.
Performance-conscious gamers will always pay attention to the chip performance of a smartphone first, because powerful performance is the cornerstone of a smooth gaming experience. Game developers are also taking full advantage of the powerful hardware on smartphones to bring better gaming experiences with more brilliant graphics. Mobile games and mobile phones are also pushing and growing each other in the process of cyclic iteration.
What's next for mobile gaming?
From stable 60 fps to stable 120 fps, from regular 720P image quality to 1080P high image quality, when smartphone hardware is updated and iterated, mobile game developers are also constantly tapping the potential of these powerful hardware, and bringing better image quality and better experience to every player.
"Against the Cold"
Every game maker doesn't want their game graphics to be outdated, so it's important to make a game not only for the present, but also for the future. Today, when the picture quality of mobile games is clear enough and the running experience is very smooth, some game makers have begun to focus on more realistic "ray tracing".
If you're playing Against the Tide with the iPhone 15 Pro series, you'll see a lot of details: the light and shadow on the water, and the reflected light after the sword is drawn, all of which are very close to the reflected light of the real world, which also makes the gaming experience more immersive. All thanks to "ray tracing". According to Li Yangyang, a senior technical expert in "Against the Cold", ray tracing technology is a computer graphics rendering technology that can generate realistic images, which can simulate the propagation and interaction of light in the scene to produce high-quality and realistic paintings.
iPhone 15 Pro series with A17 Pro chip
"Ray tracing" is the next development direction of games, there are already many 3A masterpieces that support ray tracing technology, and with the help of the A17 Pro chip in the iPhone 15 Pro series, "Against the Cold" has successfully achieved global illumination in the field of mobile games, and while the picture is more gorgeous, the iPhone 15 Pro does not have problems that affect the experience such as hot body and sharp battery drop.
We always say that the emergence of video games has broken the separation between the virtual world and the real world, allowing us to briefly immerse ourselves in our own "small world", while higher quality video games have further broadened the boundaries of this world and given us more freedom. From upgrading the image quality to supporting ray tracing, we look forward to seeing more possibilities in mobile games, which will also allow more players to enjoy the experience brought by technological advancements.
Create a better gaming experience
"Better gaming experiences" don't just depend on hardware vendors or game developers, but they need to work together to create. Since the release of the iPhone, Apple has always adhered to the update strategy of "one generation of models a year", and compared with the rich number of terminals in the Android ecosystem, game developers have to optimize the Apple ecosystem with a lot of trouble. Developers don't need to adapt to a large number of models, but only need to optimize a fixed number of models, so players can enjoy a smooth gaming experience on the latest iPhone every time a new product is released.
As for the powerful hardware, it is the best stage for developers. Successive generations of iPhones are the first echelon of performance in terms of performance, and the Pro model has many leading technologies. For example, the A17 Pro chip used in the iPhone 15 Pro uses the latest 3nm process, and it also has a new neural network engine and a graphics processor based on Apple's research architecture, which can improve game performance while also providing guarantee for better game graphics. Li Yangyang, a senior technical expert of "Against the Cold", also believes that the strong performance of the A17 Pro chip allows "Against the Cold" to achieve ray tracing and real-time global lighting for mobile games, and the performance is significantly higher than that of other mobile platforms, bringing lower heat and power consumption while obtaining a smooth game experience comparable to that of the console: "For game developers, with the super performance of the deep integration of software and hardware of iOS and iPhone, we can More than 100 million players have created a more realistic and immersive gaming experience. ”
Game Porting Toolkit 2
Similarly, Apple itself has lowered the bar for developers at the software level. For example, the graphics processing API "Metal" gives developers almost direct access to the graphics processor, helping developers maximize the performance of their games while taking into account energy consumption. The Game Porting Toolkit 2 introduced at WWDC24 this year also allows developers on other platforms to quickly port their games to the Apple ecosystem.
In iOS 18, which will be officially launched in the fall, Apple has also brought a game mode to the iPhone. When Game Mode is turned on, the iPhone's background activity is minimized, allowing the full performance of the chip to serve the game and maintain the highest frame rate. If you're using AirPods or gamepads while gaming, Game Mode can also make these cable accessories more responsive, making the gaming experience more immersive.
到App Store探索更多好游戏
When it comes to the Apple ecosystem, the "App Store" is naturally indispensable. Apple has always been taking care of developers in the Apple ecosystem with the most gentle attitude, and a large number of new APIs and development tools are encouraging more developers to optimize their applications and create a better experience for users.
Every summer, Apple holds a "Summer Celebration" event to promote some high-quality games to more users in the Apple ecosystem. Recently, the summer festival has also reached its second stage, including well-known mobile games such as "Dungeons & Warriors: Origins" and "Singing Tide", which have also joined this year's summer festival.
It can be said that the emergence of the App Store has also provided a display space for more games, and when you don't know what to play, open the App Store and always find some surprises.
Write at the end
The ingenious integration of hardware, software and developers forms a complete closed loop within the Apple ecosystem, and they are all indispensable. From ray tracing to the upcoming launch of Game Mode, we can see that Apple is embracing more gamers. When we pick up the iPhone and open those apps, we can also feel the infinite possibilities brought to us by the colorful mobile game world.