Imagination announces POWERVR Insider SDK 2.8

Major upgrade includes support for latest POWERVR enabled devices, 3D map data and tutorial and more

GDC, San Francisco -- March 2, 2011 --  Imagination Technologies, a leading multimedia chip technologies company, has released version 2.8 of its industry leading POWERVR Insider SDK (software development kit). Free and fully featured copies of the SDK will be available for download soon following a brief period where they will be exclusively given away by Imagination at GDC 2011 in San Francisco.

Imagination's POWERVR Insider SDK is the leading SDK and toolset for mobile 3D graphics development. The POWERVR Insider SDK fully supports the development of applications using the Khronos OpenGL® ES 2.0 API. An established favourite with more than 22,000 developers world-wide, the POWERVR Insider SDK includes tutorials, source code, extensive documentation, platform abstraction frameworks and a highly integrated suite of tools. Developers can join up, download the SDK for free and interact with the community through dynamic online forums at www.powervrinsider.com.

Says Tony King-Smith, VP marketing, Imagination: “We are delighted that the latest POWERVR devices are once again storming the independent benchmark charts for commercially available devices and setting new levels for mobile and embedded gaming performance. However we know that performance is only part of the equation for developers. That is why our rich and mature SDK and tools remain at the heart of our ecosystem offering, backed up by extensive technical support, co-marketing and education. We are delighted to be back at GDC to engage with developers who are using POWERVR to deliver the best 3D gaming content for smartphones, tablets, embedded devices and, soon, handheld games consoles.”

Release v2.8 of the POWERVR Insider SDK includes: access to a new version or PVRTune, the acclaimed tool created for Imagination’s licensees; Android Gingerbread support; PVRShaman support for render to texture / environment maps and post processing; PVRTexTool support for texture atlases; support for 3DSMAX and Maya 2011; Android project integration for Eclipse; enhancements to PVRUniSCo and a MacOS version of PVRVFrame; an updated Bada SDK and SDKs for new POWERVR enabled devices; support for 64bit Linux; and NAVTEQ® map and content samples, including Enhanced 3D City Models.

Partner demos at GDC 2011 (Imagination Technologies, booth 824)

The latest game content from POWERVR Insider partners, including Scaleform, Digital Legends, NAVTEQ and Natural Motion, and new POWERVR enabled devices including APE5R from Renesas, will be on display on Imagination's booth, #824, at GDC Expo and GDC Smartphone Summit 2011 (Moscone Center, San Francisco, 28th February – 4th March).

A special session on Understanding POWERVR SGX Graphics Technology and Optimizing for Great Graphics Performance (Monday 4:15- 5:15 Room 120, North Hall) was a complete ‘sell out’, with standing room only but developers can book time with Imagination engineers at the booth for a personalised tour of the POWERVR Insider SDK and toolchain.

Says Brendan Iribe, CEO, Scaleform: “Scaleform GFx is a Flash-compatible open, extensible, hardware-accelerated player that makes maximum use of POWERVR OpenGL ES2 graphics acceleration in every aspect of rendering. It has been used in over 800 3D games to create high-performance, graphically rich in-game user interfaces, menus and animated displays. Thanks to our close working relationship with Imagination, POWERVR graphics is a key enabler of Scaleform’s Flash rendering performance.”

Xavier Carrillo-Costa, CEO, Digital Legends says: “The emergence of powerful graphics for mobile phones, tablets and other platforms has led to amazing new opportunities for Digital Legends, We are proud to have worked closely with Imagination for many years now, and as a result of this close collaboration our latest content which makes full use of POWERVR graphics acceleration, will confirm our position as a leading player in this exciting market with the unique expertise needed to take commercial advantage of the upcoming evolution of high-end mobile games migrating to other platforms (handheld gaming consoles, tablets, TV set top boxes or notebooks) and subsequent growth in this market.”

Says Torsten Reil, CEO, NaturalMotion: “POWERVR technology brings console class graphics capabilities to mobile phones delivering the outstanding performance that our applications demand, complemented by outstanding tools and support. Our engineers really appreciate the support from Imagination’s DevTech team, and unique technology features such as PVRTC texture compression enable us to minimise download size while maximising image quality.”

Says Jon Peddie, Jon Peddie Research: “Imagination is at the top of their game. The company has been expanding through acquisitions, capturing new customers, and developing new technology. And significantly, what is good for Imagination is good for the industry as a whole, pushing devices to new levels of graphics and multimedia capability and allowing applications, tools and cross-platform consistency to thrive and innovate.”

Demonstrations of advanced OpenGL ES 2.0 shader-graphics content created with Imagination's development tools are available as binary downloads from Imagination’s website at http://www.imgtec.com/demo_room/index.asp.

3D location information: a valuable resource for game developers

The latest version of Imagination’s POWERVR Insider software development kit (SDK), version 2.8, includes a new tutorial showing developers how to take full advantage of graphics acceleration using OpenGL ES2 to display 3D map and advanced visual guidance data in graphics-rich applications.

The tutorial overviews the implementation of sample map data for the creation of location-based apps. Additionally, a complementary white paper explaining efficient navigation rendering techniques for compiling of NAVTEQ data is available on NN4D.com. The tutorial helps developers to create differentiated games by adding a location-aware component.

Developers can also join the NAVTEQ Network for Developers™ (www.NN4D.com) to gain access to more extensive data sample sets, and receive technical support.

Continues King-Smith: “There’s a considerable community of developers using our SDK who have extensive experience in 3D gaming and would like to use that skill-set to create location-aware games or games that use highly realistic real world settings. This update to our SDK will help enable this, as will high quality, sample 2D and 3D map data from an industry leader like NAVTEQ.”

Says Marc Naddell, vice president, partner and developer programs, NAVTEQ: “Imagination’s support in enabling developers to utilize premium NAVTEQ visual content, such as Enhanced 3D City Models, helps developers to differentiate their gaming apps. NN4D has worked closely with Imagination Technologies to include the POWERVR Insider SDK in our developer tools and offerings to maximise 3D content capabilities for our members.”