At a game developer conference in San Francisco today phone maker Oppo unveiled a “ray tracing” wallpaper application for smartphones.
Ray tracing is a technique that uses computer graphics to realistically simulate the lighting of a scene and its objects by rendering physically accurate reflections, refractions, shadows and indirect lighting, according to a definition from Nvidia.
With ray tracing technology, 3D wallpapers can render light in real-time at usable frame rates, making objects appear more vivid and life-like. It also provides users with the ability to interact with their wallpapers through a series of hand gestures including rotating, tapping and waving.
Today, Oppo showed its ColorOS ray tracing 3D wallpaper for mobile.
At the Game Developers Conference 2022 visitors experienced multiple real-time ray tracing wallpapers on Oppo's newest flagship device launched in China — the Dimensity version of the Find X5 Pro.
Oppo began developing its ray tracing technology early in 2018 with initial plans to adopt a hybrid rendering method to gradually introduce ray tracing to existing mobile devices. But the company pivoted and came up with a new approach for its ColorOS ray tracing 3D wallpaper.
It used a hybrid architecture and dedicated hardware cores, using the full potential of the MediaTek Dimensity 9000 chipset and the Arm Mali GPU on the Find X5 Pro smartphone.
The 3D wallpaper application is slated for release through an application programming kit later this year. It will be available for smartphone owners as well as to global developers, artists and designers.
"As a technology pioneer, Oppo has always actively explored new opportunities to enrich the mobile experience for our users," said Jane Tian, head of Graphics Product Management at the Oppo U.S. Research Center. "The ability to take advantage of ray tracing technology across smartphone devices will bring about more realistic gameplay graphics, for more immersive and competitive gaming. Our 3D wallpaper will also serve as a starting point to using the technology to explore future applications in smart devices."
Oppo is among popular Chinese smartphone makers, including Huawei and vivo. But according to the analysts at Counterpoint Research, Apple took over the top smartphone spot in China toward the end of 2021.