PocketMatrix

We will very soon release the final GapiDraw 2.10 for Symbian. We have done extensive internal testing, but we would be interested in having someone to test it externally as well.

What do you need to participate?

(1) You need a UIQ or Series 60 device (including the N-Gage).
(2) You need to have lots of time to test the release. We are especially interested in full time developers that have already begun or are working on a Symbian release using GapiDraw.

If you fulfill these requirements, please drop us a note at gapidraw@viktoria.se

I might add that we also are looking for Pocket PC developers that want to give the new release a try before it's released.. As for Pocket PC developers we are especially looking for ones that have large, complex games and might consider moving them over to 2.10 due to the performance improvements of BltFast. Also, users that want to test the xp-unicode build are very welcome.

Here's the version history of GapiDraw 2.10:

GapiDraw 2.10 [2003-12-09]
--------------------------

SDK additions:
-Symbian support! You can now use GapiDraw to create applications for Symbian devices!
-New unicode DLL for Windows 2000/XP. It is now possible to create unicode applications on stationary PCs.
-GapiDraw can now be used to create non-fullscreen applications on Pocket PCs! Use the new GapiDisplay::CreateOffscreenDisplay to create a HDC compatible backbuffer. Check out the new GDIDemo sample application for details!
-New functions CGapiSurface::CreateSurface(CGapiSurface* pSrcSurface) and CGapiRGBASurface::CreateSurface(CGapiRGBASurface* pSrcSurface) to simplify surface copying.
-New object: CGapiDraw. On the Symbian platform this object must be the FIRST to be created from the GapiDraw library, and also the LAST GapiDraw object to be deleted. On other platforms it is not necessary to create a CGapiDraw instance.
-New blit effects: GDBLTFASTFX_SCREEN and GDBLTFASTFX_OVERLAY.

SDK improvements:
-Parts of BltFast were rewritten in ARM assembler, resulting in a 5-8% performance improvement when no blend effects are used.
-Grayscale PNG images are now supported by the PNG importer.
-GapiDraw is now compatible with DirectDraw 5.0 or later (Windows 98 and up). Previously DirectDraw 7.0 was required.

SDK changes:
-Important: The syntax for the functions "ProcessNextFrame", "CreateSurfaces", and "CreateVideoSurfaces" was changed. You must update your subclass of CGapiApplication to reflect these changes, otherwise your application will not work with the new release!
-CGapiApplication::CreateSurfaces was renamed to CreateSysMemSurfaces.
-CGapiApplication::CreateVideoSurfaces was renamed to CreateVidMemSurfaces.
-CGapiApplication::ProcessNextFrame was changed to pass a CGapiSurface pointer instead of a CGapiSurface reference.
-CGapiApplication member variables m_display, m_input, m_timer was changed to pointers for Symbian compatibility.
-The CGapiApplication configuration parameter bMinimizeOnLostFocus was renamed to bRegainLostFocus and defaults to FALSE.
-"HRESULT CGapiDisplay::GetBackBuffer(CGapiSurface& surface)" was changed. The function call is now "CGapiSurface* CGapiDisplay::GetBackBuffer()".
-CGapiInput does no longer lock the keys in the constructor. You now manually need to lock the keys by calling CGapiInput::OpenInput (this is automatically done by CGapiApplication if you use it).
-The optimized versions for Smartphone2003 and WM2003 were removed. Internal ARM assembler improvements to the GapiDraw core has made the WM2003 optimized versions obsolete.

Bug Fixes:
-The multithreaded version of GapiApplication (CGapiApplicationMT) would previously crash on Smartphone 2003 devices due to a threading bug in the file "gx.dll" shipped with all phones. The issue has been solved using a work-around.

Edit: Updated the version history....

I'd be willing to move K&G Arcade to 2.10. It's still under development, but it is already rather large and fairly complex I think.

The improvement in BltFast alone might make it worth it to me, if that improvement is realized on MediaQ devices like my Axim... Might solidify my frame rate a bit.

Johan, what do the two new blit effects do? I can't gleen their meaning from their names alone (although I could guess what GDBLTFASTFX_OVERLAY...)