Give Android 16 gaming a boost with Google’s new rule

 To support game-changing graphics feature, Google will require new Android 16 devices 

Google is making a major change to how Android phones handle gaming. Starting with Android 16, any new phone or tablet which lands in the market must support a new feature called Host Image Copy. While the name might sound like something only developers care about, the real-world impact is clear: faster load times, less stuttering and games that run more smoothly overall. This relates to someone who games on their phone and can appreciate. New Android 16 devices must support Host Image Copy, a Vulkan 1.4 feature which reduces stuttering, load times, & memory use. Following are the some of the important points:-

Games using Host Image Copy can remove stutter during texture data streaming while also halving memory use.

The latest version of the Vulkan graphics API, Vulkan 1.4, makes the Host Image Copy feature a core feature.

Devices launching with chipset built for Android 16 or later will be required to support the Host Image Copy feature.

The best Android games look significantly better now than they were in the past, thanks to both more powerful hardware for developers and improved graphics rendering features in Android. Now, most Android devices support Vulkan, the industry standard API for graphics and compute. Vulkan allows games to run efficiently on modern devices, and the latest version of the API, Vulkan 1.4, will introduce a feature to more devices which could greatly improve game performance on upcoming Android 16 devices. Host Image Copy helps games load their visuals more efficiently by letting the phone’s processor take care of moving image data, rather than relying only on the graphic chip. It frees up resources and helps your games run better. It also cuts down the amount of memory games need to use behind the scenes, which is good for performance and battery life. This means that end of the long pauses and lag spikes which could frustrate mobile gamers, or at the very least bolster them with enough speed and performance that it’s more attractive to some players who haven’t decided to buy in on mobile or specifically Android.

Android introduced support for the Vulkan graphics API with Android 7.0 Nougat in 2016, but only a small number of devices supported it initially. Now, over 85% of Android devices support Vulkan. As a result, Google recently made Vulkan the official graphics API for Android, meaning that all software will have to use Vulkan to communicate with the device’s GPU. The Vulkan graphics API is a modern, low-overhead, cross-platform 3D graphics and compute API. It gives developers more direct control over the GPU than the older OpenGL API, which Vulkan replaces. This more direct control reduces CPU overhead, leading to improved performance in multi-threaded apps and games, and enables games to utilize advanced features supported by modern smartphone GPUs, such as ray tracing. Google is requiring this feature for all new Android 16 devices, meaning developers can build more demanding games without worrying about compatibility. It’s a good news not just for flagship phones, but for budget-friendly models too, especially ones sold by retailers like Walmart, where affordable Android devices are a staple.

One of the Vulkan features required by VPA 16 is Host Image Copy, a feature which is a part of the core Vulkan 1.4 specification and Google engineer calls a “game changer for games on Android.” Shahbaz Youssefi, Senior Software Developer at Google working on the Vulkan backend of ANGLE, explains that Host Image Copy enables stutter-free texture data streaming and faster load times while halving GPU memory use. While most Android devices available now support Vulkan, there’s significant inconsistency in the specific Vulkan features that individual devices support. To improve consistency in Vulkan feature availability across Android devices, Google introduced the Vulkan Profiles for Android (VPA) program last year. VPA defines a set of Vulkan features which GPUs must support to pass Google’s certification testing for a given Android release. For example, VPA 16, which is aimed at next-generation chipsets launching with support for Android 16, mandates that GPUs support at least these Vulkan features. This change is part of a larger effort by Google to make Android a more competitive platform for gaming. As per the past updates, Android’s performance improvements often start in the background before showing up in flashy features, and Host Image Copy is no different. As Android 16 rolls out, users can expect games to look better, run faster and feel smoother. This means your favourite games on the platform could soon feel a lot more comfortable to really get into, which is a change we can all get behind.

This feature allows games to copy image data, such as textures, using the device’s CPU instead of the GPU. Traditionally, transferring image data from the device’s RAM or storage to the GPU involved multiple steps: first, copying the data to a temporary buffer in GPU memory, and then having the GPU copy it from that buffer to its final destination (the image). By enabling the CPU to copy image data directly between host memory and GPU image memory, or even between two images on the host side, Host Image Copy eliminates the need for a temporary buffer. This halves the GPU memory required for the transfer and, by using multiple CPU threads to load texture data in parallel, improves loading times. This also frees up GPU resources so they can be spent rendering frames more smoothly, reducing stutter. This is a vastly oversimplified summary of Host Image Copy, so it is recommended to read Youssefi’s comments for a more detailed explanation. What’s important to know is that Host Image Copy will prove particularly useful for Android games, as it enables faster app loads, reduces stutter, and lowers GPU memory usage. Youssefi expects that the “vast majority of Android devices shipping with Vulkan 1.4 will implement Host Image Copy, and implement it optimally for compressed formats.” While some current Android devices already support the Host Image Copy feature, this number will grow substantially once new Android 16 devices start to ship, as required by VPA 16.