GOTEBORG, Sweden – August 23, 2004 – <a href="http://www.develant.com">Develant Technologies</a> today announced a significant update to their mobile graphics platform GapiDraw, adding native support for the Tapwave Zodiac handheld device and introducing full support for the PocketHAL graphics interface on Windows Mobile devices. GapiDraw is the leading graphics platform for Palm, Symbian and Windows Mobile devices and is actively used in research, CAD/CAM, navigational tools and hundreds of commercial mobile games.
GapiDraw 3.5 is the first cross-platform graphics API to introduce full hardware support for the Tapwave Zodiac handheld computer. The Tapwave Zodiac is the first Palm-OS device that supports hardware-accelerated graphics through an 8mb on-board ATI chip. Applications created with GapiDraw for the Zodiac will automatically take advantage of the Zodiac Graphics Processor Unit (GPU) – no change is necessary for existing program code!
GapiDraw 3.5 also introduces full support for the PocketHAL graphics interface on Windows Mobile devices. PocketHAL is a hardware abstraction layer similar to the Microsoft Game API (GAPI), with the two main differences being that PocketHAL is faster and that it always presents the back buffer in the same format on all devices. With the introduction of PocketHAL support, many developers currently developing advanced 3D application on Windows Mobile devices with PocketHAL can now add GapiDraw to their toolkit for advanced user interfaces and blazingly fast blit effects.
GapiDraw 3.5 ships as a statically linked library, where previous versions were shipped as a DLL files. Statically linked libraries have many advantages over DLL files, such as lower memory footprint and simplified deployment of updates and fixes. In addition to the above mentioned additions, GapiDraw 3.5 will include new drawing effects such as anti-aliased lines and circles, with even more tools to be included in the final release.
GapiDraw 3.5 will be released in September 2004 and will be available free of charge to all current site licensees. Those purchasing GapiDraw 3.0 as of today will receive GapiDraw 3.5 at no extra cost when it is released. Beta releases of GapiDraw 3.5 can be downloaded from www.develant.com
About Develant Technologies
Develant Technologies AB is one of the leading providers of cross-platform application development tools for mobile devices. Develant’s graphics platform GapiDraw is available for Palm, Symbian, and Windows Mobile and has shortly become the standard platform to use when creating applications with high demands for advanced graphics on mobile devices. GapiDraw is actively used in research, CAD/CAM, navigational tools, and hundreds of commercial games for mobile devices. For further information, please visit www.develant.com
