[Interview]Real-time rendering of realistic images: Samsung experts share the principle of ray tracing technology on the Galaxy S23 flagship series – Samsung Newsroom Taiwan

The popularization of smart phones has driven mobile games into the mainstream. Nowadays, more and more consumers hope to play PC and game console content with exquisite and delicate graphics on their mobile phones, so they have higher expectations for the game performance of mobile phones.

The Galaxy S23 flagship series released by Samsung Electronics on February 2, 2023 Taiwan time features the most powerful GPU in history, with a performance increase of 41% compared to the previous generation. It also supports Ray Tracing technology, giving mobile games realistic and vivid light The effect has aroused the enthusiastic attention of players around the world.

▲Samsung introduced the ray tracing technology on the Galaxy S23 flagship series at Galaxy Unpacked 2023, creating an immersive mobile game experience for players

The Samsung Press Center interviewed the people behind the development of the latest Galaxy S23 flagship series ray tracing technology, and asked them to share the process of improving the mobile game experience. Read on for an in-depth look at the most significant technological breakthrough in mobile game graphics in recent years.

Ray Tracing: Upgrading Your Gaming Experience with Realistic Graphics

Ray tracing presents image effects in real time by tracing rays, which is currently the most advanced rendering technology. The GPU of the Galaxy S23 flagship series combined with dedicated hardware can provide ray tracing simulation comparable to that of a desktop computer, making the shadows and light reflections of the game screen more realistic and vivid.

▲(From left) The behind-the-scenes driving force of ray tracing technology-Jungwoo Kim and Joonyong Park, members of the system platform R&D team of Samsung Electronics Mobile Communication Division

Jungwoo Kim, a member of Samsung’s system platform R&D team and head of GPU R&D for the Galaxy S23 flagship series, described ray tracing technology as “the ultimate image rendering solution.”

“Ray tracing is a complex simulation technique that traces the processing of the optic nerve after the human eye receives light reflected, refracted or diffracted by objects, very similar to the way the human eye processes light,” said Kim.

Joonyong Park, who is responsible for managing GPU technical support and internal and external cooperation this time, said: “Traditional rasterization technology has limited capabilities, which can make images look rough and distorted. Taking shadow effects as an example, the past practice is to pre-image Projected to the scene, a shadow map is generated, and then adjusted again on the object; on the contrary, ray tracing can directly simulate the shadow actually formed by the light, and accurately present it on the screen, so that users can enjoy a more natural and realistic image effect.”

Galaxy S23 flagship series achieves desktop-like mobile graphics performance

Since 2010, Samsung has focused on enhancing the performance of its graphics API (Application Programming Interface) and expanding its application range, hoping to narrow the gap between game consoles, desktop computers and mobile phones. By cooperating with major manufacturers in the industry, Samsung’s latest technology is the first to become a standardized API. This move means that more companies can apply this technology to various games and expand the related ecosystem at the same time.

Kim said: “In 2016, Samsung standardized the new-generation graphics API “Vulkan” released by the Khronos Group, and imported it into the Galaxy S7 for commercial application. However, we started in 2015 before introducing Vulkan into the Galaxy. Cooperate with partners such as Epic Games and Unity to develop advanced GPUs to optimize the performance of Android games. We first provided the optimized code to game developers, and successfully completed Vulkan and engine optimization. Follow-up will be shared at several developer conferences This achievement.”

▲Jungwoo Kim, a member of the system platform R&D team of Samsung Electronics Mobile Communication Division

In response to the increasing popularity of cross-platform games, Samsung has applied computer GPU technology to mobile GPUs at the fastest speed. Park said: “Samsung has worked closely with AP suppliers to continue to evolve the next-generation GPU performance used in flagship phones. As more and more consumers demand that the image quality of mobile games be on par with game consoles, we have moved from two years We started to develop ray tracing technology suitable for mobile game engines.” From his talk, it can be heard that the team is actively promoting this mobile technology innovation.

Multi-party cooperation to improve mobile phone performance

In order to achieve the ultimate graphics performance, the R&D team worked with Samsung R&D Center Ukraine (SRUKR) and several industry partners, including Epic Games, which develops Unreal Engine.

▲The display content created by Samsung and Epic Games on Galaxy Unpacked 2023. Ray tracing (left) simulates a more realistic image than traditional rasterized rendering (right).

Kim said that what was shown at Galaxy Unpacked 2023 was the result of a team effort. “Samsung has cooperated with game engine developers and a number of game developers to continue to focus on this field. In order to improve rendering efficiency, we have made various attempts. In the end, we successfully overcome the challenge and achieved the same rendering quality with fewer operations.”

▲Exhibition content produced by Samsung Electronics. Compared to traditional rasterized rendering (below), ray tracing technology (above) uses Dynamic Shadows to produce lifelike images.

▲Jonyong Park, a member of the system platform R&D team of Samsung Electronics Mobile Communication Division

Park also shared a short story about the development of the Galaxy S7.

“I remember developing demo content at Epic Games headquarters in North Carolina, USA. For the first time, we successfully rendered the chicken character in the demo game with the Vulkan API. The moment we fixed the bug and saw the chicken appear on the screen, All partners from Epic Games, Samsung R&D Center in Ukraine and Samsung MX R&D team cheered loudly. We also ate fried chicken to celebrate that night.” Park especially thanked the partners who worked together to complete this pioneering feat.

Galaxy S23 Flagship Series Sets a New Paradigm for Mobile Gaming

And what does the future look like after the commercialization of ray tracing technology? Park said: “I think the way from creation to use of image content in the future will be changed by the introduction of ray tracing technology. In this process, Samsung expects that mobile phones that are light and portable and have hardware specifications comparable to game consoles will be the catalyst for this development.” key to change.”

▲Galaxy S23 supports ray tracing technology

“The game experience is guaranteed to keep your eyes on you.” The two R&D experts shouted to the star fans who were looking forward to experiencing the performance of the new Galaxy flagship mobile game. They also shared the technology applications that are expected to expand in the future, starting with the Galaxy S23 flagship series at the first stop.

Kim said: “On mobile applications, ray tracing technology has just started. However, Samsung has invested a long time in research and development and preparations, and it is bound to lead the industry to rapidly expand technology applications. The next goal is to find a method that can effectively introduce ray tracing into various types of devices. Mobile phones provide users with the most enjoyable gaming experience.”

▲(From left) The Galaxy S23 displayed by Jungwoo Kim and Joonyong Park, members of the system platform R&D team of Samsung Electronics Mobile Communication Division, is the first to apply ray tracing technology to mobile games.

“Although there are currently no mobile games that support ray tracing on the market, if any game industry intends to adopt the latest mobile GPU technology, we will definitely welcome it with open arms.” Talking about the future of mobile game performance, Park replied that the team is “doing everything possible We will do our best to introduce ray tracing technology into more mobile games.”

The long-term vision of the two developers is to make mobile game graphics more lifelike and create a higher level of immersive experience.

Watch the video below to learn more about the ray tracing technology applied to the Samsung Galaxy S23 flagship series.