Daniel Baxter, Senior Developer and Matthew Hately, VP of Strategy from Macadamian were on hand at BlackBerry 10 Jam to speak of custom frameworks they've been building that work with OpenGL and Cascades. They hit the stage to show off one of their apps making use of their custom controls that pulls in content from various resources to aggregate the information and show it off in a useful UI. In this case, they pulled info from Twitter for the NBA playoffs in an attempt to get a concenus on who would win. The results are pretty impressive and as noted, Macadamian will be posting the source code for developerson the BlackBerry Cascades site.
Leigh let me know he's been hard at work on his latest creation, Tank Recon 3D. This is one of the first games to take advantage of the OpenGL ES support on the Storm2, and features amazing 3D graphics. The game puts you in the drivers seat of a tank through various missions, shooting down planes, AT guns, tanks and more.
You're the Commander of a lone recon tank charged with a mission that will help end the 12 year war with the Hepion. We have developed a new advanced tank, code named Alpha. It seems that the wretched Hepion has also managed to develop their own tank, code named Beta. The race is on to see who can field their tanks first.
In a bold move and in an effort to curve the development of the Hepion tank Beta, our commanders have decided to send out our pearl. Like a raging storm, our Alpha is being rushed into a dangerous tour of duty to save our world.
There are multiple different levels, story mode and instant-action mode, ability to set your own music as the soundtrack, leaderboard and more. Tank Recon 3D really does look great on the Storm2, so if you're a fan of this type of game at all I definitely recommend picking it up. It sells for $7.99 in the CrackBerry App Store (a bit higher than most games, but given the work that went into it totally worth it).
While at the BlackBerry Developer Conference this year, Adam and I got to sit in on developer session on how to best make use of OpenGL in BlackBerry devices. During that session one of the games demoed was PBA Bowling 2. Just a little over a month later, we now have a finalized version for the BlackBerry Storm2. Since PBA Bowling 2 makes us of the OpenGL graphics engine it looks great on the Storm2's screen and also makes great use of the accelerometer. Right now you can grab PBA Bowling 2 for only $2.99. That's 40% off until January 4th folks. If you download it, let us know in the comments what you think of it in comparison to other BlackBerry games that are not using OpenGL.
All of Concrete Softwares other games are on sale for 40% through January 4th as well. You can choose from greats like Sid Meier's Pirates, Aces Mahjong, Aces Blackjack and more. Check out the full Concrete Software lineup in the CrackBerry App Store.
Update: So we're waiting for some further confirmation as to actually which existing device models will be able to take advantage of the new Open GL ES support. Storm2 for sure, and we think the 8530 (devices using the latest Qualcomm Chipsets), but we're not 100% sure what the scoop is here. Stay tuned!
One of the most frequently asked questions by both BlackBerry developers and owners over the past couple of years is When is 3D graphic support coming to BlackBerry? That question need not be asked anymore as today Research in Motion announced Open GL ES Support for BlackBerry. Furthermore, they showed it in action via a live demo at the opening keynote of the second annual BlackBerry Developer Conference.
Be sure to watch the video above of a BlackBerry Storm2 running EA Mobile's Need for Speed Shift. We were on location in San Francisco to catch this BlackBerry milestone live. Pure Wicked. Let's hope we see a TON of awesome new games take advantage of this and roll out soon. The Open GL ES support won't just be for the Storm2, but for devices running the 5.0 platform (not necessarily all). Read the press release for more details! Excited much?! I know I am!!
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