Crafting a toolkit for GPU optimization
An investigative approach
Samsung’s mobile gaming division helps drive chip sales by encouraging developers to build and port products on their client’s devices. One way they do this is by providing tools, resources, and consultation to studios trying to improve performance on mobile phones with limited compute and graphics resources. The team sought out argodesign for help designing a new tool for GPU engineers to investigate, resolve, and optimize graphics for their major titles.
Hunting for clues
GPU engineering in game development is an incredibly complex domain that relies on a combination of science, art, and experimentation powered by largely imperfect observational tools and methods. It relies on capturing micro-samples of non-linear gameplay to analyze system processes that occur on the graphics card, CPU, and memory for a specific device, and using the gathered evidence to extrapolate insights, hypotheses, and solutions across instances. With a multitude of device configurations, intermittent samples, and player choices influencing the data, not to mention a variety of chip- and device-specific tools to reference, the results can quickly turn into a convoluted mess of information to decipher.
A framework for diagnosis
We began by exploring different tools to better visualize and contextualize captured trace data to identify anomalies, but the biggest breakthrough occurred when we realized a tool gap in recording and troubleshooting the observed insights. In response, we began to design around notetaking capabilities that enhanced the manual discovery employed by experts.
Graduated value for users
By designing the new app around investigation and experimentation, we were able to craft a better solution to aid game and chip developers in quickly and effectively optimizing their applications.
From utility to platform offering
The resulting design employed improved visualizations, context-definition & refinement, and multi-session tracking for problem-solving and comparison that promises to streamline, expedite, and revolutionize performance optimization on Android phones.
