At GDC, Arm launched ASR (Accuracy Super Resolution)—an upscaling technology promising to boost mobile gaming performance without compromising fidelity and battery life.
For years, a fundamental challenge has plagued mobile game developers: how to strike the perfect balance between visuals and performance. Thanks to ASR, that difficult choice will be less of a problem.
First announced last year, Arm ASR is now available to all mobile game developers. Plugins for both Unreal Engine and Unity are expected to be released later this year.
What exactly is Arm ASR?
ASR is an intelligent upscaling solution crafted by Arm to enhance gaming performance without any detrimental impact on visual fidelity. The technology works by rendering specific stages of a frame at a lower resolution before intelligently upscaling them.
This process significantly reduces the workload on the GPU and lowers power consumption. Crucially, this efficiency allows for the implementation of complex graphics and advanced lighting effects on mobile devices.
The result is that developers can achieve visually richer mobile games while ensuring efficient resource utilisation and effectively combating thermal throttling, a common issue that can negatively affect the overall gaming experience for users.
To encourage widespread adoption and foster innovation, Arm ASR is being made available as an open-source solution under the MIT license. This invitation extends to developers across the globe, encouraging them to explore its capabilities and discover how it can elevate their games.
Arm ASR: Bridging the gap between performance and fidelity
The foundation of Arm ASR lies in the adaptation of AMD’s FidelityFX Super Resolution 2 (FSR2) technology. FSR2 was initially designed to provide portable solutions that bridge the performance gap between PC and console gaming.
Arm has now tailored this technology specifically for the unique demands of mobile platforms. A key feature of this adaptation is the inclusion of highly efficient shaders, which significantly reduce both GPU load and the required memory bandwidth. This optimisation is particularly beneficial for devices with more constrained memory bandwidth, enabling them to achieve substantial performance gains.
In terms of visual output, Arm ASR employs temporal upscaling methods. This technique combines information from multiple consecutive frames to generate higher-quality images from lower-resolution inputs. This approach provides developers with familiar APIs and configuration options, making integration smoother.
In practical testing scenarios, Arm ASR has demonstrated superior results in rendering fine details such as thin tree branches and sharp edges to ensure a more accurate and visually-pleasing representation.
Benchmark tests conducted on a complex scene rendered on a device powered by an Arm Immortalis-G720 GPU at a resolution of 2800×1260 showcased the impressive capabilities of Arm ASR. The technology achieved a 53% increase in frame rates when compared to rendering at the native resolution.
This performance boost directly translates into smoother and more responsive gameplay and extended battery life, both of which are critical factors for mobile gamers.
Major game engines and studios embrace Arm ASR
Arm has prioritised compatibility, ensuring that Arm ASR integrates seamlessly with major game engines. A plugin for Unreal Engine 5.3, 5.4, and 5.5 is currently available on Epic’s Fab store, and a Unity plugin is actively in development and expected to be released soon.
The power of Arm ASR was demonstrated in the ‘Mori’ demo, an Unreal Engine 5 project that utilised its innovative desktop renderer for mobile. The results clearly highlighted Arm ASR’s ability to maintain intricate visual details while simultaneously enhancing performance.
As demonstrated in the accompanying video, activating the Arm ASR plugin within Unreal Engine led to an improvement in frames-per-second (FPS) by up to 30%, resulting in better performance and significant power savings, all without any discernible difference in visual quality.
Integrating Arm ASR into Unreal Engine is designed to be a straightforward process. Game developers simply need to enable the Arm ASR plugin, configure their project settings to utilise Temporal Anti-Aliasing (TAA), and then verify the integration using console commands.
To further assist developers, comprehensive documentation, illustrative sample code, and detailed integration guides are readily available as part of an Arm Learning path and a dedicated tutorial video. These resources ensure that developers have all the necessary tools and information to implement Arm ASR effectively within their projects.
Several prominent game studios have already recognised the potential of Arm ASR and have integrated it into their development workflows. These include Enduring Games, Infold Games, and Sumo Digital, all of whom have reported improved game performance while maintaining the same high level of visual quality.
Powering the future of mobile gaming
Plans are already in motion to extend the compatibility of Arm ASR to encompass a wider range of platforms, ensuring that its benefits can be leveraged by an even broader community of developers.
Future updates are also planned to further optimise performance and introduce exciting new features based on valuable feedback from the developer community and other advancements in technology.
Arm ASR represents a significant step forward in the evolution of mobile gaming. It empowers developers to deliver high levels of performance without having to make compromises on visual quality.
By embracing this open-source technology, developers can deliver immersive and fluid gaming experiences that their users can thoroughly enjoy, all while mitigating the frustrating issue of thermal throttling on mobile devices.
See also: Discord releases free Social SDK for game developers at GDC
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