Optimize Your Mobile 3D Graphics with GLTools

You may recall that a few years ago, we took a quick look at Chainfire3D. For those who don’t remember, Chainfire3D allowed users to tweak various aspects of the 3D rendering pathway such as texture size and quality. The app also allowed users to load games meant for other devices thanks to its plugin system.

Unfortunately due to massive changes in the rendering pathway used in Android 3.0 and above, Chainfire3D can no longer be used on modern devices. Luckily, there is one option out there that brings much of Chainfire3D’s functionality, as well as a few new tricks.

GLTools by XDA Forum Member n0n3m4 (and posted to the forums by Recognized Contributor Hammer_Of_The_Gods) allows users to control many aspects of their 3D rendering pipeline on a per-app and system-wide basis. The app allows users to change any app’s rendering resolution, bit depth, texture compression, and so on. It also allows you to optimize shaders on the fly and enable anti-aliasing for increased quality.

With GLTools, you can even fake various reported GL flags such as GL_VENDOR in order to play games not intended for your device. It must be noted, however, that unlike what was possible through plugins using Chainfire3D, this app doesn’t actually add any additional proprietary extensions. Rather, it can only change the reported hardware. That said, there are many games that arbitrarily limit which devices can access what features, so this ability can certainly come in handy.

If you’re looking to tweak your 3D rendering pipeline, head over to the application thread and give GLTools a go!

source: xdadevelopers