Chainfire3D : An Applicaiton For Rooted Android Smartphones

Chainfire3D is an wonderful application for root users developed by Chainfire for Android Devices. It is an intermediary OpenGL driver. Here's an explanation of what that means; it means that Chainfire3D sits between your apps and the graphics drivers, and can intercept and/or change commands between the two. It has some built-in functions, and can be further extended with plugins to provide extra functionality. So, in this article you will get to know more about this amazing app as well as how you can install and configure this on your Samsung Galaxy Pop/Mini GT-S5570 smartphone.

So, let's look at some of it's features. To know more detail about these features please visit the original thread at xda-forums.

• CF3D OpenGL driver
• NightMode (inspired by Jeff Sharkey, more info here)
• Handy shortcut to toggle on/off
•  Supports red, green, blue, amber, salmon and custom (pro only) modes
• Global OpenGL Manipulation. 

• Reduce texture size
• Reduce texture quality
• Unroll textures
• BGRA emulation
• Load plugins
• Replace shaders
• (Pro Version Only) Disable Chainfire3D detection
• (Pro Version Only) Dump all shaders
• (Pro Version Only) Force depth buffer size (EGL)
• (Pro) Force MSAA (MultiSample Anti-Aliasing) (EGL)
• (Pro version Only) OpenGL manipulation on a per-app bases
• (Pro version Only) Fix market settings
• (Pro version Only) Manage installed plugins and shaders
• (Pro version Only) Backup and restore settings, plugins and shaders

A Detail Of These Features  :

• NightMode : NightMode reduces the number of colors on your screen, which on OLED screens saves a lot of battery. The various modes (especially red) are also great in low-light conditions, as they have less effect on your night-vision than a full-color screen.
• Generic note about textures : The features below are only used if a texture format is supported. Natively Chainfire3D only supports raw textures, but these can be extended through plugins.
• Reduce texture size : This essentially cuts (supported) textures’ resolution in half, which usually reduces memory use (4x) and improves performance, at the cost of slightly reducing texture quality. This is not compatible with all apps! For many 3D apps, this works, as the GPU stretches the graphics, but it does not work for many 2D apps. 
• Reduce texture quality : This converts 32-bit textures to 16-bit textures, reducing memory use (2x). This will lower texture quality, but for many games the difference isn’t even visible. Whether this is actually faster or slower depends on your hardware. 
• Unroll textures : Converts non-32-bit textures to 32-bit. This should not influence texture quality, but it does use more memory. On some hardware this is faster than using 16-bit textures.
• Disable BGRA emulation : Some GPU’s do not support BGRA – in this case, Chainfire3D emulates BGRA support. Developers may not expect this (i.e., hardcode features for a specific GPU) and it may cause issues. If red and blue appear swapped in-app or in-game, enable this feature, and see if it helps. 
• Disable Chainfire3D detection : For compatibility reasons, Chainfire3D announces to applications that it is being used. Using this feature you can turn that off. 
• Depth buffer (per-app only) : Some apps expect a certain depth buffer size. Without setting this, they may not run (at all). This feature should only be used if an app specifically requires it – there is a good chance apps will NOT run if you change this setting the wrong way.
• MSAA (MultiSample Anti-Aliasing) (per-app only) : Enabling MSAA drastically improves image quality at the cost of performance. Lines/edges become much smoother. Available options are automatic (the app decides), 4x, and 16x. Most apps don’t enable MSAA themselves at all. The ARM Mali 400 MP (used in the SGS2) can even do 4xMSAA at no performance cost. Note that if your GPU does not support the level of MSAA requested, the app will likely not start at all. 
• Fix market settings : Plugins may add support for various features not normally supported by your hardware. Market, however, only reports the functionality your hardware provides. Using this feature, Chainfire3D will adjust Market so it also shows apps that require the features provided by the plugins. This is not useful without the plugins. 
• Backup and restore settings : Backup and restore all app settings, plugins, shaders, etc to/from your SD card. 
• Plugins / API : At the moment, the Plugin API is rather limited, but it does allow for some rather interesting plugins like Tegra2 / PowerVR / ATI texture emulation (see the API docs a post below). The idea is to further improve Chainfire3D so Plugins can manipulate the entire OpenGL data stream. 
• Shaders : From version v1.9, you can replace app’s shaders with your own modified versions. See a few posts down for further details. 
• Pro version : As outlined above, the Pro version adds a little bit of functionality. Purchasing it will support my efforts. 
• Pro version – warez : Chainfire3D Pro is available from some warez sites, if you feel like ripping me off However I should warn you that none of those versions actually work as the real Pro version does.

So, why should one need to use Chainfire3D?

• With the use of various plugins you can emulate the texture of various GPUs like NVIDA, QUALCOMM, POWERVR, etc that can help you play or run some of those games or apps that aren't meant for your device. This also means that you can play some of those High Defination (HD) Games like GTA3, PES 2012, etc on your low-end android smartphone.

There are three plugins available for Chainfire3D from third party (viz.  libGLEMU_NVIDIA, libGLEMU_QUALCOMM, and libGLEMU_POWERVR) that you can use with Chain Fire 3D. However, the developer doesn't take any liability of the loss or damage that may occur through their use.

So, without further delay let's get you started with Chainfire3D. Make sure you have a rooted device before proceeding.

Disclaimer : Use It At Your Own Risk

• Download Chainfire3D
• Market Link : https://market.android.com/details?id=eu.chainfire.cf3d
• Direct Link : Chainfire3D_Pro_v3.3.apk
• Download Plugins
• Plug-ins.rar 

Steps to Install and Configure Chainfire3D :

Select install CF3D Driver to setup the Chainfire3D drivers.

1. Download apk from above.

2. Install the apk on your android device.

3. Download and extract the plugins to the sd-card of your android device.

4. Now, Run Chainfire3D from your app Drawer and select CF3D Driver to install the Chainfire3D Drivers.

5. You phone will reboot after successful installation.

6. Again. Run the app and select Fix Market Settings (For Pro Users Only).

Select the appropriate plugin that is suitable for your needs

7. Then Go to Default OpenGL settings and select Install Plugins option. It will search for plugins through your sd-card and find any plugin that are available.

8. Choose to install all found plugins.

9. You have configured and set up Chainfire 3D. But, we are not done yet. So, next time when you feel lags while playing a game then simply choose a plugin from Select Plugin options in Default OpenGL Settings and give it a try. Try with different plugins and choose the best one that helps run the game/app smoothly.

That's all. You have successfully configured and installed Chainfire3D on your android device. If needed adjust other settings as per the information provided above by the developer. Make sure you buy the pro version of the app as well as thank the developer if you find this app useful.