[Touch Cruise ROM Development] Drakh:
Since the release of Gfxboost I began wondering why I didn't see any improvement in my Polaris when other platforms do, so I began to investigate and found some interesting answers:

Latest ROMs can't run the HTC-CA 3D drivers (it's required by Gfxboost) and none of 6.5 ROMs do, well you can install the HTC-CA 3D .cab but it won't do anything and since Gfxboost needs it, it won't do anything either, and it seems to be related to patches to increase memory between others (running lightsD3D shows that 3D drivers are missing).

I read that most of 6.5 ROM cooks say they have 3D drivers included, but when running lightsD3D on a 6.5 ROM it says that a MS Reference driver is installed, but won't support any of the advanced driver features (rasterization, T&L, video memory), still lightsD3D runs, but to a really low speed, showing that the drivers just captures 3D calls, but in fact does software rasterization and find that silly to emulate 3D.

The most recent ROM cook I found that can run 3D drivers is M-Anime 2.0 but only the full version, light one won't run it either; M-Anime 2.0 full comes with HTC-CA 3D drivers but seems it's broken, running lightsD3D show a slightly choppy rotating figure, even when it uses hardware features, but at least do hardware rendering, Gfxboost still seems not to work; a reinstall of the HTC-CA 3D drivers do really show what our machine can do, a smooth rotating cylinder that demostrates that 3D drivers are properly running, Gfboost begins to work OK, and it's just the begining...

(what Gfxboost do is to catch directdraw (2D feature) calls and uses Qtv to do the rendering process, so any program that uses directdraw can really have hardware acceleration, before this, all directdraw was done via software rendering).

... now that Gfxboost runs fine, programs that use directdraw show huge improvement (because of hardware rendering), TF2D runs smoothly, google maps will scroll fine, MS3 does wonderful and so other apps, so dayly user experience is improved, also other benefits known like less CPU usage and better battery duration.

So, I sugges ROM cookers should create a second branch of ROMs that include fully functional HTC-CA 3D drivers because gains are not only limited to 3D but also 2D, even if that means sacrifice memory gains of patched libraries (It'd be wonderful to see a 6.5 ROM that can take advantage of Gfxboost).

Still there is still an issue for the ones who use TouchFlo and is that if you run Audiomanager, it will takeover Gfxboost and refuse to release it so next programs will have no acceleation (Only one program can use Gfxboost at the same time) unless you unload Audiomanager (it won't show in taskmanager so no way to unload it, so better disable it completely; if by mistake you ran it, you can unload it going to Photos and Videos and load something there, that trick can do... I never really liked TouchFlo, I prefer SPB Mobile Shell, so I don't have that problem).

Also, if you run Coreplayer, don't use Qtv, use directdraw, the both work the same way now, Qtv mode also breaks Gfxboost, to fix it, disable an reenable Gfxboost in control panel (btw, I do use Coreplayer to test if Gfxboost is doing it's work).

I also tried Neos2007 updated OpenVG drivers but I found no noticeable improvement in dayly usage (maybe it also requires some specific ROM cook?), I will continue testing it.

Intesting enough, contacts mananger and dialer do show improvements also (I use Opal dialer), so dialing experience is not a pain anymore, they are still slow, but code related, I tried Yota dialer&contacts and they are amazing fast, If it wasn't for the fact that I can't live without vibration feedback when call is established, I'd definitely use it.

It's been a bit tricky to get to this point, so I hope you try this also and enjoy benefits and a big hug to coders/cookers for taking time to improve our devices.

Thread of Gfxboost: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=509704&highlight=gfxboost

Thread of M-Anime 2.0 ROM: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=430745&highlight=anime

Thread of Yota Contacts: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=478970&highlight=yota

Thread of OpenVG driver: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=496528&highlight=neos2007