Hey Gang (and devs), I'm getting confused now. Is this new iPhone 4 resolution anything like the iPad HD resolution? Will iPhone games optimized for this new Retina Resolution look nicer on the iPad or will the iPad's non-native support default to the base iPhone reolution?
Both pack the same amount of pixels. The iPad's screen resolution is the same as that of an iPod or 3GS. The iPhone 4's resolution is 4 times that of the iPod, therefore it has the same amount of pixels as the iPad, just on a smaller screen. If anything should be HD, it's the iPhone 4's retina display.
Its not exactly the same. ipad is 1024x768, iPhone 4 is 960x640, Anyways, so far games which have been updated to retina display have still been showing as regular iPhone only games with pixel double on iPad. But it should change soon once iPad gets an update which allows it to utilize the 960x640 resolution of iPhone 4 apps (there will still be a small border all around the screen coz retina display's resolution is lower than iPad). Apple hasnt confirmed anything yet though, so cant really be 100% sure about it. But I'll be really surprised if apple decides against this.
Thanks! Okay so the iPhone 4 resolution IS the 2x resolution shown in the iPad with borders...so it shouldn't be too tough of a conversion. Has Apple given any clues when the iPad update is expected?
What conversion are you talking about? The iPad renders iPhone games in whatever resolution it is given. It won't lock to an iPhone sized 1x since the iPad doesn't have the pixel density to render that. If the conversion is universal then this opens up a new possibility to devs. Instead of making the game render more screen (not always possible depending on the game) then can use the border for UI. A good example would be LASW. Instead of rendering all those units in real time the dev made one low res model. This let more units appear on screen and explains why you can't zoom in or out in the game (the game doesn't have bigger/smaller versions of the units) But if it were made as a retina display game the dev could make it universal by leaving the main game as is but make the UI scale to move elements into the black borders as a simple solution. As for the update I think it was said at WWDC that it was fall (same time as game Center)
So basically four iPhone 4 pixels will be the same size as one iPod pixel? Would resolution even look stretched out at all?
Exactly, when you play a normal iPhone game on an iphone 4 it makes each one pixel into a 2x2 square (4 pixels) The stretched issue is a matter of each game. Technically No, it shouldnt, it would look like an iPad game with a big black border. But it's possible that some games might use lower res assists in some portions of their game to lower their file size and THOSE will look poor on the iPad screen. Of course I have neither but im sure we will have full reports as far as the eye can see by the end of the week
Sorry, poor choice of words I guess. But if the iPad can already show iPhone games at "x2" then supporting this new 960x480 resolution should be a no brainer.
It may be a no brainer but Apple has had nothing to say about this. I wonder if there is concern that iPad owners might prefer pay .99 for the iPhone 4 hi-res version and accept the borders instead of paying 4.99 for the iPad vesion (e.g. Flight Control). -Greg
Actually, though, with Flight Control a great example, I don't think Apple has little to worry with as many of the NEW HD airfields included aren't just smoothed/rescaled graphics but much bigger areas. So not only would it be impossible to have these 1024x768 new fields show up on the 960x480 screens, even if you did it would mean you're trying to direct planes tinier than the tip of your pen.
Apple may not have anything to worry about but devs do. I own flight control and real racing for iPhone. I plan on getting an iPhone 4 soon. With the graphics update the games look fantastic on my 3GS and will look better on my iPhone 4. If I end up getting an iPad I won't even bother picking up the iPad versions because the games will look great on the iPad's screen even with the borders. iPad versions will have to compete with hi res iPhone 4 games that nearly take up the iPad's entire screen. Im really hoping that Apple pushes for devs to go hi res for the retina display and make the app universal to fill up the border space on iPad.
If they want to charge a premium on HD editions they'll have to do more than the rescaled graphics, agreed. But there will be control issues as even if an iPhone 4 optimized game LOOKS fine on the iPad, many of the standard iPhone controls will still not work well on the iPad.
That's what I mean. Before this a dev could justify an HD app because of the added control optimization and redrawn graphics. Now they have to add extra content in order to justify a separate app. I don't want to say they are double dipping but getting a little extra revenue is not a bad thing when you consider that many undersell their apps just to get some exposure. If you have a iphone version and an ipad version of a game in the appstore I would think it's a bad idea to upgrade to HD as that is a key feature in the iPad version. Flight Control HD has 4 new maps, a 2 player co op mode, split screen versus, and advanced path continuation for the larger screen. So yes it's 4 dollars more than Flight Control for iPhone but it does offer some great content. Check out this screen by mrbass. It's Carcassone with the retina display graphics being played on an iPad (A universal build is coming soon though) If I had an iPad I would have bought Flight Control HD instantly. But after the upgrade I doubt I would. It's not perfect to play the retina display graphics on an ipad by any means, but playing Flight Control at that size would be fine with me. I don't have someone else interested in playing co op or versus so it boils down to 4 bucks for a couple maps and a few extra pixels. I'd pass on it. Someone reading this might say "But you would buy those maps for a dollar each if they were IAP for the iphone version, wouldn't you?" and they would be ABSOLUTELY correct. Because then I'd have a great game on my iphone that looks great on an iPad as well. That's where I think the problem is going to be for devs. If you make a game for the retina display it makes sense to add the extra time and effort to make it universal, but that effects the cost. It may also mean that some devs don't take the time to add things like the single screen co op and versus modes because that takes more time and money that they may not recoup as people will always demand those 99 cent sales. I'm not being argumentative or anything I'm just enjoying the discussion and looking at it from two perspectives: As a customer, I would stick with iPhone 4 based games unless the iPad version has great content. As a dev, I would focus on making my app universal and playing well on each platform and not worry about adding specific iphone/ipad content until I start seeing good sales. In the end Apple will always get their 30% but devs really do have a lot to think about as the range of hardware becomes larger and the top tier devices become more unique. EDIT: I realize this whole thing is a tangent from the original question of iphone 4 resolution on an ipad screen but after confirming the iPad plays Retina Display games at near full resolution the conversation turned in a different direction, haha
I don't think it has been confirmed that iPad plays Retina Display games at 1x resolution. I just downloaded Godfinger since it has been updated for Retina and is free and it still shows up in low res with a pixel double option. I have heard the same said of other apps. Is the screenshot you show from teh developer or from someone playing the game? So far the only full res on iPad pictures I have seen have been from developers. -Greg
Yeah, that Carcassonne looks identical to what I saw on my iPad before the Retina display so I'm assuming we won't see the power of the Retina resolution until the iPad OS 4 is released. Speaking of which, I feel a bit burned here! One of the selling points of the iPad was all of the cool OS 4 features you'll be able to take advantage once OS 4 is released this summer...and then we get this BS that, oh, iPad owners won't be able to play with OS 4 until this fall (not announced until just a couple of weeks if that before its iPhone/iPod release)!!
Like LordGek said, it should be easy for iPad to handle it but of course it wouldn't do that until iOS4 is ready for iPad users. It wouldn't make any sense to be able and play an iOS 4 game on 3.2 The image is from someone on this forum playing the game. The graphics aren't perfect as I said, but retina graphics in 2x is perfectly playable. If it's able to play retina games at that size in 1x it will look even better! If that's the case I don't know if a universal build would really be necessary.
