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HiDPI Retina Images in Mountain Lion, Already Functional in OS X Lion

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Apr 12, 2001
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ArsTechnica reports on the discovery of Retina-sized artwork in OS X Mountain Lion's.
A source with access to the latest Mountain Lion preview alerted Ars that double-sized graphics have popped up in some unexpected places, once again suggesting that Apple may be close to releasing MacBooks with high pixel-density screens.
Click to expand...
We'd previously spotted these same Retina-sized graphics in the Lion beta of Apple's new Messages application.

As well, we've found in our testing that Apple's HiDPI mode in Lion is already fully functional and will use the Retina assets appropriately. These screens show the Lion Messages app running in HiDPI mode.

hidpib.png



HiDPI mode on OS X 10.7. Left: Retina enabled, Right: Non-Retina​
The left image shows that Lion with HiDPI mode enabled uses the full resolution Retina artwork from the Messages app to improve the pixel sharpness of the images. When the Retina assets are selectively removed from the app (right), you can see it fall back to the normal non-Retina images bundled.

Users will be able to test this themselves to full effect when Air Display is updated to support Mac HiDPI mode on the new iPad. Apple's Messages Beta for Lion is one of the few Mac applications that are already Retina-enabled to a large degree. Some elements, such as font rendering will automatically scale upwards as it does on the iPad.

Article Link: HiDPI Retina Images in Mountain Lion, Already Functional in OS X Lion
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2012/03/23/hidpi-retina-images-mountain-lion-already-enabled-10-7/
Amazing. Looking forward to HiDPi support shipping and Retina monitor availability. Just look at an iBook screen from 11 years ago to see how far we've come in just a short while previously.

cheers,
Mark
 
I've enabled it on my 13" MBA for fun, it looked SOOOOOO good. Too bad the resolution was so low it was pretty much unusable because it was awesome. The day they come up with upgrade for the different macs I have I'm selling them and buying the Retina one
 
How's that news? The Ars Lion review already had a section about Lions HiDPI mode.
 
cargath said:
How's that news? The Ars Lion review already had a section about Lions HiDPI mode.
Click to expand...

all kinda old news, but you have a Mac retina app (Messages) to play with.

arn
 
This is like one of those spot the difference competitions. Is there supposed to be a visible difference between the two images? If there is I can't see it lol.

‘Bout time we had some lovin for the Mac. Roll on retina Macs - just as long as they’re not so glossy I have to squint to see the image like I do now in certain lighting.
 
Shaun said:
This is like one of those spot the difference competitions. Is there supposed to be a visible difference between the two images? If there is I can't see it lol.

‘Bout time we had some lovin for the Mac. Roll on retina Macs - just as long as they’re not so glossy I have to squint to see the image like I do now in certain lighting.
Click to expand...
It's the silhouette that's sharp on the left and pixelated on the right.

This one shows the difference much more clearly. From another MR article.

tumblr_m17x2zcevC1r6vkzl.jpg
 
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If it's already fully functional under lion, then doesn't that indicate we may have computers that use this functionality BEFORE Mountain Lion?

If so, then it's probably coming soon!
 
This stuff's been out there for a while. How about some rumors regarding future supported hardware...? :confused:
 
Doubt this will find it's way into a MBA before a MBP. The cost of this screen alone should make it Pro only for awhile at least.
 
What about sub-pixel rendering?

What is even more awesome is that, if sub-pixel rendering is fully functional on retina Macs (as opposed to iOS devices, for the obvious reason that constant screen rotation would render that support unfeasible — or would it? Maybe Apple didn't even bother implementing it as they had already retina devices in the pipeline?), you will get an effective 3x boost in horizontal resolution in text rendering as compared to iOS devices, even to the astounding iPhone 4/4S/iPod Touch 4G and to the new iPad…

I, for one, would love to see an iBooks app for OS X that would take advantage of that: it would be the closest thing to print you could possibly get and, for studying and taking notes, it would still beat an iPad (3rd gen.), hands-down (and I love my iPad 2 but functionally, it doesn't come even close to my 27" iMac, so I think I know a thing or two about that… The flexibility of OS X and a physical keyboard — and yes, I'm aware that the Apple bluetooth keyboard bundled with the iMac is compatible with the iPad, and I frequently take advantage of that, but I'm also part of the ever-shrinking minority of desktop owners and those keyboards are expensive when bought separately and are also not that light — already comes in very handy when you can afford that luxury, especially at home, and if you could have 3x the horizontal resolution in text that could prove to be a nice selling point for the Mac over the cheaper iOS devices).
 
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Inspired planning on Apple's part. If you have a Retina iPhone/iPad, it'll be hard to go back to lower DPI screens on your Mac. So in one fell swoop, they've given a reason to upgrade all your devices/screens. Easier than waiting for the next generation of chip from Intel!
 
But is the Mac OS X any closer to having resolution independence?

I want to stop running my 1680x1050 15" MBP in the slightly blurry non-native 1440x852 resolution. (I do that because all the text at 1680x1050 looks too small.)
 
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