Pixel Doubling For Retina Display Apps... Why?

[BergerFan]

Considering that the iPad has a larger resolution than the Retina Display iPhone 4, shouldn't the iPad show non-iPad apps(that are Retina-optimised) in their 960x640 resolution?
Why does it have to pixel double from the lower 480x320 res? Is there something technical I'm missing here, or is it just a choice taken by Apple, for now?

Apologies, if this has been asked/resolved already.

 

[rikbrown]

If jailbroken you can achieve this using RetinaPad, proving it's not a technical limitation.

I imagine Apple want to let developers continue charging 5x markup for "HD" versions...

 

[saving107]

because then you would be less inclined to buy an iPad specific app, and Apple wouldn't make as much money if they allowed this.

 

[ZilogZ80]

When this happens, the iPad seems to use at least some of the retina graphic assets (I think).

 

[gnasher729]

Considering that the iPad has a larger resolution than the Retina Display iPhone 4, shouldn't the iPad show non-iPad apps(that are Retina-optimised) in their 960x640 resolution?
Why does it have to pixel double from the lower 480x320 res? Is there something technical I'm missing here, or is it just a choice taken by Apple, for now?

Apologies, if this has been asked/resolved already.

I think iPhone with retina display was released after the iPad.

 

[colmaclean]

I think iPhone with retina display was released after the iPad.

Indeed, but there have been plenty of software updates (including the unification in iOS4.2) to remedy this...

 

[Xenc]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-gb) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

As an independent developer, I do not want iPhone apps - my own or otherwise - competing with my iPad apps. Both devices may run the same underlying operating system, but they are two distinct products and should be treated as such. Without this distinction there's far less appeal to sinking time and money into creating bespoke iPad apps.

 

[57004]

As an independent developer, I do not want iPhone apps - my own or otherwise - competing with my iPad apps. Both devices may run the same underlying operating system, but they are two distinct products and should be treated as such. Without this distinction there's far less appeal to sinking time and money into creating bespoke iPad apps.

I don't agree that Retina iPhone apps would cannibalize iPad apps. (Good) iPad apps have a totally different layout and much more screen space (in terms of centimetres, not pixels). So an iPhone app will always be sub-optimal on the iPad (huge control buttons, no side-panels like in settings, etc), it will just look a little bit nicer if it would show the retina content.

 

[Dr McKay]

Agreed, it wont cannibalize iPhone sales, but I'd just like my Retina Optimized apps to look less blurry when blown up 2x.

 

[EssentialParado]

Some of the better devs have started doing this. Check out Trainyard by Matt Rix. It runs retina graphics on iPad despite being an iPhone app.

It's quite a shame others are so greedy to believe we should be paying for an app twice, when most of the time it's a scaled up and identical version. It's a good thing we don't have to pay more to run PC or Mac software in a different resolution, eh?

 

[BergerFan]

If jailbroken you can achieve this using RetinaPad, proving it's not a technical limitation.
I imagine Apple want to let developers continue charging 5x markup for "HD" versions...

I need to get on that, thanks.

Edit: Damn Apple. No point in jailbreaking, now that a 4.3 release is coming. Lol. :/

Real Racing 2 looks terrible on my iPad in 2x, but if it was run at the iPhone 4 resolution, it looks awesome.

 

[Piggie]

Actually I agree with Apple that the iPad should not show iPhone4 retina graphics at full res.

I know on the face of it, it would seem a good idea, but you can guarantee id would make some devs lazy and not wish to spend time making a proper iPad version.

I think doing this would defiantly hurt iPad specific app development.

 

[Saladinos]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-gb) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

As an independent developer, I do not want iPhone apps - my own or otherwise - competing with my iPad apps. Both devices may run the same underlying operating system, but they are two distinct products and should be treated as such. Without this distinction there's far less appeal to sinking time and money into creating bespoke iPad apps.

Then differentiate them with a different experience, not the same experience with 5x the price!

If your iPad dev costs REALLY justified a $10 price (hint: it won't, esp with the amount of code you can reuse!), it won't compete with your $1 iPhone app. That's a poor excuse used to hoodwink and exploit the ignorant.

And yes, I'm an experienced developer. I know what I'm talking about.

 

[alectheking]

Actually I agree with Apple that the iPad should not show iPhone4 retina graphics at full res.

I know on the face of it, it would seem a good idea, but you can guarantee id would make some devs lazy and not wish to spend time making a proper iPad version.

I think doing this would defiantly hurt iPad specific app development.

THIS right here is exactly the reason.

 

[chrono1081]

Actually I agree with Apple that the iPad should not show iPhone4 retina graphics at full res.

I know on the face of it, it would seem a good idea, but you can guarantee id would make some devs lazy and not wish to spend time making a proper iPad version.

I think doing this would defiantly hurt iPad specific app development.

+1.

Also as another poster stated iPhone and iPad apps are (should be anyway) two separate products.

I know the people here who don't understand development think its super easy to make an app for both platforms but its not. Maybe a standard application but a game is a whole other story. Not only do you have to have assets that play nice on the 3Gs and to some extent the 3G still but you also have to create higher resolution textures (for 3D games) and graphics for iPhone 4 and iPad games.

I often hear "its as easy as making high resolution graphics and shrinking them" If someone tells you this they know nothing about making game graphics or at least are not good at it. Yes you can do this as a starting point but for the final image of a detailed texture its not going to fly.

Theres also the testing aspect. The iPhone and iPad are different devices and have different capabilities. You have to test and test and test to ensure your game achieves the desired frame rates and is as bug free as possible. Yes you can reuse a decent amount of code, but generally the graphics code has to be heavily edited or in some cases, rewritten.

I will say though in my opinion if your app does the exact same thing on both platforms, charge the same price or make it a universal app. If there is a lot of extra work that went in to the iPad version of the app or your game takes advantage of some iPad specific functionality that you have to add and test then by all means charge for the extra work.

 

[azentropy]

You would think Apple, and developers, would want apps to look the best possible on all platforms. But in this case marketing triumphs.

 

[Saladinos]

+1.

Also as another poster stated iPhone and iPad apps are (should be anyway) two separate products.

I know the people here who don't understand development think its super easy to make an app for both platforms but its not. Maybe a standard application but a game is a whole other story. Not only do you have to have assets that play nice on the 3Gs and to some extent the 3G still but you also have to create higher resolution textures (for 3D games) and graphics for iPhone 4 and iPad games.

I often hear "its as easy as making high resolution graphics and shrinking them" If someone tells you this they know nothing about making game graphics or at least are not good at it. Yes you can do this as a starting point but for the final image of a detailed texture its not going to fly.

Theres also the testing aspect. The iPhone and iPad are different devices and have different capabilities. You have to test and test and test to ensure your game achieves the desired frame rates and is as bug free as possible. Yes you can reuse a decent amount of code, but generally the graphics code has to be heavily edited or in some cases, rewritten.

I will say though in my opinion if your app does the exact same thing on both platforms, charge the same price or make it a universal app. If there is a lot of extra work that went in to the iPad version of the app or your game takes advantage of some iPad specific functionality that you have to add and test then by all means charge for the extra work.

A better option then would be to go the Rage route: standard version for low-res iOS devices, and a universal HD version for iPhone 4 and iPad.

The iPad does not need higher resolution textures than the iPhone 4. This is why people who know anything about computers are outraged at iPad apps and games are priced at 5 or 10x their iPhone 4 counterparts.

I always hated the iPhone app scaling on the iPad. I just installed RetinaPad and it is fantastic. Makes the experience so much better (almost as good as native iPad apps). Apple needs to start doing this in the OS.

Developers who say that creating the extra artwork costs more are talking from their anuses. RetinaPad is proof that the same resources that are made for the iPhone 4 for such a low price are all you need for an iPad port. Developers who want to charge more than iPhone counterparts need to justify it with extra functionality. Not nearly enough do.

 

[BrennerM]

What is really annoying is running an iPhone app and when it calls for the keyboard, the really crappy iPhone keyboard appears instead of the iPad keyboard. I can't imagine it would be that difficult to intercept a call for the keyboard and use the iPad one instead.

 

[chrono1081]

A better option then would be to go the Rage route: standard version for low-res iOS devices, and a universal HD version for iPhone 4 and iPad.

The iPad does not need higher resolution textures than the iPhone 4. This is why people who know anything about computers are outraged at iPad apps and games are priced at 5 or 10x their iPhone 4 counterparts.

I always hated the iPhone app scaling on the iPad. I just installed RetinaPad and it is fantastic. Makes the experience so much better (almost as good as native iPad apps). Apple needs to start doing this in the OS.

Developers who say that creating the extra artwork costs more are talking from their anuses. RetinaPad is proof that the same resources that are made for the iPhone 4 for such a low price are all you need for an iPad port. Developers who want to charge more than iPhone counterparts need to justify it with extra functionality. Not nearly enough do.

By having a low res version for iOS devices and an HD version you are creating two separate sets of assets so it does indeed take more time and cost more money to have extra artwork created depending on the game.

Using something like Retina Pad is a lazy solution and doesn't keep your games user experience consistent across devices since not all players will have Retina Pad.

Extra artwork costs time and money, there is no way around that. Acquiring art assets are usually the longest part of game creation.

 

[azentropy]

Using something like Retina Pad is a lazy solution and doesn't keep your games user experience consistent across devices since not all players will have Retina Pad.

Which is why it should be a standard OS feature on the iPad.

Developers have different levels of "laziness". Those who didn't update for Retina in the first place, and those who didn't update to a universal or HD version. Then you have those developers who want you to buy a separate HD version and charge more for it.

If some developers do not want their iPhone Retina versions to use the better graphics on the iPad then they should have an option in the SDK to not enable it. But for those who have created a Retina version but don't have the time or resources to do a full "universal" version should have an option to use the Retina enhanced graphics instead of the 2x mode on the iPad. That way their app would look as good as possible on as many devices as possible. Simple as that and would be easy for Apple to implement.

Saying Apple wants a constant experience across platforms is a crock. If that is so then they shouldn't allow iPhone only apps to run on the iPad or in 2x mode in the first place!

 

[Saladinos]

By having a low res version for iOS devices and an HD version you are creating two separate sets of assets so it does indeed take more time and cost more money to have extra artwork created depending on the game.

Using something like Retina Pad is a lazy solution and doesn't keep your games user experience consistent across devices since not all players will have Retina Pad.

Extra artwork costs time and money, there is no way around that. Acquiring art assets are usually the longest part of game creation.

Too many devs charge much more for iPad apps that are just lazy ports of iPhone games. If it was because of higher resolution resources, they should be consistent and charge iPhone 4 owners more, too.

The fact is that it isn't because of the resources. It's because of the AppStore gold rush. Devs have forgotten that it's low prices that got them that money.

 

[Stirolak123]

because then you would be less inclined to buy an iPad specific app, and Apple wouldn't make as much money if they allowed this.

But then you wouldnt have any additions or improvements geared for the ipad either. Some of these games like reckless racing or flight control come at a higher price but have ipad exclusive content.

 

[houdinize]

Perhaps iPad 2 will have double the pixels and therefore make the option of using the retina graphics rather than pixel doubling pointless. Then it will use the retina graphics to double from. I guess we'll have to wait for iPad 2.