iPad 3 gaming - 48hrs observations

Discussion in 'General Game Discussion and Questions' started by Franco, Mar 19, 2012.

  1. Franco

    Franco Well-Known Member

    Jul 8, 2009
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    Previously using iPad 1, purchased iPad 3 Friday.

    Early observations:

    Retina screen lives up to the hype. Deep colors and razor sharpness really make this screen pop. Not a tremendous difference from iPad 1 but a significant, noticable difference.

    All existing ipad titles I have, testing 25 of the 588(!) I own looked and play fabulously. Framerates and visuals were fantastic on all tested previously owned games.

    Purchased and ran all new rertina titles available, some observations:

    Infinity Blade 2, Air Supremacy and MC3 run and look fabulous! Really a sight to behold on a device running in your hands.

    Real Racing 2 has frame rate issues with in-car view. Bumper view looks and plays great. They need to fix the in-car view.

    Galaxy on Fire 2 looks insane but has noticable frame rate issues. Luckily, the devs put a detail slider in options which, when set to medium, runs much better without too much visual loss.

    MY 35 years of gaming lead me to believe the frame rate issues I have witnessed on these graphically intense games is due to lack of cpu/gpu power. 2048 res is asking a whole lot of this little machine to produce with smooth framerates. Dont not think Devs are going to be able to go all out with 2048 visuals in fast moving games this generation of iPad. Probably will take iPad 4 or 5 to reach that level.

    - Important - Game developers will be wise to include a detail slider (a la GOF2) to help players smooth out gameplay on these demanding titles to their acceptable thresholds.

    When I heard of the 2048 res on new iPad, I was concerned about framerates. Thats a LOT of pixels to push in a fast moving game, even for a new desktop pc or mac. Seems that some of those concerns are evident in some of these early titles. Perhaps some optimization can help these titles,
    but I believe a lot of these titles will be on the edge this generation.

    Overall, I love the new iPad.
     
  2. TapMad_D

    TapMad_D Well-Known Member

    Dec 17, 2010
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    so detailed,thx.
    noted the framerate issue, will try not make it happen on my games.
     
  3. geoelectric

    geoelectric Well-Known Member

    Apr 22, 2010
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    Same experiences as yours re: frame rate. Asphalt 6 is also a little choppy in spots.

    The main problems appear to be 3D-rendered games, predictably enough. I think the solution, aside from detail sliders, may be for devs to render at a slightly reduced resolution, possibly overlaying HUD, text, and other 2D properties at native resolution for clarity.

    This is a pretty typical technique on consoles, if it's done right with anti-aliasing and such it shouldn't be very apparent.
     
  4. Candykiller

    Candykiller Well-Known Member
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    Dec 15, 2010
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    The problem I have with the GOF2 HD quality slider is that it eliminates smoke and fog, which is an important part of the game to give a sense of depth and movement in space. I suspect it is the abundant use of bump-mapping that is causing the game to seriously struggle when objects such as space-stations and asteroids are rendered over a large portion of the screen when they're in close proximity.

    Besides, there is something fundamentally wrong with a game when you have to rely on quality sliders to make it run successfully on the most powerful device on the iOS platform. (and the frame-rate is still choppy at times even if you do)
     
  5. fulcizombie

    fulcizombie Well-Known Member

    Dec 17, 2011
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    Just about what i expected .The retina resolution is simply too much for what's under the hood in the new ipad .
     
  6. Farfield

    Farfield Well-Known Member

    Jul 15, 2011
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    I am a beliver of the iOS gaming, i think that a huge progress has been putted on the iOS plataform in the gaming aspect, it's pretty known that iOS has more games "new" if i can use the word, than the classics: COD, GOW, Mortal Kombat, Final Fantasy and a big list of games renamed. And that is the good and bad aspect of the iOS gaming, it is necessary a little more of time to the developers can pay more attention in the plataform, as we can see, with the pass of the year it is been going a better plataform for gaming, not a remplacement olataform, instead a new category of the gaming world, the plataform that has touch screen and intuitive games, but not only casuals and less enjoyable.
     
  7. spajdr

    spajdr Well-Known Member

    Mar 29, 2011
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    Well .. thats disappointing news to heard of fps issues. Now im not sure if i should buy new Ipad.
     
  8. farmboy74

    farmboy74 Well-Known Member

    Aug 26, 2011
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    My feelings on the new iPad are, if you are upgrading from the 1st gen iPad it's a vast improvement. If you already have an iPad 2, and you can live without a retina screen and a slightly improved graphics chip I would wait for the 4th generation iPad. As I feel that with the app sizes for retina screen will soon fill a 32 and 64G quite quickly. Hopefully the next model will include bigger hard drives.
    For the record I upgraded from the 1st gen iPad and I am more than happy with my purchase apart with it getting slightly warm when use graphic intensive apps, same issue I found with the iPhone 3GS
     
  9. squarezero

    squarezero Moderator
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    The graphics chip is not just "slightly improved."

    To put things in perspective, my new Vita has occasional framerate issues, too; the 3DS did as well. It's not surprising that the first games to be converted/released would have not be fully optimized for the platform.
     
  10. Teknikal

    Teknikal Well-Known Member

    Oct 26, 2010
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    I haven't seen any framerate issues at all on my Vita in fact it's actually playing HD videos my main PC struggles with but your point is still valid especially with launch titles.
     
  11. svolskiy

    svolskiy Well-Known Member

    Apr 5, 2009
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    Try Pinball HD or Pinball HD Collection, they both got Retina update.

    And don't forget to share your impression.
     
  12. HelperMonkey

    HelperMonkey Well-Known Member

    Dec 16, 2009
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    The frame-rate issues may not be insurmountable based on the hardware. Most dedicated game consoles have relatively weak launch titles, and over the lifetime of the system you see a gradual, continuing improvement in quality. As developers gain familiarity with the hardware they are usually able to maximize the potential of what the system can really do. I wouldn't be surprised to see this happen with the new iPad, unless Apple keeps cranking out new hardware in such a way as to out-pace developers' chances to get a firm grasp on the capabilities and nuances of each system. The retina display obviously taxes the resources of the iPad, but I would expect that developers will find ways of increasing efficiency as they get a better grasp on what they're working with.
     
  13. tatoforever

    tatoforever Well-Known Member

    May 4, 2009
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    #13 tatoforever, Mar 20, 2012
    Last edited: Mar 20, 2012
    You must be crazy to render 2048*1536 pixels on such tiny screen (10" only).
    Such resolution is only good for reading ebooks and looking high res pictures (which are rare on the iPad anyway).
    What developers need to do, is simply render the screen at half resolution (1024*768) and do full screen antialiasing implemented through your graphic API. If you do so, not only your game will look better than your iPad1/2 version but also you will have extra free GPU power to really improve graphically any other visual aspect of your game. That's what we are doing with Forgotten Memories.
    Cheers,
     
  14. Xeyad

    Xeyad Well-Known Member

    Jan 31, 2012
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    that's a very interesting approach...however, I remember Firemint doing something very similar with Real Racing 2 HD for the iPad 1, as they rendered the screen at 80% of the resolution, and did antialiasing. Sadly, it didn't look good, so they updated it to render 100% of the screen (1024x768), but without antialiasing but it did look better afterall. Let's see what you guys are capable of.


    Personally, I have an iPad 1, and not planning to upgrade to the new iPad. My iPad is still very capable enough for the usual web-browsing, reading, and viewing photos. Still happy that game developers are still supporting the original iPad with intensive games. I have Mass Effect Infiltrator, Dead Space, Batman Arkham Lockdown, ShadowGun, Fifa 12, Need For Speed Hot Pursuit, Real Racing 2 HD, and they all look great enough for me and very little do I run into frame-rate issues.

    I'm not very happy with the iPad 3. Retina looks awesome, but it just needs a lot of CPU/GPU power to run games, and the heat issues seem to be worrying. However, I will definitely upgrade to the iPad 4 next year, hopefully! :)
     
  15. killercow

    killercow Well-Known Member

    Apart from galaxy on fire 2 , which is not unplayable by the way, i dont' have any framerate problem and the difference with modern combat 3 is huge. And that's just an update and not a game built for it so there's a bright future ahead. My ipad does not overheat but is warmer than my ipad 2. It's not too hot to hold at all and you barely notice it when you're in a game.
     
  16. Franco

    Franco Well-Known Member

    Jul 8, 2009
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    Ok, just tried the new Pinball HD iPad3 update and .... WoW! Def takes game up a level. Looks ans plays amazingly.
     
  17. NinthNinja

    NinthNinja Well-Known Member

    Jan 31, 2011
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    I've actually been blown away by the power of the GPU in the iPad3.

    It really depends on how well the devs optimise their graphics engines.

    In the case for me I am rendering at 60fps on a retina iPad screen for Mutant Storm and I have seen no slow down issues. And I'm also using high def textures as well.

    My views are that it's pretty powerful!
     
  18. lord-sam

    lord-sam Well-Known Member

    Feb 25, 2009
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    What is the quality like of an unoptimised iPad game running on new iPad?

    Is it blurry, or jaggedy. And does it look worse than an iPad 1/2, or on a par?
     
  19. Franco

    Franco Well-Known Member

    Jul 8, 2009
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    All regular iPad games that I have tried, about 40, look and play fantastically. Yes, they look and play better than on my iPad 1. Only issue I have had with new iPad is the previously mentioned frame rate issues on 2 of the new retina titles. Most of the new retina games run well and look really good.
     
  20. Borgqueenx

    Borgqueenx Well-Known Member

    Feb 1, 2010
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    To be honest, i dont think IB2 looks different at all, compared to ipad2. Real racing 2 looks awesome though.
     

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