iPad 3 gaming - 48hrs observations

[rushmore]

Originally Posted by Jacobtf

You, sir, are a real trooper and I was hoping that developers might do exactly that, since there is no way the A5X can handle full fledged 3D titles at native res.

Not to mention the device will run hot, have frame issues and take up a lot more storage space. I would prefer 3/4 resolution. Given how great low res apps look when zoomed, seems a fair and logical trade off.

[SimianSquared]

Originally Posted by Franco

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.

Hiya, we develop apps and are watching this thread closely. One of the things that are important to us are user impressions of having too few or too many options

As android is a target, we're making detail sliders for those. How do you feel about detail sliders for iOS in options? Could it be too much for the casual iOS gamer? We have every device out there and target 30fps for all of them, but intend to scale the detail invisibly to the player to maintain 30 fps.

Would some players like to try the high detail modes, knowing it might result in a 20fps game that doesn't feel as good?

[mr.Ugly]

Originally Posted by NinthNinja

It's a shame no one bought Space Tripper... Because it really shows off what iOS hardware can do. It basically runs at 60fps on all target hardware.

Hopefully Mutant Storm will not have the same fate

well no doubt 3d games with lower gfx fidelity.. (for sake of comparsion use infinity blade 2 as the top) will be able to render at retina ipad resolutions..

the same can be said about most of the average games out there.. 2d, 3d, etc. the hardware will possible be enough to render them.. but then thoose games that pushed the old hardware to its limit will be the real benchmark for performance of the hardware (imho) ..

that visually simpler games work is in all honesty nothing "special"

i'm somehow more concerned about avaiable memory.. since not only your retina game gets bigger and consumes more memory but all the other apps next to you too.. so 1gb can get alow more crowded than the ipad2 especially in sprite heavy 2d games.

[Franco]

Originally Posted by SimianSquared

Hiya, we develop apps and are watching this thread closely. One of the things that are important to us are user impressions of having too few or too many options

As android is a target, we're making detail sliders for those. How do you feel about detail sliders for iOS in options? Could it be too much for the casual iOS gamer? We have every device out there and target 30fps for all of them, but intend to scale the detail invisibly to the player to maintain 30 fps.

Would some players like to try the high detail modes, knowing it might result in a 20fps game that doesn't feel as good?

I would welcome the inclusion of detail sliders in the top end games as the iOS gaming platform matures. iOS games are almost like PC games in that it's almost an open business environment where games are innovative and unpredictable. Sliders will allow tailoring some high end games to performance tastes. Consoles go thru a more predictable, homogenized development cycle to retail, creating a more sterile product (good and bad).

[SimianSquared]

Originally Posted by NinthNinja

I wonder how many devs are hitting 60fps on the retina screen. I can say that I have achieved that.

Quite a few unity developers regularly hit 60fps. 60fps isn't anything special as you know, so long as you avoid fill rate issues, obvious lights and complex shaders. I've found you can go nuts with poly count.

I prefer to hit 30 with big detail and big shaders than strip it for 60. Physynth runs fine at 60 on pad2 onwards, but it's locked to 30 since 60 made no difference and may as well save a bit of juice.