Hands on Impressions: The New iPad with Retina Display and A6X Processor & iPad mini

[ffz]

The performance on the new iPad 4 is significant, for devs it opens up more opportunities for us to exploit that but very few studios will.. they will tend to stay with the mainstream performance and not really add too much to the high end models.

I'm hoping they prove me wrong.

[andsoitgoes]

Originally Posted by fury

It looks very promising to me. This is more a symptom of benchmark limits than anything else.

This.

It's like iPhone speed tests, most of them still can't handle the 4G speeds.

Simply put, this device is freaking fantastic. It's not a Vita, and never will be. For what it is, this is the device to beat.

Remember, with Apple, specs are nothing, numbers are just that. They don't show true performance. This thing is, as the kids say, beast.

[Connector]

Originally Posted by andsoitgoes

This.

It's like iPhone speed tests, most of them still can't handle the 4G speeds.

Simply put, this device is freaking fantastic. It's not a Vita, and never will be. For what it is, this is the device to beat.

Remember, with Apple, specs are nothing, numbers are just that. They don't show true performance. This thing is, as the kids say, beast.

The Vita does not impress me at all. I have played 15 games on it and I prefer games on my new ipad. I'm pretty confident the ipad 4 hardcore games will beat it hands down.

Plus the retina screen is so wonderful. Plus of course all non gaming stuff makes the ipad sexy. And apps are cheap. Asphalt 7 is only 99 cents and personally I like it better than any racing game on the vita.

One year from now there will be more hardcore games that really utilize the power of the ipad 4.

I can't believe that no one has a new ipad and ipad 4 in the same family. Strange. Barely any buzz about the ipad 4 or even the ipad mini. Well, maybe things will change come xmas time.

I thought there would be a lot of sales of hd games after the launchs, but almost none. There was a lot of activity for the new ipad. I really thought the ipad mini would have a lot of activity, ipad 4 not so much. Strange there seems to be so little buzz.

I am going to the apple store on monday, but I figure it will be empty, then I can give some fair impressions of the ipad 4 and ipad mini.

I guess I'll get to see if the framerate is better in angry birds between the ipad 4 and my old new ipad. Just kidding...

[Connector]

You know it is weird no one has mentioned Dead Trigger, cause it probably has the best hardcore ipad retina graphics. And since it is free, anyone has any comparisons of it between the ipad 4 and new ipad?

Dead Trigger plays really good on my new ipad, don't notice any framerate problems, and the graphics are really nice.

I know the game has a lot of haters, but the graphics really blow me away. Wonder how this plays on the ipad 4?

Jbruu??? Thanks.

[yegon]

Originally Posted by andsoitgoes

I have a strong belief that the screen will become 16:9 to match the iPhone display

Doubt it, and i hope not. 4:3 is better for everything on a tablet, bar video and arguably games.

Despite Apple claiming otherwise (full screen video! Funny, they've never cared before), the only reason the iPhone went 16:9 was because it was an easy way to increase size without seriously impacting devs. If Apple could have sourced reasonably priced 4"ish 1920x1280 screens (doubling the 4's res) we'd never have seen a 16:9 iPhone.

Besides, I applaud Apple for not going blindly down the 16:9 route, they're practically the only purveyor of 16:10 laptops these days.

Also, have you ever held a large 16:9 tablet? I have, they're very cumbersome in portrait and the weight distribution feels wrong. Read some Surface reviews, they all say its unwieldy and uncomfortable in portrait. Admittedly, as these devices get lighter, this can be improved, but doesn't assuage the fact 16:9 is only really good at one thing, two if you include games.

2048x1536 will be with us for next couple of iterations I imagine. We're in the land of diminishing returns at this point and at this screen size. 2015, when there's a proliferation of 4K content, it'll be doubling time again methinks.

[fury]

Originally Posted by Connector

The Vita does not impress me at all. I have played 15 games on it and I prefer games on my new ipad. I'm pretty confident the ipad 4 hardcore games will beat it hands down.

Plus the retina screen is so wonderful. Plus of course all non gaming stuff makes the ipad sexy. And apps are cheap. Asphalt 7 is only 99 cents and personally I like it better than any racing game on the vita.

One year from now there will be more hardcore games that really utilize the power of the ipad 4.

The cheap price is what worries me as far as that goes. Some developers won't get too deep into the hardcore game market for iOS, because so much of the App Store users are averse to the idea of paying $10, $20, $30 for a great game. As such, developers have to target a lower price range to increase the volume, and lower the production quality accordingly (either through shallow gameplay, or limited frills & no polish). I don't like Asphalt 7 for its excessive difficulty in the later stages practically demanding that you pay IAP for upgrades and such. It's nice enough to look at (aside from not running full res), but the freemium-inspired model puts me off almost as bad as CSR Racing.

Originally Posted by Connector

I can't believe that no one has a new ipad and ipad 4 in the same family. Strange. Barely any buzz about the ipad 4 or even the ipad mini. Well, maybe things will change come xmas time.

Originally Posted by Connector

You know it is weird no one has mentioned Dead Trigger, cause it probably has the best hardcore ipad retina graphics. And since it is free, anyone has any comparisons of it between the ipad 4 and new ipad?

Dead Trigger plays really good on my new ipad, don't notice any framerate problems, and the graphics are really nice.

I know the game has a lot of haters, but the graphics really blow me away. Wonder how this plays on the ipad 4?

Jbruu??? Thanks.

Actually, I have both, and many MANY games (probably more than I'll ever finish in my lifetime), and would be happy to do any comparisons you're interested in.

Dead Trigger has not yet been updated to do anything special for iPad 4, so it'll simply run a bit faster. The frame rate is a bit smoother and more consistent, there are fewer stutters. It is capped to a maximum frame rate of what looks like 30fps, probably to make the experience on iPad 3 more consistent, so maybe an update will raise the maximum frame rate higher or it will look significantly better. For now, the experience in Dead Trigger isn't too different.

One that is very different is Sky Gamblers: Air Supremacy. That game already runs at full resolution with full effects on iPad 3, and some frame rate drops/stutters can be observed in many instances - including just the title screen. On iPad 4, it's smooth sailing.

[JBRUU]

Originally Posted by Connector

Jbruu??? Thanks.

Hehehe alright. Duty calls.

It's the same game but with a noticeably higher framerate. No extra effects (yet) but snappier loading times and no beginning skips at the start of a level. It was fine on the iPad 3, it's a little better than that. Slightly.

If by not quite retina you mean not 2048x1536, actually it is full 2048x1536. Or at least it is in the few minutes I've tried it so far. It just doesn't have antialiasing, so you can see the jagged edges more easily. (For those who don't know what AA is, it's basically taking more samples of the 3D world to smooth the edges and make it look higher resolution.)

2048x1536 without AA can be spotted by harder edges, especially where the sky meets a building, or your gun. They would show sharp stairstepping and a very contrasty jump from one color to the other. As you look around, the edges of things like buildings might seem to have more pop, they are clearer. Games where the graphical detail is just too high to support AA at a decent framerate, e.g. NOVA 3, MC3, Asphalt 6, Air Supremacy, Crazy Hedgy, and now Infinity Blade 2. Crazy Hedgy is a funky one - it seems to render the world at full res, but not all of the effects, like the bloom, so it seems lower res to me.

The stuff scaled up from an in-between resolution has soft edges that never come to a sharp edge (there is a "halfway" color outline in the edges between the sky and the object, for instance). And you get undesired effects due to the less-than-whole scaling ratio. Not only do you get the popping edges from the normal aliasing that is a part of the rendering, but you also get a more pronounced moire pattern on sets of thin lines. Games that are currently scaled from a lower resolution include NFS:Most Wanted, Horn, and Lili.

You may very well be correct, sir. Whatever the issue, it needs AA on the guns. Can't stand jaggies right in my face

I pray every night that NFS is updated for full retina + AA, it needs it so bad and the game is just a joy. That would be the icing on the cake right there.

[bem69]

Originally Posted by Echoseven

When would you see it? After some gaming while its hot, after prolonged (several weeks) usage, or just on day one?

I have nothing of the kind, even with the brightness turned up to max.

Edit: for the TA staff - like the "must-have games" features you've done for the past devices, I know one thing I would appreciate is if you had listed some websites for retina 2048 x 2048 wallpapers. It was the first thing I searched for, even before games, and its a huge pain in the butt.

I got it since I switched it on, and I checked out a couple of friends' ipad3 with the same issue. Thanks for the clarification.

[fury]

Originally Posted by JBRUU

You may very well be correct, sir. Whatever the issue, it needs AA on the guns. Can't stand jaggies right in my face

I pray every night that NFS is updated for full retina + AA, it needs it so bad and the game is just a joy. That would be the icing on the cake right there.

I hear you on that. I don't think either of those two games would be able to manage AA at that resolution, though, without some serious frame drops...the level detail is just so mind bogglingly high, console game quality, and the resolution is so much more than consoles are being expected to run.

iPad 5, though, for sure

[JBRUU]

Originally Posted by fury

I hear you on that. I don't think either of those two games would be able to manage AA at that resolution, though, without some serious frame drops...the level detail is just so mind bogglingly high, console game quality, and the resolution is so much more than consoles are being expected to run.

iPad 5, though, for sure

I don't want or need games to run at full retina. I want them to look good without framerate drops. NOVA 3 doesn't need to run at full retina to sacrifice some AA, in fact I would prefer the resolution were downgraded. I would never notice except for the absence of jagged edges upon my AR.

As for NFS, it isn't running at retina. The entire game has made with the iPad 3 in mind, now that the 4 is out those jagged edges should be banished forever. People, keep in mind the the 4th gen iPad has a GPU twice as powerful as that of the Vita. That's some serious oomph, higher resolution or not.

Black Ops Zombies doesn't run any differently, just shorter loading times. There must be a framerate cap that the 3rd gen already reached.