Not sure if this is a pipe dream, but as I'm sitting here with a full 64gb ipad, still buying games and just adding them to my 'download later' list, I am wondering if it wouldn't be smarter to perhaps have an a 'barebone' iphone app, with the retina/ipad/universal parts being an optional download for those with devices that can use it. So for example, i download "BoomBoomPow" onto my iPad, which has the resources (graphics) for a pre retina iphone/ipod. Lets say its a 19.5mb file. Lets also say it is a universal app, so when i load it, i see in the options that i can download additional resources (say 30 more mb) to use it on my ipad with all the eye candy. I see that i have room, and choose to do so. I then put that barebones app onto my 3rd gen ipod, 30mb saved. Then say some other guy puts the barebones on his retina device, and sees the option to download retina resources, say 30mb, boom, he's got the retina version of the app, without having to waste say 30mb more on the ipad resources (for a universal build). Would this work with the current mechanics? I just cringe when i see iphone/ipod app updates that feature 'added retina' among bug fixes. Anymore, I even am disliking universal builds for this very reason. I know the Apple platform isn't about options, but sometimes I wish they would just get out of the "640K ought to be enough for anybody" mindset. Thoughts?
GoGoGadget Interesting. My first experience with something like this was the Inspector Gadget game by XMG where you can upgrade to Retina if you have enough points. When you choose to upgrade it appears to download the content without leaving the actual game. M@
It is certainly possible and is a great idea, but what should the game do if you don't have an Internet connection when you actually run the game [on a device requiring download of the hires content]; or if there is Internet, what if there isn't space on the device to store the extra content; or your server goes down? Should the game fallback to the low-res stuff, or give an error and quit? Either way you're going to have unhappy customers and bad reviews. It is a system that ideally needs official support from Apple - ie. the extra content could be downloaded and stored in your iTunes library (resolving the issues mentioned above), and the game can only be Sync'd onto a device when iTunes has the extra content required for that device. So rather than just a single .app bundle (with all assets inside) as it is now, all apps could follow a data structure something like this: TheAppItselfAndNormalData.app \_ iPhoneRetinaAssets.bundle \_ iPadAssets.bundle \_ iPadRetinaAssets.bundle [added later for the retina iPad 3 ] .. where extra bundle are only downloaded if iTunes wants to sync to that type of device. Also it could be handled automatically by UIKit, so the relevant assets are used rather than looking for "@2x" versions of everything in the regular bundle. This also allows the App Reviewers to review all in-game assets, whereas having downloadable assets from any-old-server they aren't able to check them for conformity in the review process. So while it may be possible to have a system like this currently, if it started to become common and Apple caught on then the practice would soon be added to the list of things you can't do. Of course if Apple went with the sub-bundle idea above then everyone's 'appy.
I wouldn't mind having the option to drop the heavy parts of Gameloft games, which I suspect are mostly full motion video.
I was thinking that since apple already allows for downloadable content, i'm not sure why they wouldn't allow for the content to be one of 3 different graphics packs (retina/ipad/ipadretina) for free, or then again, could be a nominal fee for the say ipad/ipadretina? since devs already seem to charge a slight premium for ipad stuff, which i'm 'ok' with, since i'd much prefer ipad gaming to retina gaming any day. ideally the itunes/app download system would be smart enough to handle the initial download to be appropriate for the device downloading it. I mean if i use my ipad to get into the app store, and i download a game, there's no reason for the app store to send me retina junk when i'm getting it on the ipad, and viceaversa, when someone's downloading for the retina, no reason for it to send the ipad junk. and of course if i'm getting it for my older ipod, don't waste my space with either pack. downloading directly to itunes could contain all packages, when you sync, it syncs only the appropriate parts for the device doing the syncing, which of course would require itunes to be modified...
Ideally this should be handled by the app store. I would find it annoying to buy an iPad game, have it download, launch it, and then have it download *again* to actually play at iPad resolution. If the app store could deliver specialized "universal" bundles with non HD assets stripped (or HD assets stripped, whatever it may be) that would be ideal.
correct me if i'm wrong, but i remember the free version of fragger having this feature. i think this method of downloading high res graphics later is pretty great and can lower the size of a file to less than 20 mb for 3G impulse downloading but i think the downside is that the dev has to host the server which houses the DLC. for an indie dev this might not be the best option as it will push up your costs.
that's what i mean though, when downloading with itunes, you'd download the whole bundle, when syncing, only the appropriate parts would be synced. when downloading directly with the ipad from the app store, i can't see why the app store wouldn't be smart enough to see that an ipad is getting the univeral file, so skip the retina portion. fiveohthree makes a good point though, about the dev having to host these files, which they shouldn't have to, all the data is already in the itunes store. itunes would just have to be made smart and sense which files to send, the dev shouldn't have anything to do with anything after putting the appropiate files into the appropriate folders like was mentioned above. the dev does the initial setup/sorting, itunes handles the appropriate downloading, users save space. can't imagine that the setup/sorting checking couldn't be a required automated step during an app submission to apple.
Itunes should handle this? And how so exactly? In an current universal build we dont have 3 images of everything for sd,ret&ipad. If some assets can be shared it will be to cut down size and save time creating and handling them. If you want to keep your app small and see that it goes over the limit make it non universal , if the iphone version only is still to big, compress stuff. Still to big, well then remove some. You can still offer retina assetts as a seperate after buy download, but you have the same limitations as with Iap, it can only be made via the app directly on the device. At the end i doubt apple will ever go there offering some atomatism, thats tons of work, millions of dollars of engineering and later very complex app testing, for a few stubborn customers who need to buy the smallest device and/or always need to carry all their games with them.. As if they play everything at once. Peple moan when its a non univesal because they need to pay twice and people moan because its an universal but they dont care for other devices.. Its always the same. You cant make everyone happy, neither should you.
I agree with Mr Ugly. To be honest, it is getting difficult enough to support multiple devices. The current system works great and lowers workload as much as it can. Having resource sets seperated would be nightmarish. For example: I use retina designed graphics for my ipad menus but only use regular iphone assetts for ipad gameplay. That would be messy for a resource set. A benifit of having the ability to create a universal app is that if you download it and have it in itunes you can easily sync it to every device you have an its always the same app. I like that. I think there are far more benifits, both for developers and customers, to having one app with a unified resource set.
i understand what you guys are saying, and i understand that its in apple's best interests to currnetly stuff people's devices so that they just find themselves needed to upgrade their device, but i'm just thinking that with all the fragmentation that apple is throwing into everything every year, with new devices, that sooner or later things will get ugly with the way things are. i would say they're ugly right now, but that's all a matter of personal opinion and threshold. granted, the easy solution is to just delete games to make room, but even then, itunes is such a box of rocks that it doesn't offer anything in terms of management of this kind of a thing. if i have a 1200 games, and i have 900 on the device, and 300 off, choose to delete a few more, now i have to keep a seperate google doc to keep track of which ones i 'temporarily' removed from the device that i want back, and also a list of which ones i've downloaded on itunes but haven't even installed on the device yet. then i have to worry about itunes sync randomly deleting files on the devices when i sync. too bad there's no way to optionally tell itunes that a particular sync session should only be an upload to the device, not a synchronization between the two. anyway, just a thought, maybe its the engineer in me wanting to compartmentalize everything
i'm sure it faar from normal to have 900 games on any device.. what do you even need that amount for? and if you buy stuff and forget you bought it.. then something is wrong.. maybee you should have not bought the game then.. i can't see any reasons to have 900 games on an ios device.. at least 890 of them are sitting just there idling and wasting space.. i doubt anybody switches his game every minute to play something else.. so your case is more than extreme.. maybe just buy an ipad for every genre and give it colored covers so you can distinct them.. j/k
Mr. Ugly is right that having iTunes support the proposed downloading of separate resource bundles cleanly would cost Apple a ton of money. Apple does, however, HAVE a tonof money, and they are more than willing to add useful features that they see as adding value. The problem with this proposal though, and the reason they won't bother to do it, is that Apple WANTS you to download larger and larger apps. That way you run out of space and they can sell you a new device with more memory. If anything, Apple is going the other way and making apps bigger. A "retina class" iPad is almost certainly coming either later this year or this time next year. If you think your apps are big now, wait until you get a iPad 3 with 2048x1536 display. The graphic assets for that thing are going to be massive!
While there is certainly some truth to this, it seems strange that they haven't simply ditched the limitations for 3G-downloads altogether. Apple's partners would love the extra traffic they could charge for and Apple would make it easier for the punters to fill their devices. I think Apple are quite confident that they'll manage to create updated devices that will lure the consumers anyway...
lol conspiracy theories.. apple has money, more than enough, but they surely don't spend it on a feature not even a fracture of a percent of the users are interested in or actualy care.. and sure they want you to run out of memory?! yeah right.. like they sell a 64gb ipad so you can buy a.. well.. what exactly? nothing thats top of the line.. so what know? a second one.. a third? thats ridiculous.. you buy the device that needs your purporse if that purpose change you can either handle it by managing your space properly or get a bigger version.. but no one force you, neither are they propagating "bigger" apps.. as if making bold text makes a statement more true.. no one forces you to BUY anything.. you don't need an ipad, nor ios games, nor any apple product.. if people are consumer zombies thats their fault.. evil corporates lure people to buy their gadgets.. whohhoo.. welcome to capitalism to come back to the inital topic.. again it is possible to offer such downloads.. if i recall right space miner (the arcade version) even made that a paid dlc or some sort of combo.. get some extra ships and retina..
