Thats exactly what I wanted! I don't think that having retina quality ships and menus will tax the system too much. I know that particle effects and new backgrounds make the game better, etc, but for iphone 4G/ipod touch 4G owners there is no reason to buy the HD IAPs because we are not getting the HD experience. Yes, on iPad the game looks amazing judging from the screenshots, but dev also promised that the game will have support for retina devices as well. That is simply not true. All the posted screenshots are proof that there is hardly any difference between the original Phoenix and HD Phoenix when run on 4G devices. Again, I am only talking about the ships. I don't care about the backgrounds or bullets. They move too fast to notice the resolution, but the static objects like ships stand out like a sore thumb. Right now I see no reason to play the new version and even less to spend any money on IAPs when I have the old version with all ships unlocked that looks identical (minus some particle effects and new backgrounds,...big deal).
Hey guys, it's great that you are discussing the game so actively, very nice and keep it up! About the graphics, the comparison screenshots are nice to see, but they are so different that it is hard to see the difference in resolution, however small or large it is. One of the 'classic Phoenix' screenshots even features the un-textured ships (pre 1.2.1). Also, understand that Phoenix HD is not just Phoenix with some switches flipped from 'off' to 'on' So it is not like we can increase the resolution of a part of the renderer, like the playership. We're not talking about the resolution of the assets itself here, as each devices uses the same assets and you can see on the iPad2 screenshots how great they look The High Definition version of Phoenix offers exactly that, a smooth and more amazing looking version of Phoenix. It is not just Phoenix scaled to retina resolution! Resolution is nice to have (of course!), but we feel we can get the best result by also improving stuff like the particle systems and features like parallax scrolling backgrounds and a bump to 60 frames per second. Compromises have to be made as not all hardware is fast enough to simply max out everything. All developers are always faced with these choices, which are important, as they decide what the end result looks like. Some developers chose not to make these compromises at all and simply do not release for certain devices or modes at all! With Phoenix HD we have scaled the graphics to each device, so they are all maxed and running with the best settings they possibly can to display 2.000 moving animated objects across the screen at 60fps. It always looks amazing. It looks stunning on an iPhone 3GS, it looks more stunning on an iPhone 4 and it looks even more stunning on an iPad2! And it is free, so you can judge for yourself if it is worth it for you, without paying a dime! The iPad 2 can run everything maxed out and we assume the next gen of phones will as well, Phoenix HD is ready and waiting for this I'm not sure what you are referring to here, but from the start we have set out to create an amazing looking version of Phoenix that is not just the existing graphics scaled up to a higher resolution, have always communicated it as such and we are super pleased with the end result!
Thanks for your reply. What I meant is that the game should run at a native resolution on 4G devices. So that the graphics look sharp. Looking at comparison screenshots, the retina supported graphics would not have jagged/pixelated edges. Screenshots of the game running on 4G devices should look more like the iPad 2 screenshot. I understand now that when you were talking about all the HD improvements and how great it looks you were talking about iPad. From all your statements I inferred that the HD version will actually be designed with 4G devices in mind. And again I am not talking about effects or FPS, just the resolution. Ok, it was a misunderstanding. Its sad though. The game would look fantastic on 4G devices with proper resolution.
I think the point the dev tried to make is this, Phoenix HD could have been just an iPad only deal but they went ahead and got it working on iPhones and iPods too with some compromises. Espgaluda 2 HD might be iPad only and really, you might never get a CAVE shmup for 3g/4g devices that runs on retina res. But the ships in Phoenix HD do look a little too much like the original build on non-iPad devices. And I realize that the engine doesn't allow you to simply use a different asset for the player ship, enemy ships and turrets. That the engine is using the same assets, simply scaling them as best the device can be pushed... but this is something that the devs need to look into. Simply because this is the kind of thing that can hurt reviews for a free game. It's clear that the devs never say retina in app description, but people just assume that a 3g+ only app MUST support retina. Despite CAVE not supporting retina on any of their shmups. They went as far as to say that even iPad builds were impossible because there wasn't enough RAM on the devices. Of course, now they have suddenly found hidden caches of RAM -.- but anyway... Before you whine about the lack of retina, please, PLEASE look at your beloved CAVE shmups, the apparent gold standard of shmups on the appstore, and the lack of retina res there.
Broke 3mil again with the Mirage, this time with the iPod. Just wanted to see if playing on the iPad gives you a MAJOR advantage. And it does give you an advantage, but not a huge one. On the iPod/iPhone you get the advantage of being able to move faster and accelerate more easily. (the weird commas are because my iPod is set to Indian numbering)
I don't like CAVE shmups. I don't think the graphics there are anything to write home about and gameplay is not that amazing either. In fact I prefer Phoenix graphics and gameplay. Yes, having looked back through the thread, the devs did not promise retina graphics. What made me think that there will be retina graphics was the various statements as to how great the HD build looks on latest devices. Retina supported graphics are sometimes called HD as well. Hence the confusion.
I wasn't directing that statement at you, but at people who are retina focused in general. Phoenix HD is a rare case of a universal game where iPad is the primary platform and things are scaled down from there. But things will not always be so. 4S or probably 5g devices will be able to run this game at retina. For now, things are certainly less rosy for non-iPad users. But lest we forget it, this is a FREE game. You need only pay if you want to feature on the leaderboards, or want a more complete game with more ships. And on that note, the devs should consider only showing the Buy Online Pass screen once in say, 3 or 5 occasions. This way people will play the free game more, but only see the online pass popup a few times. The more they play it the better they will get, and as their score increases it's more likely they would like access to the leaderboards.
It is funny that it indeed looks this way. However, Phoenix HD development was planned and well under way before the iPad2 was released What we did is basically develop without any limit on how something should look or work. Our priority was to make it look awesome and it is easier to experiment and discover new effects when you are not bound by constraints that might or might actually not be relevant. During this development we always ran the game on 3rd (and 4th) generation hardware. So the 3rd generation screen resolution was basically the starting point as we wanted it to work on the iPhone 3GS. Only in the final stages did we check how far we could scale the resolution up on newer devices (this is also one of the reasons we never communicated on this subject). Is this useful information for you guys? I don't think so, but I thought I'd share the anekdote, some of you might like this kind of inside developer info and sometimes I like writing about it The result is in your hands and we are very happy with it.
I love reading posts like these from developers And of course dev diaries or blogs. And they are all the more fascinating to read on a platform like iOS that hosts so many great indie devs. I like that you are looking to the future because very soon we will have 4S or 5 and you guys are already ready for that.
at least you guys respond to our reviews and complaints. thats what intrigues me. PS: Sapphire, what language do you speak. Im from Hyderabad.
Another day, another few hours of Phoenix HD... my eyes keep screaming me to stop playing What is the overall stat/opinion on difficulty, I've always exclusively played on 5-stars locked. Do you guys ever dial it down to something like 3? And what do most people use Selachii? PS: flameon, I speak Hindi, native Delhiite
flameon, OMG you don't like the iAP ships?! I totally love them. They actually remind me of R-Type, my favorite shmup series of all time. Rcranium666, probably something you installed from Cydia messing things up?
What's your high score so far? And I still want to compile HD build specific scores here, with device details.
i'm curious to know how to get such (1mil) high scores ? only skillbased ? i started to play with difficult level 5 stars by seeing that most of the players in the leaderboards play with five stars. has anoyone in here more tips for me ? i would appreciate that
