App Retina Support

[Twism86]

So does anyone else have the same concerns as me? Im not getting an iPad 3 but aside from thr apple apps will any of them be compatible with the retina screen just yet? They will all need to be redesigned and until then, probably look down right bad.......

 

[MrLuke]

So does anyone else have the same concerns as me? Im not getting an iPad 3 but aside from thr apple apps will any of them be compatible with the retina screen just yet? They will all need to be redesigned and until then, probably look down right bad.......

You're right in thinking they'll need to be redesigned, but chances are some developers will have known about the new retina display for longer than the general public and thus are probably already trying. As for 'they will look downright bad' they will look just as good as they do on an iPad1/2 and that's not half bad so I wouldn't worry about that. You only have to look at games like Real Racing 2 HD and Galaxy on Fire 2 to see how good they look, they will look even better when they're redesigned for the iPad3, but they'll still look good as they are now.

Sent via iPF from my iPad2 iOS 5.1.

 

[Sting67]

So does anyone else have the same concerns as me? Im not getting an iPad 3 but aside from thr apple apps will any of them be compatible with the retina screen just yet? They will all need to be redesigned and until then, probably look down right bad.......

How many iPhone apps support Retina?! There's your answer!

 

[darrinaltman]

I'm a new developer and have my one iPad app updated and ready to go and a new one as well. As soon as I get the new iPad I will test and if looks good, I will send to Apple for approval immediately. I'm sure the larger developers are ahead of me, so I wouldn't worry. I'm sure within a week or less there will be a ton of updated apps.

 

[Skull One]

So does anyone else have the same concerns as me? Im not getting an iPad 3 but aside from thr apple apps will any of them be compatible with the retina screen just yet? They will all need to be redesigned and until then, probably look down right bad.......

If anyone has concerns it is very misplaced. The apps will look EXACTLY the same on the iPad (3rd Gen) as they do on the iPad and iPad 2. IF the developer feels that double density graphics will make their app look better, then they can update. But it isn't needed nor required.

The technical reason for this is simple. The screen is the same exact physical size as the last two generations. Your eyes will see the SAME exact graphics when held at 12 to 15 inches from your eyes. So it is physically impossible for the apps to look "bad" on the iPad (3rd gen). So that means there isn't a single developer out there that "needs" to update.

 

[MrLuke]

Plus the fact, it's also worth remembering that an updated app will take up far more space and thus may not be worth it for some developers. Imagine if Firemount updated the Real Racing 2 HD app to give it far better graphics. The app already takes up 1.2GB, I'm not sure many would want it taking up much more.

Sent via iPF from my iPad2 iOS 5.1.

 

[f4780y]

And whilst the non-standard graphic elements of any app will look the same as they do on the iPad2, all the native iOS graphic elements will be automatically updated to higher resolution as will the most important element for many apps, the text rendering. This was all covered during the keynote!

 

[zphone]

I am sure that most apps that deal with photo's, video's, graphics rendering will be updated ASAP. Older apps will look exactly as they did - perhaps a little crisper due to increased contrast. And what really matters - text, and internet browsing will look unbelievable.

 

[Seadog]

The pre-release reviews from a few people with the new iPad is that the retina display is amazing, and no complaints were made about old apps.

 

[WitchOneSalem]

I just had be update on my iPad. I forget the application. In the update description one new feature is the compatibility for the new iPad display.

Sent from my IPAD 1st generation. WIFI only. 64GB

 

[Twism86]

Well good to know everything should look ok. I only brought this up because some games looked worse when I switched from my 3GS to 4S.

 

[f4780y]

Well good to know everything should look ok. I only brought this up because some games looked worse when I switched from my 3GS to 4S.

Games are bound to be the one thing which do need an update for retina to get the full quality. Textures etc. will all have been rendered for the iPad1 & 2 native resolution. The comfort should come from the fact that they will look essentially just as good as the iPad2. In other words no worse. The few games that also support 1080p output may also look good on retina, but that remains to be tested

The only issues I've read about so far is that the Kindle app will need an update. Apparently it is using its own text rendering engine and not the native one, so it doesn't get the retina boost automatically. I'm sure Amazon will react quickly though.
The same thing happened with Documents2Go for the iPhone4. Took them quite a while to update their app to support retina text because they built their own renderer for the iPhone 3.

However, I'm confident things will look good tomorrow for most apps out there!

 

[kierandill]

I will personally wait until tomorrow afternoon and find out, side-by-side with my iPad 1.
Unless there is some programming wizardry involved in the apps that allow for smart scaling, it can't look the same. We all know what a native iPhone app looks like in 2x mode on an iPad 1/2. Any time you make an image larger, it gets blocky. If you merely turn each pixel from a legacy iPad app into 4 pixels on this display, it will look bad.
If the hardware instead does some sort of real-time interpolation (like DVD upconverting in a blu-ray player), then it would look fine. But that takes some horsepower.

 

[AQ_OC]

I will personally wait until tomorrow afternoon and find out, side-by-side with my iPad 1.
Unless there is some programming wizardry involved in the apps that allow for smart scaling, it can't look the same. We all know what a native iPhone app looks like in 2x mode on an iPad 1/2. Any time you make an image larger, it gets blocky. If you merely turn each pixel from a legacy iPad app into 4 pixels on this display, it will look bad.
If the hardware instead does some sort of real-time interpolation (like DVD upconverting in a blu-ray player), then it would look fine. But that takes some horsepower.

But iphone apps aren't designed for an iPad screen. You should be comparing native apps for the older iPads to how they run on the new one. Or compare apps that run on the iphones prior to the 4/4S to how they run on the 4/4S...it's the same kind of deal.

See my post on the reviews that have been posted on the web. If there were some issue, people would be saying some very different things than what's been written to this point.

 

[Skull One]

I will personally wait until tomorrow afternoon and find out, side-by-side with my iPad 1.
Unless there is some programming wizardry involved in the apps that allow for smart scaling, it can't look the same. We all know what a native iPhone app looks like in 2x mode on an iPad 1/2. Any time you make an image larger, it gets blocky. If you merely turn each pixel from a legacy iPad app into 4 pixels on this display, it will look bad.
If the hardware instead does some sort of real-time interpolation (like DVD upconverting in a blu-ray player), then it would look fine. But that takes some horsepower.

You do realize there is NO LOGICAL nor TECHNICAL basis for your opinion?

The display will look EXACTLY the same when held at the proper distance from the eyes. It is PHYSICALLY impossible for it to look any different. The reason for this is simple. The pixels will be shown in the same exact position. The new density does not take up ANYMORE space than the original pixel did.

So that means a 1024x768 PNG graphic will look 100% the same, no if, and or but.

Now, the first thing everyone is going to start saying is "BUT BUT it looks different"! Well duh! Apple has already updated the graphics for all of the their apps, plus the text rendering engine has been updated. Which is why iOS developers where never given a final GM build of 5.1 to test. It would have given away what they were doing.

So any app that has TEXT that is using the standard API calls will look better because they are going to be RENDERED better. But on non-Apple apps that have graphics, those graphics are not going to change one bit until the developer updates them. Which means you are going to see no difference other than the text.

Of course the next argument is, but WEB BROWSING looks better on certain pages! Again, WELL DUH. If the graphics were meant to be displayed on a bigger screen but the iPad interpolated it to fit on a 1024x768 screen, it probably won't need to do the interpolation anymore which means you will see the original graphic as it was meant to be seen.