I am confused on the differences between using #2x or -hd
Is one more efficient or quicker than the other?
I am using Cocos2D.
I'm pretty neither is quicker than the other
In my case, since I like using Cocos together with UIKit, I use the -hd suffix for all the Cocos related images (textures and such), and #2x for images that will be used with UIKit.
#2x is used before CCDirector is loaded..so the #2x is a must for the loading screen and icons
if the CCDirector is already loaded (aka..you're in game) you can use either #2x or -hd but if i remember corectly -hd is slightly slower and you have to enable retina display in app delegate... remove comments of:
if (![director enableRetinDisplay:YES]) CCLOG(#"Retina Display Not supported");
you don't need to enable retina display if you're using #2x
Like the other poster, I've never heard of an "-hd" suffix for image names in iOS.
Where did you see that? App names for retina devices or for the iPad sometimes have -hd as part of the name, but as far as I know there's no formal meaning to a "-hd" suffix in iOS.
You should set up your program to use standard images. To support Retina devices, you should save 2 versions of each image, "anImage.png", and "anImage#2x.png", where the one with the #2x suffix is twice as big in height and in width.
Related
I'm a beginner with XCode and I've encountered an issue. When I build my application, it looks fine in the standard iPhone simulator, but when I change the hardware to a retina device, the UI elements of my application become pixelated. How can I fix this?
You're seeing that because the retina screen is stretching the image you're supplying across more points on the screen. You can supply hi-res images in your bundle by appending #2x to the filename
http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/uikit/reference/UIImage_Class/Reference/Reference.html: "If you load an image from a file whose name includes the #2x modifier, the scale is set to 2.0. You can also specify an explicit scale factor when initializing an image from a Core Graphics image. All other images are assumed to have a scale factor of 1.0. "
Here's a guide to supporting high-resolution screens.
As #RobotWoods mentioned, all images in your app need to have #2x versions.
If you're using OpenGL ES, custom code that creates images, or core animation, you need to make sure your code accounts for the display's scale.
If you're using only standard UIKit elements like UIButton, UILabel, UITableView, etc. then all you need to do is provide the #2x images.
If that doesn't help, please post screenshots and relevant code of what looks blurry.
I have some image files for iPhone 5 size 640x1136, i have previously implemented retina images for iPhone 4 & 4S using #2x suffix, so what will be the suffix for images in iPhone 5, we can user the same as is #2x or it has to be changed.
It’ll still use #2x images where they’re available. There’s a -568h suffix you can use for the launch image, as in Default-568h#2x.png, but that’s currently the only place it’s supported; see Leo’s answer for a way to get that working elsewhere.
See my answer here. Some useful macros to help you with dealing with images.
For the iPhone Retina 4-inch (iPhone 5) it's still the #2x suffix because the density is the same as the iPhone Retina (iPhone 4 and 4S). The screen is bigger but have the same density.
The -568h suffix will work only in for the default image because it's the only place you really need it (just to tell the system that your app have been optimized for this new screen size, and it can stretch your views).
The naming convention Default-xxx.png is just here to provide the right image while the app is launching but I think it's non sense to try to replicate the same to load other images in imageViews. It's like the Default-(landscape|portrait).png on iPad. You never need this convention to load images yourself.
The only rule is:
# is for density (2 density exist right now, normal and 2x)
~ is for device (2 different devices exist right now, iphone and ipad)
To adapt images/imageView on the 4-inch iPhone you should play with your imageView content mode and the autoresizing configurations.
I have an iPhone Xcode project that currently only contains images for retina display (twice the size as normal and with a #2x.png suffix). When I run the app on the iPhone Simulator (non retina) the images are still being displayed. Does this mean I don't need to worry about including two sets of images: retina and non-retina?
This all seems a bit odd. I would assume that no images would appear on a non retina device if there are no non-#2x files included.
Note: I have not tested my app on a non retina device. Just the simulator.
I'm pretty sure that iOS will just use the #2x and scale it down if you don't have a non-retina graphic. Although that's sub-optimal since you're letting iOS do the scaling at runtime which will be slower than including the non-retina graphic and also iOS might not do as good a job as scaling as your graphics editor of choice.
Even if it works, it's not good practice, and if you have a media heavy app definitely it would impact performance and battery life and memory foot print and ....
By the way, is it just that you don't have the 1x graphics available to you or you are concerned about your apps (download size) or ...
If you are assigning the images in Interface Builder, and you set the image property on a UIImageView to image#2x.png, for example, iOS will not know that it's a high resolution "2x" image. In fact, on a retina display, iOS will look for an image named image#2x#2x.png. Since it won't find it, it will set the scale factor of the image to 1.0.
The contentMode property (just "mode" in XCode) will decide if any scaling of the image occurs to fit the constraints of the UIImageView. You may wish to set the mode to "Aspect Fit" to get the high resolution image to scale as needed for both retina and non-retina displays. In general, the image will display as seen in Interface Builder.
If you are using UIImage's imageNamed or similar function to load the image, and just specify image (where "image.png" doesn't exist, but "image#2x.png" does), then iOS will actually find the image on a non-retina display, though the scale factor will be 1.0. As previously, you'll need to scale it to fit your view. The image will work normally on a retina device, and the scale factor will be set to 2.0, since iOS looks for a "2x" image first, and it doesn't matter if the other file exists or not.
This is from Apple's documentation on imageNamed:
On a device running iOS 4 or later, the behavior is identical if the
device’s screen has a scale of 1.0. If the screen has a scale of 2.0,
this method first searches for an image file with the same filename
with an #2x suffix appended to it. For example, if the file’s name is
button, it first searches for button#2x. If it finds a 2x, it loads
that image and sets the scale property of the returned UIImage object
to 2.0. Otherwise, it loads the unmodified filename and sets the scale
property to 1.0. See iOS App Programming Guide for more information on
supporting images with different scale factors.
If at all possible, you really should include both retina and non-retina images. Using higher-resolution images than necessary negatively affects memory and performance.
I have an app and would like to make it retina display friendly.
How exactly does the process work? What images need to be added apart from what I have?
I know the sizes should be different, but am not sure on the details?
What else needs to be done to handle retina display?
Should the device be detected and use other images if the device supports retina display?
What if there are a lot of images? And how will this effect the app size?
Thanks
A good guide to this can be found here: http://mobile.tutsplus.com/tutorials/iphone/preparing-your-iphone-app-for-higher-resolutions/
In general you just create 2 sets of images. Your original and then a new one twice as big with #2x in the name. So for image.png at size 32x32 you would have one that is twice the resolution called image#2x.png at size 64x64. In your app just always use the image.png in Interface Builder and when loading in code.
There is no need to detect the device. These images will automatically be picked up by the OS and subbed in as necessary.
good articles if you're using sprites
http://weedygarden.net/2012/04/hi-res-retina-display-css-sprites/
The main thing about working with retina image is that image name convention.
And the size of image should be 2times greater than regular1.
Example- if your icon name for regular is icon.png then it should be icon#2x.png for
retina.And second thing is size for regular is 72*72 then it should be 144*144 for Retina.
It might be helpful for you.
Thnks
I've installed my iPhone app on an iPad. When I tap this "2x" button, the app gets scaled up, but it doesn't use my retina display graphics. Isn't that somewhat stupid? I am sure I did something wrong!
What must I set in the info.plist or elsewhere that the iPad will use my retina display graphics when the app is watched in 2x mode?
No, it literally just scales up the screen. It may be a bit lame but that's by design. Note that even the text is pixel-doubled.
If you want to make better use of the screen you have to make a "Universal" app.
If you use a hi-res image (not called #2x) in your app, then size the UIImageView half the size of the image it will appear crisp on the iPhone, retina, and iPad scaled up.
Please make sure your retina image naming convention is correct.
For retina image naming convention should be #2x.Suppose if your regular image name is like
icon.png then for retina it should be icon#2x.png.