What will happen if I do the following:
I substitute all non-retina assets with the retina assets
I delete all retina assets in my project ( All the ...#2x.pngs etc.)
Why do I want to do this:
There will be less and less non-retina iPhones in the future (also due to minimal OS requirements etc.)
I get a lighter binary
I don't have so many "quasi-duplicate" files in my project which I have to maintain separately.
Now:
Will the iPhone 3GS scale down the image and display it properly (with a little bit of processing overhead of course)
Will a "retina-enabled" Phone be able to display the image properly even though it does no longer have the #2x suffix in the filename.
In 99% of cases this will work fine. However there are cases where images won't scale correctly (usually depending on the contentMode).
I worked with someone who did this exact thing and never noticed a problem, although I think it is terrible practice.
You will get a lighter binary, but you are asking the older devices (with less memory) to do more work. If you don't want to support these devices then don't, I think this is better than giving users a potentially broken app.
There are better ways to reduce the size of images in your app, reusing them wherever possible, stretching, tiling etc.
3GS and iPhone 4 will both display the image improperly.
The fact is 3GS won't scale down the image. So it won't display the image properly. iPhone 4 will scale the non-#2x image (scale it twice) so it won't display the image properly too.
Nothing will happen if you decide to do this. Older devices will try, but if you allow the device to even run your app, you will have quite a bit of work just to deal with the scaling issues. If you allow older devices to install your app, you will have to be prepared to get approved from Apple on older devices too. If the images don't work right on older devices, you won't get approved. You are also right that there are fewer and fewer retina displayed devices in service.
But... there are still quite a few non-retina devices still in service. Maintaining both is good for your users. Yes it adds a little extra heft to your binary, but with today's speeds on a variety of networks, that isn't the issue like it used to be.
While it is your right to choose which users to support, and there are many developers that share your sentiment, it is still up to you to decide which group of users you ultimately want to support. If you are fine drawing the line with retina displays, so be it.
I could finger-wag at you and tell you that you should support every single user, but I'm sure you've thought of that. If you are fine supporting retina devices only, go for it. If you are prepared to answer questions on why this one device is supported and another isn't, go for it. The good news is, no matter what you decide, you'll be right...eventually. Good luck.
Related
I am developping my first application on iOS. I am on this language since few days and I am going to share this application in Apple Store ASAP. But I have a big question around architecture.
Currently, I have with about 40 different type of Views, others components and a lot of PNG (30x30). I know that I can reduce considerably the number of Views through the development of a small framework but as it's my first learning-by-practice application, I wanted to move on quickly about all standards components and to start this development without architecture, reusables class or design pattern ... without think too hard.
To be short, I am wondering about the real size of applications in production and the performances. Have we got some constraints with:
Apple Store (upload apps)
Ram Capacity of iPhone during using
Download application from apple store for the user
etc...
Basicly, is it acceptable to have with about 40 screens for an iPhone Application?
Best regards.
There is a limit of 50 MB for over-the-air downloads.
Number of screens is probably not going to be a problem. The amount of executable code associated with each screen is probably not going to be significant. The bigger issue is how much PNG data you are going to have embedded in the app. A single 30x30 PNG isn't very big. 40 of them probably won't very big (depending on how well they compress). But if you have dozens of them per screen, or if you have a big hi-res background image for each screen, then the total amount of data could get big.
My advice would be to just start developing everything in the most straightforward way you can. Don't worry about sizes until you have some evidence that it may be a problem. And do a lot of testing on an actual device (don't rely on the Simulator) running whatever the oldest OS version is that you are willing to support.
I have an iPhone/iPod app that I hired a contractor to make. Now I am asking same contractor to support iPad, and the contractor is quoting a ridiculously high price (the BD guy is). I think they know that since they have developed the app, they have some leverage and want to maximize their profit.
Some questions:
Is adding support for iPad mostly a UI job?
Is any coding needed except detecting device type?
Looking at their images/ folder, I can see that for every graphic, they have already made a "2x" version which is double in size. Could it be that they have already created the necessary artwork, as I have told them from the start that iPad support will likely follow the iPhone version?
If I were to use a different contractor now, as it is likely we will not come to a middle ground since we are so far apart in price, what are the things a different contractor would need to do the port?
In particular, I'm wondering if I need to fight to get the raw Photoshop files which contain the graphics, so they can be recreated for iPad, or will going by the eye be good enough? I personally don't mind if the artwork is slightly different.
This certainly makes me think twice about using contractors in the future.
Well here are some answer from my experience:
Yes mostly it just about changing the look of your app. But people are expecting a different user experience on the iPad, so not all view should be full screen for instance.
No most iPhone code will run fine on the iPad, if you are using stuff like UIImagePickerViewController then you need to change the way it is displayed.
NO the #x2 are for retina device NOT for iPad.
Source code and design would do I for me.
Having the original PSD would be nice, but you can do with out.
Just keep in mind that you just can scale up most applications and expect them to become fully excepted by users.
This really depends on the app but there are some differences for iphone and ipad.
Yes, it is mostly an UI job, and depending on screen content, porting one screen can be trivial (just checking if the autoresize functions do their job right), or though - making one from scratch. If your application has lots of complicated screens, I get why the price may be high.
Also - there are some differences in what controllers are available on each device, mostly the popovers or action sheets - that may require different code for each device.
As for the graphics - the 2x resources are actually for the retina capable devices (4th and 5th gen) - most people use them for the iPad too, but as the screen dimensions are not exactly the same, they get warped slightly. In most cases thats ok, but for really high quality, a separate set of graphics may be required.
Take these as generic answers, the complexity of the actual app may affect these answers quite a bit;
1) If the app isn't using any specific functionality on the iPhone that isn't always available on the iPad (GPS for example, or specific camera resolutions for image processing), then yes, it's mostly a UI job. That doesn't mean it's necessarily quick and easy, you may want to change the layout radically for the iPad (that, of course, is up to you though)
2) Most code except UI possibly related code mentioned above should not need much change. Exceptions if any are mostly related to different hardware on different models and depends on the complexity of the application.
3) 2x images are not for iPad, they're for the retina display on iPhone4 and later.
4) Almost impossible to answer without seeing the code or even the app, sorry. If it's a fairly simple application, everything needed should be contained in the XCode project.
5) Up to you, if you want a quick "fix" you may want to resize the 2x images from retina resolution to iPad resolution in Photoshop and use anti aliasing to make them look ok. Your judgement call though. Just check that your deal with the contractor does not give him all the rights to the artwork or you may get into trouble changing/reusing it.
It is. You'll require separate nibs for iPad UI, if you don't want different UI logic, so it's possible to use same view controllers.
View controllers will require logic branches if UI is different. It's mostly checks for user interface idiom though.
#2x versions are for retina display. They will be useful when iPad 3 with retina hits the shelves. Right now, low-res images will be enough for iPad UI.
Different contractor will require the complete code of your project along with all resources...
...so yes, get all the PSDs as well.
First off, I have well over a decade as a professional software engineer working for many clients both small and blue-chip, with broad experience of a variety languages/devices. With that said:
Please remember that the ipad version will need testing on ipad 1, ipad 2 and in a couple of weeks time on an ipad3. Testing takes time. The new version will also need to be tested again on all iphones too.
Also, you mention that this app is a game. The original code might have been coded in such a way as assuming certain screen resolution, and maybe even have hard-coded values throughout the code relating to screen positions etc. Particularly if the coder was not aware of a future ipad requirement. Also supporting ipad 3 might not be an insignificant task if it has x2 graphics depending upon original code and the game engine used (if there is one).
Some apps will cost the same to create an ipad version as the original iphone app.
If your original agreement didn't include IPR over the source you might have difficulty getting it. Some agencies and contractors default to providing source to clients, others charge extra for provision of the source.
Lastly, the contractor might have originally coded the iphone app at a loss, i.e. they might have quoted you and been paid for 3 days work when they actually spent 10 days on it. In which case they might be assuming the worst for the ipad version too.
There are a lot of questions to ask and be answered before you can say they are "trying to rob".
Now more than one year passed since a retina display device appeared. Does anyone know some numbers how many users still suffer under the low-resolution devices? How long do they use their iPhones or iPods until they realize that a retina display is so much better?
I'm sick of having to create every graphic two times, trashing the binary with all these low-resolution files. I wonder if anyone has stopped supporting low resolution hardware without a big loss.
And: If I wanted to stop supporting low resolution devices, what kind of settings in the info.plist must I make? And what would happen if a low-res device still installs my retina-only app?
Why do people still use IE 6? or why do some people still have Windows XP? Simply b/c they can't afford new ones. Money is to blame. There is no simple answer as to when should you stop supporting certain technology. In the technology world you should usually wait for a big company (like Facebook) to stop supporting certain devices. Only those big sharks can force people to switch.
If you want your users to be happy and want your software to be great you should always support all available devices/versions if possible. Little work for you is a big benefit for your users.
In the end you don't have to do anything you don't want to. But your software will resemble it.
You can at least wait for Apple to stop providing iOS updates to low-resolution devices (i.e. iPhone 3G S) since it is capable of running iOS 5
Maybe its not possible right now as it isnt yet supported here.
But releasing your app with a iOS deployment target of iOS 4.2 may reduce the number of non-retina display users to a great extent.
And the main reason for users not switching to new devices is explained perfectly in the previous answer. :)
We have in store an app which displays a series of videos through HTTP Live Streaming. Due to the nature of this videos, and the screensize of the iPhone/iPod device, we have decided to leave behind everything that does not have retina display.
The reason? Well, this videos are encoded in high resolution, and even that we have encoded them in lower resolution, those videos are still a bit pixelated. Since is is a paid app, we don't want to charge iPhone 3G/s users for an app they're not gonna enjoy at most.
The problem now is that we have decided to make the app universal, so iPad users can enjoy the app without that crappy upscaling from emulation. The problem goes like this.
In order to leave behind iPhone 3G/s users from buying the app, we have set as required the front facing camera, but we do not use it, of course. Why? front facing camera = retina display ;) . The problem is with the iPad. We can do the same with the iPad 2, but not with the iPad 1.
So the question is...is there anyway so we can submit the app to be available to everyone except iPhone 3G/s (or iPod)??
You can put constraints on the App in the store, informing of the need for retina display or whatever device capability it needs (i.e., Camera [not on old iPod Touch], GPS, etc.). It does lead to bad reviews, but you cannot stop idiots in the world from buying a product. There have been plenty of cases brought to court where the plantiff is suing a home owner for being injured while breaking in or robbing the house and they won...I mean really?...don't let users who don't have common sense deter you from putting out a product.
To drop the iPhone 3G, you could add the magnometer as a required capability.
That still doesn't take care of the 3GS though...
You can make your app Universal, while maintaining the requirements. You should check two things:
The device is an iPad/iPad 2?
If not, does it have a camera?
Merging these two tests you can determine if the app is running on an iPad (2) or on a retina-display-powered device. It will just require a couple of lines of code more. Eg. test for:
UI_USER_INTERFACE_IDIOM() == UIUserInterfaceIdiomPad
Following iPad's announcement and its SDK (iPhone SDK 3.2), porting apps to iPad becomes an important issue. What guidelines I should follow in my iPhone apps to ensure I can port it to iPad as seamlessly as possible?
The different resolution is particularly an important issue. While the iPad runs iPhone apps unmodified, it's not really the desirable behavior for a native app. How can we make our iPhone apps resolution-independent so that they can run gracefully on all resolutions like most desktop apps?
If you've been using IB and setting the resize behaviors of elements properly, and also coding frame coordinates all relative to each other you are half-way to having a UI that can potentially scale to a larger screen.
From the screen shots there are new kinds of action-sheets as well, potentially attached to UI elements instead of floating - if you use overlays today they will probably work about the same but you may want to consider changing placement from the center on larger display.
UPDATE:
Now the event is over, and registered developers can download the SDK - although we cannot talk about specific features here just yet, read through ALL of the documents related to the new OS version as there are a number of things aimed at helping you transition to supporting both platforms. Also before you start using custom libraries for things take a look through the API changes to see what new abilities might be supported that are not today.
Generally speaking, what I said above about IB holds true, and also you should start thinking about how your apps today could use more space to present more information at once instead of being split out over multiple screens. Also if you are doing any projects right now that use images, make sure to initially design the images large enough that you can also use them for higher resolution tablet applications.
It is far more reasonable to expect users to input text (and larger amounts of it) than with a non-iPad device.
Nothing, it appears. Although we don't have the SDK quite yet. It will all existing run iPhone app without an issue, albeit at reduced resolution.
It remains to be seen how much of the existing iPhone SDK is shared with the iPad SDK UI wise.
Judging by what has been said, absolutely nothing. You will have to adapt to the new screen size and better hardware all together, if you want to take advantage of the features that the improved device offers. The lack of a 3g module is also something to consider if your app(s) rely on that functionality.