iOS (iPhone) more FAQ

[Kalladdolf]

I'm happy to say that, after sticking to what you guys told me about CPU / Memory management on the handheld device, my project runs smoothly on my testing device.
Now I'm ready to continue.
I still have a ton of questions left though and I thought it'd be too messy to squeeze them into other topics and they might get more frequently asked as more users consider the
App Store. So here they are, sorted and listed:

1
Are there events / functions that tell me about interruptions from the OS?
For instance, if the player gets a call, a text message or pushes the home/sleep/wake button, would it be possible to squeeze in a pause function?
Sometimes, apps receive a memory warning and react accordingly. Is there a way of tuning into this?
(e.g. in Objective-C: applicationWillTerminate, applicationDidEnterBackground, applicationWillResignActive etc.)

2
For Retina support I have to change my resolution to 960x640 (landscape). What if I don't need retina support but still want my app to run full screen on retina displays?
If I don't want my app to end up in the bottom right corner of the screen, do I necessarily need to scale everything up? That would be quite messy when you design your
levels drawing with tiles.

3
Where is saved content stored (saveVars or custom file types)?
Also, it would be quite handy if geplayer could access its "documents" folder and have iTunes file exchange supported.
That way, one could add additional content without updating the app.

4
How exactly are apps updated?
Let's say my first game was nice and people played it, but it had a bug that I just fixed and submitted an update.
When people launch the update, will it behave like a first launch? Because that would be fatal, since all their progress would be lost.
Result: Rage towards the developer...
Which files in which directories are kept so that I know where to put all the save files?

Thanks. I'm sure I have more, but these will be enough to chew on, I guess.

[Kalladdolf]

An answer to question 2 in particular would be greatly appreciated.

[skydereign]

When I tried retina, it didn't work, and I don't recall reading any actual success stories. When I brought it up with akr, it sounded like it was never thought of during gE development. What did happen was that I could only see the top left quarter of the screen.

-Edit
1. No, I've put in a feature request on the tracker though.

2. I have been using a retina display, but haven't run into any problems (besides that retina resolution doesn't work).

3. The save file for an app would be in the app structure, but I don't really know where. And generally makslane has been against having other directories available to gE, so not sure if he'd allow that.

4. I think I read that the update will override any file that you put in the app, but I haven't tested this myself. I know some people here have updated their app, so actual confirmation on this would be nice.

[Kalladdolf]

So, if I saved a game with the standard 480x320 resolution, would it appear full screen on a retina device or only be in a corner?

[skydereign]

Fullscreen. Not quite sure how retina works, but gE doesn't seem to have the flag that tells the device that it should be in retina display. So, gE can only do standard resolution.

[Kalladdolf]

Phew! That's good, that's all I need for now.

[sonicfire]

4) You should make sure that you save game progress and other things in (e.g.) dat files (save and loadVars), so that when you update
your App, you simply load DAT files to keep the game progress and/or anything else.

Sorry for the bad explanation, hope that makes sense (english isn´t my native language).

Anyway, this should do the trick.

[skydereign]

So, the app that you submitted did not contain the dat file? Which means the only thing that an update overrides is whatever you put into the xcode project, and therefore you can use any extra file to store the game data to load/save.

[Kalladdolf]

Very good. I was thinking that, but I wasn't 100% convinced.