New iphone engine

[akr]

Friends,

we are close to release a new updated iphone engine with lots of new features

-True multitasking support
-Retina Display (960x640)
-Multitouch support
-ge 1.4 and 1.5 files supported
-Box2D physics

and lots more.

So we would like to know whats the desired screen resolution is you are looking for.
Are u willing to got to that high retina resolution? Are u aware that some of your games
might need to be converted?

[master0500]

i'd rather keep it as it is because i find it harder to do larger grafix
but what if you make an option to switch between retina and the standard resolution

[skydereign]

If gE supports retina display, then it will be easier to port games between both android and ios. Most android devices I see are 800x480, so porting from 480x320 to 800x480 to me is a bit weird, though it does entirely depend on your game. But, since retina and android have more screen size, it's easier to arrange things to match.

Can't you set something in the xcode project to either use, or ignore retina (haven't looked into it)? It'd be most convenient if the project could determine which to use based off the game, but either you can have one project to support retina, and one to support the standard, or just have us know how to change it within the project.

[Nykos]

That's so cool, can't wait . When will it be released? Personaly, I'm a drawer so the higher resolution I can have, the best it would be. But if resolution is 960x640, will our games still work iphone 3g or 2g? And does IAd work?

[Game A Gogo]

I'd go for retina. GE should always move with the technologies or it will be left behind dust.

But what would even be better is that you can chose either retina display or normal display!

[akr]

I see. Retina seems to be the preferred way. Still not clear what the consequences for iphone 3 are. So this is why its not released today.

iAds: Yes. The new technology we will use (newest SDL13) will it make easier to add iADs. So yes. Its likely to come. Not yet but soon.

EDIT: If someone has a special business need lemme know. Will see if we can setup a special project for it.

[Nykos]

I have an iphone 3g so if you want more testing, I can help. Talking about special need,multitouch being on it's way, i think in-app purchase is a must have.
It's cool that IAd comes out soon, free games could maybe make some money.

Edit: Being able to put internet links in our apps would be cool too.

[skydereign]

Yeah, the definite next step would be in app purchases, that and more connectivity with the internet.

[Fojam]

also can you fix the slow canvas issue please?

[skydereign]

What are you using canvas for? If it's just scaling, then it'd be easier for your smash game to use real scaling. That'll be in the next release. Though I agree if it is a fixable problem, it should be fixed.

[gir]

Great news. Let me also add something to the wishlist Openfeint or Gamecenter support would be great, especially for highscore games.

Apple supports the suffix @2x
You have to name your HD graphics like this: default@2x.png
The new devices with the retina display will automatically choose this graphics an the older devices will choose the default.png graphics.
https://developer.apple.com/library/ios ... index.html

But I don't know, if that makes any sense for ge.

[skydereign]

The 2x doesn't really work for gE. It could only be used for the icons we use. If we could implement a point grid instead of a pixel grid, then we could do what apple does and support both displays, one with opengl's scaling. But that would require changing how x and y work (unless the geapp/geplayer could interpret the x and y for us).

[Nykos]

scaling too? I really can't wait to get my hands on it. There are so many ideas i have that will come to life now. Any news about when it will be available?

[akr]

I saw a lot of votes for Retina.

Are u aware that for Retina a seperate .dat file needs to be provided? E.g. ge960x640.dat? This new resolution requires a seperate datfile.

Current planning is to have a datfile for 480x320 and another one for Retina.


Current plan is: geapp will only switch on Retina if ge960x640.dat is available. Otherwise ge480x320.dat or ge320x480.dat is loaded which is
compatible on all iphone devices.

More concrete: geapp will query for available screen resolutions. This will give the values above and will support standard, Retina and ipad.

Lemme know your thoughts.

[master0500]

Any idea when the next version of gE is coming out?