It may seem like you would always want to test your app on all devices that Apple offers: the iPad 2, iPad mini, and iPad 4. But its expensive or difficult to obtain all three devices and keep them around just for testing.
The iPad 2 and mini both have 512MB DDR2, use the 1GHz dual core A9, a Dual-core PowerVR SGX543MP2 and have the same screen resolution. It seems like its the same hardware all together.
Is there likely to be any difference between these two devices that could cause a problem with an app, other than the obvious physically smaller screen size?
Honestly it depends on what the app is. Like you said, screen size is different, but that may have a small effect on the usability of the app.
Other than that, I don't know. Sorry.
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I have two questions about the iOS Simulator in Xcode for my Unity game:
I am using latest version of all the software involved.
1) Why is it so slow? (I have tried the Cmd+T solution and it does
nothing. Note: The game runs smooth even on a real iPhone 4)
2) Why is the size of the iPad simulator screen bigger than my laptop screen? (I know you can
scale it, but just curious why Apple always tries to make our life
difficult)
When you run game on iOS simulator then your game image runs not completely running on your mobile hardware actually runs in compression mode so seems to be slow.
Having high resolutions Apple deceives have bigger number of pixels on their screen, so its not Screen size but it Screen pixels what we need to concern. And it is for creating more smooth effects on visuals for animation, it is to provide user better quality graphics, not to make your life difficult
iPad Pro simulators are so slow that they become practically useless when running my cocos2dx game. Theoretical FPS displayed is 60, but all animations take minutes instead of seconds (e.g. 30 seconds instead of a fraction of a second).
I made sure 100 times that Slow Animations are turned off on my simulator.
I've found this topic: iOS Simulator games run very slow (low fps) where the reasons for possible poor simulator performance are explained, but:
First, I can't deduce HOW slow their simulators are (they complain about bad FPS, my theoretical fps is good (???)). I'm getting the impression that they are able to test something while I am not
Second, I need a solution to this problem as I need to test my stuff on an ipad pro 12.9 inch and I don't have the funds to buy one for tests now :) . However, I am thinking on getting a better macbook.
I am using Macbook Air 2014 with 4GB RAM. Do you think this might be the reason? Can anyone tell me whether they are using ipad pro simulators when testing their games (Cocos, Unity, SpriteKit?), and if you get decent speed, then what are your Mac specs that might affect performance (processor, RAM?)
The simulator is not a device and it's performance varies depending on the machine you're running it on, but also the type of device you're simulating.
The iPad Pro devices are both large and have a retina display. The simulator has to process 2732 x 2048 (12.9" 5.6M pixels) and 2048 x 1536 (9.7" 3M pixels). The iPhone 6/6plus and later models have similarly high pixel counts. This takes a lot of CPU+GPU power to render all those pixels.
Your Macbook Air is decent, but it's screen has a much smaller resolution than the simulator and its GPU was chosen with its smaller screen-size in mind. The integrated intel graphics aren't that performant.
If you can test out running the same game/app as a Mac application instead you should see better performance.
My advice:
Use 30fps during daily testing (or when in debug mode) director->setAnimationInterval(1.f/30.f);, if your game requires 60fps for its gameplay then you may want to look into other options.
You can also add one of the non-retina iPad simulators for testing. iPad Mini or iPad 2. Test on the Pro simulators periodically only to check for any positioning/scaling issues.
Render to a small(er) frame buffer and then render the frame buffer scaled up into the final screen buffer.
It is always recommended to get an actual device when doing mobile development as the simulators/emulators don't provide real world performance characteristics.
Even though it's not what you're asking I'd still repeat the key point in the linked answer: Only worry about performance when running on an actual device, and find a way to not have it affect.
I'm developing a game that requires a decent amount of memory. I've optimized it for basically every iOS device that can run 8.0+, except for the iPads with 512MB of RAM. Do I have to support the iPad mini, or could I write a disclaimer stating that it won't run that device. Or is there some way that I can half the size of every image that is loaded by code? What is the best way to go about this?
I'm fairly new to developing. My app is graphic heavy with some animation using timers. I am testing on a 4th gen iPad retina. In simulator (Xcode 5) the timers I have going for animations run slower than on the iPad, and some other graphic features (like things fading in and out) don't work the same in simulator as the iPad build. Should I trust the iPad's build and not the simulator? Should I also test on different iPad models to check if the graphic animations run correctly on different models or are they likely to run the same?
I focus on UI art & have experience with making graphics rather than dealing with the Xcode environment itself, so any info about how programmed animation views display on different devices or different environments would be really helpful.
Rule one of developing apps: Always test on a hardware device
The hardware device has a ARM CPU for dealing with normal stuff like calculations and a GPU to accelerate the graphics. The GPU's on iOS devices are pretty powerful and comparable with GPU's of desktop computers a few generations back. Your simulator does not have that and will have problems rendering some of the more heavy stuff because it simulates the device and does not run directly on actual hardware.
I would also suggest that you check out the slowest device possible for the iOS generation you will be targeting in hardware. For instance an iPhone 3GS will still run iOS 6 applications. So if you are targeting iOS 6 or better and it runs well on that device, it will be doing fine on all others in terms of performance.
Im creating an iOS game and I thought I was done until I test ran it on the iPad Retina simulator, and its extremely laggy. Is that a simulator glitch, or will it actually not work on the Retina iPad? I tried looking up if it was necessary and couldn't find an exact answer.
You shouldn't be using the simulator for making any kind of judgment around performance. It's a simulator, not an actual device. It doesn't represent the actual conditions you'll be experiencing in hardware, and there are vast differences in terms of graphics and the rendering pipeline. If you're not testing your app on a hardware device you're doing a disservice to your potential users.
Do bear in mind the vast majority of devices being sold right now are retina. Many graphically rich games are able to support the hardware, so I suspect what you're seeing is either a) due to the simulator, or b) can be fixed with some optimisation.
Yes it is (kind of). The appstore has regulations on retina apps. I think that they only accept retina apps and a lot of people use retina devices so it might be a good idea to make it retina.
No it is not necessary. It may look pixelate on a retina device but it is not necessary. However, many people use retina devices (just consider this). Retina is just for looks most of the time. Good luck on your game!
Edit:
I looked into the developer and appstore requirements. Apple needs you to have a retina version or you might be looking at a turned down app. Anyways, have fun with this and good luck!
Designing for Retina display
Building apps for Retina display involves creating two sets of images — one at 163ppi and another at 326ppi. After slugging our way through an app build or two, we feel confident that we have a decent workflow for attacking future Retina display app designs. Hopefully this information is of use to other designers
For More Information Please Check HERE1, HERE2
Yes you need your iOS game to run on all the devices glitch/lag free, when you go for publishing the application on the store it'll be turned down if it is not working on the retina version.
Possibly you are not using the images for retina display which are double the resolution
make sure resolution independence is turned on
design your artwork 2x as large as the actor (so a 100px actor should have artwork that is 200px)
ENSURE that all artwork is divisible by 4. (200/2 is 100, which is the size of the actor. 100/2 is 50 which is the pixel it will center on when placed in the game, you can't rest on .5 a pixel, it can turn out blurry)
Drag artwork into GS and program as normal.
I hope this solves your problem