T2D for Apple's tablet computer (iPad)

#21 Anyone know any video card specs on this yet ? (I am not a daily mac user so forgive the ignorance!)

#22 no, nothing on gpu or ram was mentioned yet

but at max it can be the new SGX basically so it will perform worse than a 3GS as the fillrate of the new SGX is only in the 3x range, but the potentially required fillrate gain for the massively larger is in the 5.12x range (thats the factor by which the ipad screen is larger than the 3gs)

#23 Ok, so iT2D users are happy, rejoice, etc etc.

Now what about us iT3D users? We still don't have a good platform for the normal iPhone SDK! I don't want to sound pushy, but the iPad is out, and what is going to happen? Once you fix the glitches for the normal iPhone SDK, will we be able to port the apps to the Tablet? I don't want to make an iPhone app and run it into the iPad. I want the make an app for the iPad... Period.

Now basically, what I am asking is this: Would there be any differences in recompiling other than adjusting the screen resolution? Is it just an iPhone app on a bigger screen?

#24 T3Di users should potentially discuss their issues on the T3Di board, thats why they have it :)


the ipad, from the game dev point of view seems to be just a larger iphone.
but the changes, at least here on the T2Di side, are pretty indepth as a lot is working basing on hardcoded values ... so the universal binary build is not easy to achieve without some extensions

#25 @Tyler - Sorry, but Marc is correct. You already know the team is working on improving the 3D engine, and you can follow that more in the 3D forums. The iPad is a new device that everyone is speculating about.

A few of us have already gotten our hands on the SDK and are messing around with it (thanks to Apple releasing the SDK so quickly). The SDK has targets for iPhone and iPad, so that says a lot. At first glance, it does function a lot like a big iPhone. However, I've been reading through the SDK and docs for a few hours now. There are enough differences to allow for specific designs depending on the target device.

For now, patience.

#26 Well it looks like all good news so far, I'm certainly looking forward to developing for it. The extra screen space opens up a lot of potential for more interesting games.

#27 After downloading the SDK myself and setting up a new target in XCode (cheers Apple for making that so easy!) I can confirm that stuff appears to work largely "out of the box". The only issues are the hard coding of the 480/320 resolution values in T2Di.

It doesn't appear that a massive amount of changes would be needed tbh.

I'd highly suspect Sven & Co could push that out in a short amount of time, and just released the changes requires as files/instructions on the forums rather than needing a whole new release. I'm making huge presumptions on behalf of Luma here, and I bet they'll love me when they read this. lol.

#28 I think it could be a big boost for developers, since the hype will bring people to the market that the iphone did not. A lot of people did not want to pay the monthly AT&T data prices so they stayed away from the iPhone, but they might jump on the iPad without 3G. The 3G models cost jumps up quite a bit.

So I believe this could be a good thing for Torque 2D games.

#29 John: outside the USA the iphone has been offered without contracts since the early 3G days so I am not sure if there is a difference, cause the main problem of the 3G exists on the iPad too: pricing.

Thats where the iTouch basically rules out all others.

The benefit of the iPad is that it finally offers more than the itouch / iphone in respect of mobile computing with the announced iWorks apps at $9.99 for each of the 3 and alike

#30 @Marc, @Michael

I already have! No one ever checks that forum though, so I posted it in a very similar thread on another forum...

EDIT: I would also like to note that you posted in a blog and a thread or two on the new iPad to take the discussion to this specific thread. Even when it was only a general discussion and not specifically on on iT2D.

#31 @Tyler - Do I not count? Because I'm the one who has been posting in there and communicating with everyone for the past few weeks.

#32 I don't have T3Di so I can't comment on what happens or not happens over there ... but it seems like the T3Di community then is fairly less active than the 2D one?

The message wasn't to be mean but really to prevent confusion. T2Di aside of the "TGE" root likely shares nothing anymore with T3Di, as even the 3d shapes are no longer present (yay, finally)

#33 @Marc - Things have been very quiet and at time bleak. We have recently doubled our efforts to support those who have licensed T3Di, offering short term solutions and plans for long term.

#34 @Michael

I'm sorry, I meant that as a generalization. You have answered many of our questions. But we still haven't seen any official post from Luma, or an idea of when iT3D will be released (right now I am not expecting it for another year).

@Marc

iT3D is going to use the T3D codebase (I think), so it should be connected to iT2D more than it is now. The iT3D forums are probably the least discussed forums around.

#35 @Tyler - Luke, from LUMA, also posted in that thread. LUMA has had a presence in the forums since they took over iPhone development. Just ask any of our T2Di users about Sven. You will be seeing releases before a year, trust me. Sooner than you think

Anyway, get this thread back on track. This isn't about T3Di. It's about the iPad, which my wife just found out about...guess where my next bonus is going? =)

#36 Poor mr perry, happy misses perry ;)

Looking forward to it although I know that it won't be that easy to afford it, so I sadly potentially won't get my hand on one for quite a while.

#37 I too am excited about the iPad + iT2D. Michael, how quickly can we get an update or patch that supports 1024*768 and the iPad simulator?

#38 @Dan: iPad simulator already supported (I've had my game running in it). Only res stuff is required.

#39 and the res stuff is the ugly thing (at least for universal binary, not ipad only) as it bases on defines and C++ side ... but I guess with a bit of time investment anyone can pull it off. The magical class you need is UIScreen or more specifically:

[[UIScreen mainScreen] bounds] which returns a cgrect structure

#40 Some interesting things I've noticed in the Apple documentation.

iPad applications have to be able to launch at any orientation. This will require a different default.png for horizontal or vertical and the ability to detect orientation before loading.

Also iPad applications have to allow for orientation change during use. I'm not sure if this will be strictly applied to games, as many games will only work in one orientation, but it could be a problem if Apple are strict about this as you can't currently rotate the camera in T2D.