ipad letterbox

hotMagic

Has anyone tried to publish on iPad using a flag that says "if iPad" and then adding a thin letterbox?
We have a game that relies on locations/angles heavily, and we don't wan't to split the project. We'd rather letterbox it, use the iPhone 4 character art, and change the large graphics (like BGs) based on the flag.
Any experiments done on this? Thanks!

hotMagic

And yes we are aware of the resizer, so that's on the radar. Just exploring all the options...

hotMagic

yeah any info would be helpful. since I couldnt find much from searching. Even "hey i tried it and it seems impossible"

theCodeMonsters

Long answer: Well if you were to do that you still would not be able to publish as a universal binary. when you upload to iTunes. However what your doing would be nice to get a better resolution on the ipad if the user wants to get the app. I don' t know if you have ever tried an iPhone app on a iPad but you have that little button that makes it double the size on a iPad and you can play it. But most iPhone apps have a resolution for a iPhone so it gets pixelated on a iPad.

Short answer: It doesn't work like that. GS hasn't made a Universal binary export yet.

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tenrdrmer

I dont think you would need to add a disclaimer. But its gonna be tough either way. cause you are still gonna have to refigure all of your expressions and actor placement. I personally would just use the resizer and let your background art stretch a little. You be surprise how well it normally works out.

hotMagic

tenrdrmer. We arent thinking of doing the blown-up version. We actually want to use higher res art for the larger pieces. Our characters are pretty small so the iphone4 versions look good on the ipad size.

We are mostly just concerned with fixing bugs on TWO versions, create new features (for updates) for two versions, etc. Do you normally just suck it up and just maintain BOTH?

theCodeMonsters

Yes I usually do. Then again I don't usually make ipad specific games.

hotMagic

Thanks codemonsters. Anyone else, just out of curiousity, able to have one file, change a flag, then publish to ipad? Thanks!

Holderness_Media_Inc

@hotMagic - Your post reminded me to try something I thought about the other day, I just tested it and it works! I'll be using this on my new game unless GS makes Universal Binary support really really soon.

Do this.

Duplicate your project first, so if you make any mistakes you have your original project safe and sound.

1.) On your new project, change to "iPad landscape".

2.) Make a new 1st scene, this is just a dummy scene to change for iPad. This must be your first scene, before your original "Home" scene.

3.) Make a new actor, call it something like "iPad resizer" or similar.

4.) In this new actor, do this.

Change attribute: game.DisplaySize.Width To: 480

Change attribute: game.DisplaySize.Height To: 320

Timer: After 0.1 seconds Change Scene to "Whatever your original home scene was"

5.) Enjoy

You could also make a rule if you want to use different background art for the iPad, make a game level attribute called something like "iPad graphics".
Then, make your background art actor have a rule that says:

If game.iPadgraphics is TRUE, change self.Image to "whatever iPad graphic you want"

Once you've verified this works properly on your duplicate project, you can just make a rule for the initial scene that turns ON or OFF the display size changing attributes based on whether your "iPad graphics" rule is true. So when you export for iPad, simply turn on this rule before exporting.

Thanks for posting your original question, it gave me a little kick in the ass to spend a few minutes and sort out my original idea to make this work.

If this helps anyone out, if for some reason you want to thank me, you can help by purchasing my new game when it comes out, I'll post here when it's released. (Should be finished and submitted to Apple by next week. It is much, much better than the apps I've released so far.)

hotMagic

WOW. I really hope that works.
that's exactly what I was looking for, a way to use a flag to replace the larger, more obvious actors. Ill let you know after i give it a go.

tenrdrmer

hotMagic, Check out this thread as well. Its another technique that seems to work in more circumstances.

http://gamesalad.com/forums/topic.php?id=32594