What is the most used display size when making games for iOS?
Franto
Member Posts: 779
For those that make games for the iOS, what's the base display size you use in the game? Or do you use a universal build that adjusts the screen size depending on the device? I know from the Tizen event that you had to make a game 480x320 with no retina. Looking up all the new models of iphone with display sizes that are quite high and the ipad size, is there some new size everybody adheres to if a universal build isn't used?
I ask since the other day I was making some graphics for a client and noticed that the size for their menu screens were ipad size although all I knew was that their game would be in the app store. Is the iPad size what is commonly used now for iOS universally? Thanks in advance for your knowledge on the matter.
Comments
I always do universal builds and so I start with iPad and use the safe zone method similar to video production. That is I keep things inside a safe boarder so I can use crop and not affect the game when it displays on iphone 5 or and android device with a 16:9 aspect ratio.
Guru Video Channel | Lost Oasis Games | FRYING BACON STUDIOS
I too mostly start from iPad. Reason being that's I find it nicer to build from a bigger scene. For my last build I used overscan and had the actors with adjusted with a change attribute. It's not ideal though. @The_Gamesalad_Guru method works better.
Lump Apps and My Assets
@The_Gamesalad_Guru Thanks for your response. What is the safe zone on the iPad for safe use with crop? A quick search of "iOS safe zone" didn't return anything related. Thank you in advance for the info.
@LumpApps I see, thanks for sharing that information regarding overscan being less ideal for universal builds on the iOS.
It works but is more work. Also screen rotation doesn't work well with scrolling layers.
Lump Apps and My Assets
@Franto
He's talking about something like this. I made this graphic when universal builds were released. Each line represents what would still be seen if overscan was enabled, so as long as you design all your major important gameplay elements within in white box, you won't lose anything when you crop.
Send and Receive Data using your own Server Tutorial! | Vote for A Long Way Home on Steam Greenlight! | Ten Years Left
@jonmulcahy Thank you for the screen comparing the different sizes. My game would be a little affected, the directional controls and actions buttons are at the bottom, so half the button would be showing at the edge of the screen if it went into iphone.
I should probably use a behavior that if it detects an iphone 5/kindle size, to raise the buttons up by a specific amount. Or perhaps the graphics for the buttons should be a size where if half the button is gone, it will still play normally, unless apps get rejected for that kind of thing. Whats a recommended solution for games that use onscreen buttons at the edge of the screen?
The way I do it is just like you said. Create rulesets that detect screen size and move/scale accordingly.
Wow, that's wicked and all, but it sucks that you'd have to have your on screen non-scrollable stuff so much closer to the center of the screen on iPad!! I didn't know it was that bad.
Edit: Nevermind... I might have missunderstood that one.
No, I think you understood it well. His method works just fine, but you could also apply some screen-size-related rules to the UI elements that will adjust their size/position accordingly (just like a few other people here have mentioned). I suppose which one to use just depends on your particular project.
From one of the GS webinars:
Confidential?
Lump Apps and My Assets
@LumpApps here is that chart's home Aspect Ratios and You
Thanks. I ripped it from the screen during the seminar
Lump Apps and My Assets
I also use the relocation trick for controls and score header sect. That is simple stuff to make adjust but for the rest I keep the game contained in the safe zone. Although one can design for the iPad and just use stretch too. Stretch can sometimes distort images so always best to do a demo layout and see how it looks. There are many different ways to construct a universal build. Most of the time it ends of being a combination of the methods that best suits the type of game. I think the main point here is to learn all the methods and understand what crop, stretch et.. Will do to your layout and plan how you're going to deal with those things before you begin building the game. A solid well build game involves lots of planing and experimenting making sure you take all things into account. Too many new developers here are in way too much of a hurry and end up with problems that could have been avoided by proper planing and taking the time to become knowledgable about game development and the GS software.
Guru Video Channel | Lost Oasis Games | FRYING BACON STUDIOS
@natzuur I see, how many behaviors do you use to implement such a feature?
@LumpApps , @BlackCloakGS Thanks, the chart is very useful, I don't know why I couldn't find it when I searched. Must have typed the wrong keywords.
@The_Gamesalad_Guru Yeah, I guess stretch could be a good solution if I don't mind the slight distortion. I did do some planning which saved me some hassle, but I missed the portion on aspect ratios and the camera stuff in the game editor. Thanks for your words of advice and wisdom.
For sizing, the way I do it is using constrains and a master detection actor that passes information on, so it's a bit of a reduction in rulesets. So basically master actor says when screen width is 1024 change Game.ButtonScale to 1. Then on the HUD actors contrain width and height to the image size at a maximum times the Game.ButtonScale.
Anything smaller gets similar rule, as an example: when screen width is 480 change it to .75 so now the contrains on the hud will scale to 75% of maximum size.
Positioning can be a little bit trickier, and of course it highly depends on your target platforms. So some testing/experimenting is def needed.