Is the iPhone 6+ the only device that needs 3x image assets for intended actor size?

Game Factory

Or does the iPhone 6 need 3x as well?

Socks

Only the iPhone6+/iPhone6S+ needs 3x assets.

blob

can you really see the difference between 2x and 3x assets on iPhone6/6s?

Armelline

I never actually confirmed if it's recommended or not, but iPad Pro also benefits from 3x assets. There's a clear visible difference.

Socks

@Armelline said:
I never actually confirmed if it's recommended or not, but iPad Pro also benefits from 3x assets. There's a clear visible difference.

Whoops ! Completely forgot about the iPad Pro !!

If coming from a standard iPad project the asset size would be 2.666x, so you're right in that it would benefit from 3x assets.

Socks

@blob said:
can you really see the difference between 2x and 3x assets on iPhone6/6s?

3x assets would be a little softer (as they would need to be downsampled to the right size (2x) by the device), but the screen is small enough on a 6/6s that I'd doubt anyone would really notice.

The other issue would be one of performance, whereas a 512 x 512 pixel image (2x) would take up a certain amount of memory, a 768 x 768 pixel image (3x) would take up - comparatively - 400% the amount of memory . . . and spread throughout a whole game this quadrupling of memory use would likely effect performance.

blob

@Socks said:
3x assets would be a little softer (as they would need to be downsampled to the right size (2x) by the device), but the screen is small enough on a 6/6s that I'd doubt anyone would really notice.

The other issue would be one of performance, whereas a 512 x 512 pixel image (2x) would take up a certain amount of memory, a 768 x 768 pixel image (3x) would take up - comparatively - 400% the amount of memory . . . and spread throughout a whole game this quadrupling of memory use would likely effect performance.

Softer image At 3x and 400% more memory... Then 2x is much better for iPhone when not considering the iPads, right?
That being said, I'd love to see an actual side by side comparison of an iPad 3x next to the same image iPad 2x..

Socks

@blob said:
Softer image At 3x and 400% more memory...

300% more memory (for the typical example I gave).

@blob said:
Then 2x is much better for iPhone when not considering the iPads, right?

2x is better for iPhones and iPads (with legacy RI).

@blob said:
That being said, I'd love to see an actual side by side comparison of an iPad 3x next to the same image iPad 2x..

The 3x image on an iPad will be slightly softened (aliased).

AlchimiaStudios

@blob said:

@Socks said:
3x assets would be a little softer (as they would need to be downsampled to the right size (2x) by the device), but the screen is small enough on a 6/6s that I'd doubt anyone would really notice.

The other issue would be one of performance, whereas a 512 x 512 pixel image (2x) would take up a certain amount of memory, a 768 x 768 pixel image (3x) would take up - comparatively - 400% the amount of memory . . . and spread throughout a whole game this quadrupling of memory use would likely effect performance.

Softer image At 3x and 400% more memory... Then 2x is much better for iPhone when not considering the iPads, right?
That being said, I'd love to see an actual side by side comparison of an iPad 3x next to the same image iPad 2x..

It's pretty hard to tell the difference, but if a game can afford the memory usage then it's worth it.

Socks

//

Icebox

There is one thing confusing me in this , when you guys say 3x , is it for all projects ? Lets say i want to make a universal app for ios with high resolution. If i start a project choosing iphone 5 landscape i would make my images 3x? , and if i start my project choosing ipad landscape i would make my images 3x?

Edit: the reason i ask this is because i would make much smaller actors if i was working for iphone , so if i was to make a button on an iphone it would be 64 x 64 but if i was working on an ipad platform i would make it 128x128. so 64 x3 would make a difference in saving memory right ? or im confusing myself

Icebox

Double Post *

Socks

@Icebox said:
If i start a project choosing iphone 5 landscape i would make my images 3x?

The GameSalad iPhone5 project is half the resolution of an iPhone5's actual resolution, so you would make your image assets double (x2) the resolution of the actor it's being applied to.

@Icebox said:
if i start my project choosing ipad landscape i would make my images 3x?

Making your images 3x for an iPad (Retina) project will result in the images being a little soft (via downsampling), and increase memory usage and processor/GPU strain.

Icebox

@Socks But an iphone5 project with x2 would still look good on an ipad retina right ? I can start with iphone5 and get it to work fine on an ipad, alot of memory can be saved by working with iphone5 , smaller actors = smaller images and at 2x is better than big actors with big images at 3x. so why would anyone develop starting with ipad projects at 3x , would there be any difference?

Socks

@Icebox said:
@Socks But an iphone5 project with x2 would still look good on an ipad retina right ? . . . .

An iPhone5 project (x2 = 1136 x 640) contains less than a quarter of the resolution of an iPad retina project (x2 = 2048 x 1536).

If you then factor in overscan (to account for the aspect ratio disparity) you are comparing a 853 x 640 project with a 2048 x 1536 project ! Which means an iPhone5 project correctly displayed (4:3) full screen on an iPad has almost six times less resolution (~5.76) than an iPad (Retina) project.

@Icebox said:
I can start with iphone5 and get it to work fine on an ipad, alot of memory can be saved by working with iphone5 , smaller actors = smaller images and at 2x is better than big actors with big images at 3x. so why would anyone develop starting with ipad projects at 3x , would there be any difference?

I haven't got a clue, I've never suggested that an iPad project with x3 assets is a good choice for anything, in fact I've argued against it as it results in needless memory usage, processor strain and compromises image fidelity, there's literally nothing to be gained by authoring image assets at a higher resolution than is needed.

Icebox

@Socks said:
I haven't got a clue, I've never suggested that an iPad project with x3 assets is a good choice for anything, in fact I've argued against it as it results in needless memory usage, processor strain and compromises image fidelity, there's literally nothing to be gained by authoring image assets at a higher resolution than is needed.

Ah! I thought it was recommended cause i read it alot around the forums , apologies. Thanks for the info

Socks

@Icebox said:

@Socks said:
I haven't got a clue, I've never suggested that an iPad project with x3 assets is a good choice for anything, in fact I've argued against it as it results in needless memory usage, processor strain and compromises image fidelity, there's literally nothing to be gained by authoring image assets at a higher resolution than is needed.

Ah! I thought it was recommended cause i read it alot around the forums , apologies. Thanks for the info

I think a lot of this stuff is overthought, I've never used the x1, x2, x3 (etc) notion, I've always just worked with the absolute resolution of the target device. And bear in mind ideas like x1, x2, x3 are just that, ideas, a x3 image asset on one device may well be a x2 asset on another device, it's just an image with an absolute pixel count. Hope that makes sense.

Icebox

Yes all makes sense now thank you